With a pandemic, worldwide protests, spaceship launches, and even so-called “killer-hornets,” the past few months have felt more like a dystopian setting that reality.
Fans of science fiction show may be seeing unprecedented parallels from the Netflix show Black Mirror that go beyond allegory. And an ad for the show’s sixth season certainly acknowledged this, saying the show is “live now, everywhere.”
Commonly acclaimed as the modern-day Twilight Zone, Black Mirror is a sci-fi show on Netflix that revolves around themes of advanced technology and its effects on society.
A creative agency ran this new ad on bus stations in Spain, asserting the idea that we are experiencing the show’s sixth season through our current reality. The ad consists of a mirror, reflecting the observer’s surroundings right back at them— And the image above of a man in sterile gloves and a mask certainly looks more like a Black Mirror episode than normal life as we once knew it.
This creative ad has a point. Though the fictional elements of the show have always reflected reality to a certain point, there are certainly many eyebrow-raising parallels between the show and current events.
For example, Anonymous from Legion, an infamous hacker group, has returned to relevancy in light of recent instances of police brutality. The group of skilled hackers threatened to hijack media outlets or release documented allegations of pedophelia against prominent figures such as Donald Trump.
“We do not trust your corrupt organization to carry out justice, so we will be exposing your many crimes to the world,” Anonymous said in the video.
This is alarmingly close to Black Mirror‘s “Shut Up and Dance” episode, in which a mysterious hacker blackmails and exposes pedophiles, cheating husbands, and racists.
“We saw what you did,” said the hacker in “Shut Up And Dance,” along with an attachment of an incriminating video of the episode’s protagonist.
The similarities of the show to current events don’t stop there— episodes like “Black Museum” briefly address the failures of justice systems and consequences of the death penalty, which is certainly an issue at large right now. Other episodes like “Be Right Back” and “Nosedive” tackle both the benefits and consequences of ever-growing presence of social media in daily life.
These seemingly fictional situations seem more feasible than ever with today’s global events. And as always, the Black Mirror franchise reflects this with these new ads.
Click here for a list of other Netflix shows to binge during quarantine.
