The Last Original TV Trend Is Cruelty
Black Mirror is an amazing series about a near-future Earth, technology, and the human condition. I believe the writers have spot-on predicted the future of entertainment. Let’s get you set up for the reveal by reminding us of the present.
We live in a social media-fueled dumpster fire. By comparison, our own lives in analog tend to be much less dramatic. We have friends and families and routine. We work and play — as much as we are able. The darkest part of us is the part which lives online, on a diet of rage, grievances, conspiracies, and mistrust in everything and everyone…who doesn’t think like we do. Isn’t it exhausting? It’s EXHAUSTING. The worst part? It has no real connection to analog. All of America’s cities are on fire because of protests? Ask someone who lives in Portland. They’ll tell you the action is focused on a few square blocks of a city which occupies 145 square miles of land. Blame broadcast media? Yes. Blame social media? Yes. Blame the Facebook warriors who cherry-pick their “facts?” Absolutely. Everyone’s to blame. You and I are to blame.
It will take every ounce of energy I have left after this nightmarish election season to crawl to my TV, open a bottle of scotch, light a cigar, and watch the world fall apart on election night. I may be temporarily buoyed by the great John King on CNN and his magic map of results, but the violence, shootings and killings we’re going to witness are going to be like nothing we have seen before. I predict with genuine sadness and remorse we will see an innocent journalist injured or even killed live on television next week. We will see one side lose its collective mind over the projections and predictions, and this time they will bring weapons. The TV ratings will skyrocket as we see a nation tear itself apart at the seams. The executives will feign dread, but they’ll imagine the future.
The only genre not yet widely distributed on Netflix and TV is cruelty. And there’s no reason to doubt it’s not coming. The protests and unrest of next week and into the holidays will be viewed by peace-loving patriots with sheer horror. But the vast majority of us will still want to witness the carnage. We won’t be able to look away.
President Trump trafficks in wanton cruelty. His disciples cannot get enough of it. They want to see the other side humiliated, ravaged, even beaten. And folks on the left see the Trumpers as illiterate racist hayseeds. Not We The People, rather We The Parties. Two teams, not one society.
This revenge theory as entertainment in this next genre of television might involve the public shaming of people who have wronged the state. We have doxxing already. Live TV could level it up. Punishment for crimes could feature live executions, or forcing the criminal to watch what he did over and over again on a screen until he goes mad. Imagine all of the ways we enact revenge on Twitter? Yes, that’s a TV show. That’s already Black Mirror. Watch this show and wonder how far we are from it being reality.
The possibility of what is about to happen to us will hit hard. The losing side will not be quiet about it. One side will shoot people, though — shoot people and then realize that they have just committed an act they cannot delete, unlike a tweet. They will only then understand how this year got them so lathered up and into a frenzy that they lost all objectivity and any semblance of reason. If we don’t get it together very soon, our vengeance will inform our choice of video entertainment. And we’ll want it to be real.
I pray I’m wrong.
