On Netflix

I tuned in Netflix last night and the first thing that showed up was a series called “Black Mirror,” season 3 episode 1. I do not know what happened to season 1 or 2 and doing a search for them came up with nothing. I had time to kill so I decided to check it out. The show was about a not so distant future time where everyone had smart phones and they were always on and they were always communicating with each other and the rest of the country. Every interaction with another person, be it the taxi driver, the coffee shop, airport flight check-in, co-workers, or old friends, brought an immediate rating of 1 to 5 stars that was shared with the other person and the entire country, instantly. A person’s star rating determined his/her entire life, who would be a friend, where you could live, work, vacation, what kind of vehicle you could rent and whether you could get a bed in a hospital. A 4.5 and higher rating was very very good. A 4.3 was okay, but limited you to lower class friends and housing and jobs. Below a 4.0 was bad and below a 3.0 you were an outcast, a leper and people would not even acknowledge your presence. Everyone clamored for a higher star rating, doing ridiculous phony things to seem nice to attain or hold the higher star rating and they went maniacal when someone gave them a low rating, which in turn lowered their overall rating.

The episode seemed so far out, so imaginative and impossible until I started thinking about it after the episode was over. Right now, before everything I buy or restaurants I go to, I read all the reviews, which are 1 to 5 stars. I get friend requests on Facebook from people I do not even know. Before we could rent this apartment we had to have a complete background check. It seems like we are almost in that future now.

One last thing, I also watched a film called, "The Fundamentals of Caring," I highly recommend the film. I clicked on it thinking I would watch just a few minutes and ended up watching the whole thing. It is a wonderful movie despite some foul language. It is not for kids, but it is a very good movie.