In class the last few weeks, we have come to realize that replication
is becoming more and more prominent as technology advances. However, we have
also learned from Walter Benjamin and John Berger how these replications tend
to lack the underlying effect that the original would give the viewer. As Sam
discussed a few weeks ago, we have all seen pictures of famous artwork and
major landmarks on the internet or in the classroom, but actually going and
seeing something that is so famous in person evokes a different type of feeling
within the viewer. This idea also exists when discussing something even deeper
than media, this being life. In my Show and Tell, I discussed an episode of a
popular show on Netflix that exhibits the complications of replicating a human’s
life and how it may have the same effects that both Benjamin and Berger have
discussed in the past.
The episode I chose to show was titled “Be Right Back” and
is the first episode in the second season of the Netflix original series Black Mirror. The episode begins with a
young couple driving to their new home, but the young man named Ash soon dies
in a car accident. Grieving and pregnant, one of Martha’s friends tells her
about a new service which allows the living to “communicate” with the dead. It
begins with Martha uploading all of Ash’s past online communications through things
such as social media accounts and emails. This essentially creates a “virtual”
Ash that she can communicate with via instant message. Martha then chooses to
progress further with the technology to uploading videos and photos to
duplicate Ash’s voice so Martha can communicate with him on the phone. Eventually
she feels that talking to “him” is not enough so he tells her about the service’s
newest stage. This stage sends an android built to look exactly like Ash with
the program uploaded into it’s memory so that it can speak and have the same
memories as Ash as well. Initially, Martha loves the android just as much as
she loved the original Ash, to the point where even her family believes she has
finally moved on from Ash’s passing to someone else. As time progresses, Martha
realizes that although the android looks and talks like Ash, he is still just an
extension of him. In the clip that I chose to show in class, you see Martha’s
built up rage due to the Ash android’s lack of real emotion and human
qualities.
This particular episode I felt like relates to our class the
most right now due to the idea of replication lacking authenticity. Although
Ash was seemingly perfect in every sense, he lacked the real Ash’s “aura” and
imperfections. This idea is in line with Benjamin’s beliefs that mechanical
reproduction becomes more relied upon, aura in turn declines. Benjamin’s ideas
of original versus replication as well as how they may affect society are shown
clearly in this episode. From the idea that the android (reproduction) of Ash was perfect and exactly what Martha had needed and wanted, to Martha ultimately coming to terms with the fact that replicas can
never give you the same emotional effect as the original, due to its lack of aura and authenticity.
Below, I linked a youtube video of the full episode, or you can watch it on your own Netflix account if you have one.
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