Arkangel (Black Mirror)

Single mother Marie Sambrell (Rosemarie DeWitt) gives birth to her daughter Sara and raises her with help from Sara's grandfather, Russ (Nicholas Campbell). Three-year-old Sara (Aniya Hodge) gets lost following a cat and a distressed Marie has to enlist help from neighbours to locate her. Afterwards, Marie signs her up for a trial of Arkangel, a child monitoring system installed via an implant. Marie can monitor Sara's vision and hearing with a tablet computer, along with viewing live medical data and past audiovisual feeds. A filter can censor stimuli when they cause Sara stress, such as an intimidating neighbourhood dog. Shortly after, Russ survives a stroke, because Marie is notified when Sara, observing Russ, experiences stress. Six years later, Russ has died. A classmate named Ryan "Trick" Tribecky (Nicky Torchia) tries to show Sara (Sarah Abbott) sexual and violent imagery but the filter blurs it. Sara draws blood from her finger, trying to learn what it looks like, so Marie has her assessed by a psychologist who recommends that she dispose of Arkangel, which is soon to be banned. Marie deactivates the filter and stores the tablet in the attic. An anxious Sara goes to school unsupervised and Trick shows her pornography and gore videos. Aged fifteen, Sara (Brenna Harding) lies to her mother about going to a friend's house to attend a party with Trick (Owen Teague). Marie discovers the lie and after failing to contact her, turns on Arkangel. She sees Sara having sex for the first time, with Trick. Marie starts to use the tablet again and soon sees Sara snorting cocaine that Trick—who deals drugs—gives her. Identifying Trick with a reverse image search, Marie confronts him at work and blackmails him to stay away from Sara. After receiving an Arkangel notification that Sara is pregnant, Marie sneaks an emergency contraceptive pill into Sara's smoothie. She later vomits and is told by a nurse that the pill caused it. Sara confronts Marie and forces the tablet away from her. The stress filter is accidentally reactivated. Unable to see the damage she is causing, Sara beats Marie unconscious with the tablet, breaking it. The filter deactivates and Sara runs away. When Marie regains consciousness, she frantically yells for Sara down the street. A hitch-hiking Sara gets into a truck. ==Production==

Whilst series one and two of Black Mirror were shown on Channel 4 in the UK, in September 2015 Netflix commissioned the series for 12 episodes, and in March 2016 it outbid Channel 4 for the rights to distribute the series in the UK, with a bid of $40 million. The 12-episode order was divided into two series of six episodes each, with "Arkangel" in the latter group. The six episodes in series four were released on Netflix simultaneously on 29 December 2017. "Arkangel" is listed as the second episode, but as Black Mirror is an anthology series, each instalment can be watched in any order. Writing The episode was written by series creator Charlie Brooker. Executive producer Annabel Jones said that it was inspired by microchip implants used to identify pets that, at the time of writing, were also being considered for children. Jones said, "We wanted to think what the updated version of that [was] and find a really good idea of how that could go terribly wrong". The episode is intended to be sympathetic to helicopter parenting; Brooker took inspiration in how protective he felt following the birth of his children. Director and casting , making it the first episode of Black Mirror to be directed by a woman. The actor, director and producer Jodie Foster directed Black Mirror; previous credits included episodes of the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black and House of Cards. Foster was introduced to Black Mirror by Netflix's vice president of original content after telling her that she enjoyed directing short but complete stories, in contrast to serialised television programmes. Foster was raised by a single mother, and said that the script brought up "so many questions about who we are as women at this particular time in history". Foster was in control of casting the episode and also hiring much of the production crew. She cast her friend Rosemarie DeWitt as Marie. The pair had met through Foster's wife Alexandra Hedison; this was only the second time Foster had directed a friend, after Mel Gibson in the 2011 film The Beaver. Filming and editing The episode was filmed across three weeks in November 2016. Foster described the ending as a "parable". DeWitt's first day on set was to film the scene where a bloodied Marie runs out of the house screaming for her daughter. The episode ends with Sara entering a truck, which was originally a small car in the script. The choice of a truck implies that Sara will be travelling far, and Harding felt "a mixture of nervous trepidation and excitement for Sara". Foster said: "I want her to close that door on this chapter, this town, on that relationship, and become who she is." Foster flew to London to help Brooker with the episode's editing—the first time she had met him. The song "I'm a Mother" by the Pretenders plays during the credits, chosen as a "plaintive song" which reminds viewers of "the mother's perspective", according to Foster. ==Marketing==

In May 2017, a Reddit post unofficially announced the names and directors of the six episodes in series 4 of Black Mirror. The first trailer for the series was released by Netflix on 25 August 2017, and contained the six episode titles. In September 2017, two photos from the fourth season were released, including one from "Arkangel". Beginning on 24 November 2017, Netflix published a series of daily posters and trailers for the fourth series, referred to as the "13 Days of Black Mirror". The first poster and trailer were of "Arkangel". On 6 December, Netflix published a trailer featuring an amalgamation of scenes from the fourth series, which announced that the series would be released on 29 December. ==Analysis==

As intended by Foster, critics saw the episode as being set in working-class America. Steve O'Brien of Digital Spy saw it as more "thrillingly, authentically American" than any prior episode. Louisa Mellor of Den of Geek found that the blue-collar setting contrasts with most previous episodes' depictions of "shiny near-futures, in chic, modernist homes". She also highlighted the episode as the most female-heavy with regard to characters to that point. Pastes Jacob Oller commented that the camera shows multiple perspectives throughout the episode: first-person, third-person and first-person from another person's perspective. Oller saw this as giving the episode a horror feel, heightened by the "long-short-long editing" pattern of "tension, release, rebuild". Caroline Framke of Vox saw Foster's directing as "generally stark and matter-of-fact", though a handheld camera is used when characters are in "a particular state of panic" so that the framing shows "their confused and rapidly fracturing relationship to each other and the world around them". Christopher Hooton of The Independent compared the injured Marie yelling on the street to a similar performance by Anna Gunn as Skyler White in the crime drama Breaking Bad. The episode has a theme of helicopter parenting. Entertainment Weeklys Darren Franich saw it as a "straightforward parable"; both Franich and Vultures Charles Bramesco compared the episode to an after school special due to its simple moral message. In Variety, Sonia Saraiya wrote that it was "so blatant it could bludgeon you", the message being: "If you love it, let it go". Mellor found that relevant questions raised include where the "right to privacy and agency" of a child overrides the "power of a parent", and whether pain is an "instructive" or "traumatising" formative experience. Robinson further noted that there have been "a long-running series of debates" over the morality of using the implants in children. Robinson noted that clothing with trackers and third-party monitoring and control of a mobile phone are other technologies targeted at parents. Contraception prevents the fertilisation of an egg before a person becomes pregnant. ==Reception==

The episode received mixed reception. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the episode a 78% rating based on 23 critics, with the summary: "Though a bit too on the nose, 'Arkangel' brings balance to Black Mirrors typically frenetic episodes with a calm, contemplative, and compelling installment." The Telegraph awarded it three out of five stars while Vulture gave it two. Gilbert found the moral "increasingly obvious" once Sara lies to her mother about where she is going out for the evening, whilst Robinson said that the episode's "sheer earnestness makes its simplicity and obviousness even more awkward". Robinson also thought it would have been interesting to explore Marie "living through" Sara when she begins young adulthood. • 13th – Corey Atad, Esquire • 16th – Matt Donnelly and Tim Molloy, TheWrap • 16th – Ed Power, The Telegraph • 18th – Morgan Jeffery, Digital Spy • 20th – James Hibberd, Entertainment Weekly • 21st – Travis Clark, Business Insider • 22nd – Charles Bramesco, Vulture IndieWire authors ranked the 22 Black Mirror instalments excluding Bandersnatch by quality, giving "Arkangel" a position of 20th. Eric Anthony Glover of Entertainment Tonight found the episode to be 12th-best of the 19 episodes from series one to four. Instead of by quality, Proma Khosla of Mashable ranked the episodes by tone, concluding that "Arkangel" is the 11th-most pessimistic episode of the show. Other reviewers ranked "Arkangel" against other series four episodes: • 3rd (grade: B+) – TVLine • 6th – Christopher Hooton, Jacob Stolworthy, The Independent Awards For his work on "Arkangel", Malcolm McCulloch was nominated for a Location Managers Guild Awards in the category of Outstanding Locations in a Contemporary Television Series. ==References==