Black Mirror season 3 episode 'Nosedive' is very similar to Community episode 'App Development and Condiments'
'I rate you five Meow Meow Beanz'
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Black Mirror season three has finally hit Netflix, the first episode - titled ‘Nosedive’ - being the show’s most ambitious yet thanks to an increased budget.
Starring Jurassic World’s Bryce Dallas Howard, Star Trek into Darkness’s Alice Eve, and War & Peace’s James Norton, the episode offers an interesting look into a dystopian future where social media goes too far.
In short, every person has a rating out of five. When people interact with each other, they offer up a rating - from one to five - which affects that person’s overall score. Those scores dictate where you stand in the world, allowing you to buy a nicer house, rent a nicer car, and basically be more popular. (If you haven’t, go watch the episode already.)
For many avid TV watchers, this plot may sound very familiar: the episode shares a lot in common with a 2014 episode Community - a show that centres on a study group attending a community college in the US.
‘App Development and Condiments’ sees a new app being distributed to students at the college. The mobile app allows users to rate each other out of five Meow Meow Beanz. In the episode, those rated higher eventually become a tyrannical group who boss around those with lower ratings. Sound familiar?
It’s remarkable how similar the two episodes are, both critically analysing people’s obsession with stature on social media platforms with rating systems. Whether the writers of ‘Nosedive’ - Charlie Brooker, Michael Schur, and Rashida Jones worked on the episode - were aware of the Community episode remains to be seen, but, hopefully, someone will comment soon.
Or perhaps Community was just streets ahead? For those who want to watch ‘App Development and Condiments’, it is currently available on Netflix as well.
Meanwhile, we’ve ranked Black Mirror’s season three episodes, with ‘Nosedive’ coming out second best. Read our full ranking here.
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