Black Mirror: White Christmas, 2014.
Directed by Carl Tibbets.
Starring Jon Hamm, Oona Chaplin and Rafe Spall.
SYNOPSIS:
Two strangers stationed at an isolated Arctic outpost tell each other three twisted festive tales each with a technological theme and a connection to the dark pasts of both men.
We return once again to quite possibly one of my favourite TV shows currently airing, the dark sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror created by my personal hero Charlie Brooker, who ended the show’s run on Channel 4 by gifting us with a truly depressing and characteristically twisted festive special entitled White Christmas.
Again being that this is an anthology series, with this episode being comprised of three mini stories connected by a framing device which acts as a fourth story, I really can’t divulge too much without spoiling the episode too much. While I sometimes spoil other films (I’ve likely done it plenty of times with this series of reviews), Black Mirror is one of those shows that’s best experienced knowing as few spoilers as possible.
What I can talk about is the acting though and what a fine cast we have for this edition. Leading the pack is Don Draper himself, the charming Jon Hamm, as Matt Trent, who acts as our primary leading man appearing in two of the three mini stories. Hamm is fantastic in the role coming off as likeable and charismatic in the framing story, but within in his individual mini-stories we see different shades of him, in story one we see a somewhat shady side to his character, while in story two we see his more ruthless and colder side.
Rafe Spall is our supporting character for much of the episode before finally taking on the lead in story three and while I really want to talk about his performance I really can’t go too much into details without going into spoiler territory. Rest assured it’s a fantastic performance that very much changes the way you think about the character as the story progresses.
Now while I can’t talk about the intricate details of the three stories of the episode too much, I can talk about how well I think they managed to accomplish their aims. Story one is an interesting look at the skills taught by so-called “pick up artists” but given a very clever technological bent and with a rather dark ending. Story three is a fascinating look at the breakdown of a relationship and the subsequent fallout, exploring the practice of “blocking” people as we might do on the internet but, in typical Black Mirror fashion, taken to its most literal and depressing extreme.
These two stories are excellent, with the third story arguably being the strongest, so it is a shame that story two is such a letdown. Starring Hamm and the wonderful Oona Chaplin, this wastes a potentially interesting idea and feels like it’s only here to pad the episode out to feature length and to introduce a plot device that becomes somewhat relevant in the episode’s ending. Hamm and Chaplin are terrific of course in their roles, but I can’t help feel that this story was wasted potential, and severely underused its actor’s talents, especially Chaplin who only gets about 10-15 minutes of screen time, in comparison to her male co-stars.
However, despite its flaws Black Mirror: White Christmas is another fine offering from the twisted mind of Charlie Brooker and a great way to celebrate the festive season if you’re in the mood for something a little bit more twisted and depressing. With the whole series including this special, as well as the fantastic new third season, now on Netflix, you would be daft to give this one a miss. Check it out – all of it.
Graeme Robertson
Originally published December 22, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
