{"id":1872,"date":"2016-05-29T17:00:01","date_gmt":"2016-05-29T11:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=1872"},"modified":"2016-05-29T17:00:01","modified_gmt":"2016-05-29T11:30:01","slug":"black-mirror-hang-dj-online-dating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1872","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHang the DJ\u201d: Directionless Hearts in the Age of Driverless Rickshaws"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n*Spoilers ahead*<\/em>\n\nA<\/span> short sequence in \u201cHang The DJ\u201d, an episode from Black Mirror\u2019s fourth season, details Amy (a brilliant Georgina Campbell) expressing her frustration with her boyfriend, Lenny. Lenny is handsome, a great lover, and seems to be compatible with Amy. But he has an annoying quirk<\/a>: He punctuates pauses with a loud exhale, and it chips away at Amy, little by little, until it is completely unbearable. It\u2019s a nuanced, cutting take on how, after enough time together, humans will manage to find faults with even the most seemingly perfect paramours. When it becomes clear that Amy is in love with Frank, a guy she spent less than a day with, this altercation also reaffirms the age-old romantic truth: No matter how gorgeous the face in front of you, you\u2019ll hardly notice them if your heart is set on \u201cThe One\u201d.<\/span>\n\nAmy and Frank are each other\u2019s missed connection<\/a> in the episode, series creator Charlie Brooker\u2019s homage to the triumph of romance in a bleak, nihilistic universe where technology is a crutch for basic human interaction. Much like last series\u2019 standout heartwarmer, \u201cSan Junipero<\/a>\u201d. Much like the walk down feels avenue with Series 2 tearjerker, \u201cBe Right Back<\/a>\u201d. Barring these outliers, Black Mirror is hardly known for its optimism.\n\n\u201cHang The DJ\u201d could change that perception, by striking a hopeful chord with the lovelorn<\/a> of 2018. Its narrative is rooted in the very near future, in perhaps the most culturally significant fad in our generation\u2019s romantic lives: online\/app dating. It taps into the underlying belief that even in the superficial and changeable world of dating apps, there\u2019s hope to eventually find yourself a soulmate, an \u201cUltimate Compatible Other\u201d. That would be a tall order in any era of human history, but is especially so today, considering most millennials\u2019 track record with dating apps.\n\nFor instance, I first discovered Tinder in early 2013, as a second-quarter grad student at UCLA and like many of my peers using the then-relatively unknown app, I was fascinated. For a lot of us back then, the period in our love life immediately following the discovery of Tinder, resembled Amy\u2019s tastefully shot montage of emotionless yet lustful trysts with multiple partners. Tinder was the go-to millennial \u201choe-phase\u201d app. I\u2019ve personally been guilty of waving my phone screen<\/a> in the face of a friend who\u2019d just been dumped, singing praises of how this magical app could help them find a casual, discreet, \u201cget over it\u201d fuck.\n\nOver the years though, there\u2019s many things I\u2019ve come to detest about online dating<\/a>. The impersonal swiping-to-express-interest coupled with the lost novelty of meeting someone for the first time in person\u2026 Thanks to a plethora of their pictures, bios and sometimes even entire Instagram feeds available for you to browse through, the butterflies that were synonymous with seeing someone for the first time are all but extinct. And then there is the complete dehumanising<\/a> of the courting experience, the feeding of the delusional, anxiety-inducing belief that there\u2019s always something better out there.\n
We\u2019ve all been Amy, lying in bed next to our Lennys, wondering what the hell we\u2019re still doing with the guy after the spark is lost.<\/blockquote>\nWe\u2019ve all been Amy, lying in bed next to our Lennys, wondering what the hell we\u2019re still doing with the guy after the spark is lost. We\u2019ve also all been Frank, enduring an unfairly demanding lover, in the desperate hope that maybe, if we were more adjusting to her needs, she would like us. All the while, fantasising about the magical rickshaw ride that will mercifully end our nightmarish ordeal.\n\nAs is usually the case with this show\u2019s profoundly haunting universe, there\u2019s a technological antagonist in \u201cHang the DJ\u201d: \u201cCoach\u201d, a mix of Siri, Tinder, and Akshay Kumar<\/a> from Ajnabee if you replaced \u201cEverything is planned\u201d with \u201cEverything happens for a reason\u201d. Like Akshay Kumar and most dating apps in general, Coach encourages Frank and Amy to have sex with as many partners as possible within the database of the system. At first, it feels like the system is designed to keep the two apart. But gradually, the two realise that in order to be together, they must rebel against the system together. Leading to a Truman Show-esque, nail-biting climax where both the protagonists scale a wall and finally get the happily-ever-after they so deserve.\nDifficult to admit this, but I cried buckets long after the episode ended: in relief, in catharsis, in grief<\/a>, in longing. But most of all, at the sheer beauty of the idea of having someone to partner up with, whether you choose to tilt at the windmills with them or be able to say, with innate confidence, \u201cYou get the fries, I\u2019ll grab the coke.\u201d And the difficulty<\/a> \u2014 the maddening, frightening fucking difficulty \u2014 of finding that partner, even with the world\u2019s most sophisticated algorithms working to help us find him\/her.\n\nThe most common interpretation of the ending is that Frank and Amy\u2019s 99.8% match compatibility was dependent on them rebelling against the system in the first place. But the real beauty of this assessment lies in its extrapolation: a little plea to all of us to \u201crebel against the system\u201d in our own tiny ways. Don\u2019t<\/a> get on a dating app due to peer pressure. And if you fancy meeting someone in person, through a common friend or at a bar rather than finding love on your phone screen<\/a>, don\u2019t let anyone tell you otherwise.\n\nI could get behind this new variety of Black Mirror. For all its bleakness, the show seems to be developing a bit of a soft-corner for feel-good, uplifting stories. If it means having more episodes like \u201cHang The DJ\u201d, I\u2019d rush to it with open arms. Hopefully<\/a>, in the company of someone I\u2019d have found to rebel against the system with.\n\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barring outliers like \u201cSan Junipero\u201d, Black Mirror isn\u2019t renowned for its optimism. But the online dating-focused \u201cHang The DJ\u201d strikes a hopeful, uplifting chord with lovelorn millennials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":1873,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[1508,3686,3687,3688,3689,1245,1341,1050],"class_list":["post-1872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-black-mirror","tag-charlie-brooker","tag-georgina-campbell","tag-hang-the-dj","tag-joe-cole","tag-millennials","tag-netflix","tag-online-dating"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cHang the DJ\u201d: Directionless Hearts in the Age of Driverless Rickshaws<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Barring outliers like \u201cSan Junipero\u201d, Black Mirror isn\u2019t renowned for its optimism. 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