BLACK MIRROR (Netflix, released on Thursday of last week) — two words that have entered into our common lexicon as a way of describing digital dystopia — returns with a new series. It starts with Common People, a depressing and grimy tale seeking to expose the moral rot at the heart of subscription culture.
Chris O’Dowd and Rashida Jones are Mike and Amanda, an ordinary married couple, hoping to start a family, when Amanda suffers a life-or-death medical emergency. To save her, Mike signs her up for experimental brain surgery with Rivermind, a system that will back up her brain and keep her alive, but with an ominous caveat: “The surgery is free! And the subscription is €300 a month.”
Written by the affected misanthrope Charlie Brooker, this is a typical example of the Black Mirror genre, exposing our psychological dependency on technology. It cleverly reveals the sinister and maddening layers of subscription services, and how, the more and more you pay, the less you seem to get.
Being driven mad by repetitious and unstoppable ads, which are designed to be “contextually relevant”? Unable to receive full coverage? No problem, just upgrade to the (prohibitively expensive) premium service, and, when you’ve paid for that, there is — inevitably — an even more expensive Luxe package, because the grift never ends.
Common People is about the shackles of late-stage capitalism, the immorality of the subscription business model, and the extreme things that people will do to pay for it; but it’s also saying something deeper. At its heart, this is a sad and poignant exploration of the lengths that people will go to for love.
Ride or Die (BBC1, Thursday of last week) was surprisingly spiritual viewing, considering its subject matter. It goes behind the scenes of motorcycle road racing, meeting the riders and their families, and examining their motivations in risking their lives for this most dangerous of sports.
Much of the spiritual reflection is provided by a race chaplain, the Revd John Kirkpatrick, a retired Presbyterian minister, who ponders: “Do you really understand what living is, if you never put your life at any risk?” This is a rhetorical question for some of the riders, such as Rob Hodson, whose brother Jamie was killed during the 2017 Ulster Grand Prix. Despite this sorrow, Rob still chooses to race, because not to ride any more would also represent death, albeit of a different order.
Ride or Die contains some eye-watering race moments, the bird’s-eye camera giving a hint of the adrenaline to be found in this dizzyingly fast sport. It is also a thoughtful exploration of the relationship between motorbike road racing and Christianity, containing simple spiritual truths, such as how adversity has a power like nothing else to nourish faith.