Black Mirror: Be Right Back

December 25, 2014 6:48 AM - Season 2, Episode 1

After learning about a new service that lets people stay in touch with the deceased, a lonely, grieving Martha reconnects with her late lover.
posted by oh yeah! (5 comments total)

Oh I hated this one. I find I'm not a fan of Domhnall Gleeson, the lead, but also really hate awkward sci-fi retellings of Pinocchio which feature a human looking robot. You'll note that this episode also treads the same ground as the movie Her (which fwiw, I am no big fan of either.) I did feel that the ending of this episode was emotionally satisfying to the narrative, but ug, hated having to watch it get there.
posted by Catblack at 10:00 AM on December 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

I had the exact opposite reaction. I loved this episode. I got weepy as Martha tried to find peace in her dead lover, and unable to get rid of him forever. So he ended up packed away like so many other mementos.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 12:19 PM on January 12, 2015 [5 favorites]

Is it just me, or does the daughter calling him, "Ash," signal that she doesn't know it's a facsimile of her father?

But yeah, I thought this was a good rollercoaster, though I thought maybe the resolution would hinge a bit more on the incompleteness of the simulation, that the botness would cause her to transition healthily out of grief and she would, I dunno, wind up sending it back to the company or something.

It affected me like TV rarely does, though. So incredibly sad at times. I don't get the Pinocchio comparison aside from the come-to-life aspect, but I haven't watched it in decades.
posted by rhizome at 1:44 AM on January 17, 2015

I don't really get the Pinocchio comparison either, it's like the reverse if anything. It was heartbreaking watching her go through it. And yes, I think the daughter know that he's not real (given her line about "I know you can't really eat cake"), but I hope she knows it's based on her father.

I thought the lead did great playing a robot trying to act like a human based on memories of that human. I enjoyed him in "About Time" and "Ex Machina". The irony of him doing both this episode as a robot and then a human on the other side in Ex Machina is quite amusing.
posted by numaner at 1:02 PM on April 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

The Guardian recently wrote an article where they ranked every episode of Black Mirror. The journalist put "Be Right Back" in first place.

Which I why I picked it out to watch. And was not disappointed. To me the theme seems to be similar to "San Junipero" - same producer I believe.
posted by rongorongo at 4:49 AM on June 19, 2019 [1 favorite]