Why does this feel so disjointed? I get the fact that Black Mirror is a bunch of different stories but it tends to make thing very, VERY confusing when looking at a trailer. It’s kind of obvious that there will be a Star Trek themed episode and a black and white episode. But each one seems to be about as unpredictable as the next and hard to follow with just a snippet.
Is this the new style of storytelling?
To be honest it seems like an older style of storytelling that’s been brought back into the mainstream. But the audience might have yet to fully grasp the idea that so many different stories can be told within a single show. Of course we can’t discount other such attempts such as The Twilight Zone, Tales from the Crypt, or even Tales from the Dark Side. The idea of telling different stories in single episodes isn’t new after all, but it’s something you don’t see as often anymore.
People got used to having continual story lines that could stretch for at least an entire episode if not for an entire series. Most shows won’t allow a single story line to go for more than a few episodes but some will carry multiple story arcs throughout an entire season. NCIS is a good example, as they’ve had multiple episodes dealing with some of their harder subjects. Game of Thrones is another great example since it’s been building to the finale for an entire seven seasons.
The desire for different types of programs is really fueled by what the audience wants. The directors and creators can do whatever they please but when it comes down to who’s going to watch they need to pay attention. Creating something for the sake of creating isn’t a bad thing, but if one is attempting to please an audience the sometimes unfortunate fact is that you need to play to an audience. Keeping the viewers happy is a side effect of wanting to get their attention. If you can do that then you’ve already won half the battle.
Black Mirror is doing so through multiple story lines that have nothing to do with one another. It’s a disconnect on the kind of level that brings TV back to the actual storytelling days instead of leaving it up to the multiple episodes that deal with a single issue, and a lot of people are responding positively to this. For one thing it doesn’t challenge the viewer quite as much. One story is introduced, one story is experienced, and at the end you have some sort of conclusion that may or may not be satisfying to the viewers. Whether it is or it isn’t doesn’t matter. The story has a beginning and an end and that’s what matters to a lot of viewers. After that, it’s time to go onto the next one.
This type of storytelling can be immensely popular simply because it allows people to watch one episode after the other with the anticipation that they’ll be watching something new and not a continuation of the same story over and over again.
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