Abstract
Daraiseh and Booker present a critical overview of the key issues that drive the Emmy-winning “San Junipero,” the fourth episode of the third series of Black Mirror (2011–). Widely regarded as the most optimistic and utopian episode in all of Black Mirror, “San Junipero” deals with a future in which the infirm and dying can have their consciousnesses uploaded to computer-simulated worlds, where they can happily live on in virtual reality, free of the maladies that had struck them down in the physical world. The episode focuses on a simulated California seaside town in 1987, though it implies that other times and places are also available within this system, which is operated by a large corporate entity known as TIKR systems. This chapter focuses particularly on the way popular culture from 1987 is used to enrich the virtual-reality environment of San Junipero, noting the way in which this aspect of the episode participates in a recent wave of nostalgic representations of 1980s popular culture. In addition, it discusses the way this episode participates in the phenomenon of postmodernism, especially as theorized by Fredric Jameson. Finally, it addresses the utopian orientation of this episode’s treatment of technology, but notes that it contains important dystopian aspects as well.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
For example, the episode won the Prime Time Emmy Award for “Outstanding TV Movie,” while writer Charlie Brooker (who also created Black Mirror as a whole), took home the Emmy for “Outstanding Writing for a Limited series, Movie or Dramatic Special.”
- 2.
The action of the episode clearly takes place in the future relative to the 2016 broadcast time of the episode. The episode does not specify the year—and even a shot of Kelly’s tombstone does not indicate the year of her death. However, we know from the episode that the action in the physical world takes place when Kelly is 74, and she seems perhaps 50 years older than the Kelly we see in 1987. By one line of reasoning, that would put the physical action in 2037, though the episode does not really establish that Kelly in the simulated 1987 has to be the same age she was in the real 1987.
- 3.
Black Mirror thus dramatizes the arguments of many recent theoretical formulations, as when Robert Crary (2013) argues that human identities have come, in the twenty-first century, to be defined more and more in relation to our consumption of specific technological objects and devices that themselves are continually replaced by newer models and thus rendered obsolete, making our identities more and more tenuous.
- 4.
See Staiger (1999) for a reading of the dystopian aspects of Max Headroom, in conjunction with other “future noirs” of the 1980s, including Blade Runner (1982) and Brazil (1985).
- 5.
On the dystopian vision of cyberpunk (relative to the frequently utopian vision of Golden Age science fiction), see Ross (1991).
- 6.
On Max Headroom’s participation—along with films such as Tron (1982) and WarGames (1983)—in a growing fascination with virtual reality in American popular culture in the 1980s, see Kerman (1992).
- 7.
For Baudrillard, in the postmodern world, physical reality has been supplanted by a virtual, image-saturated “hyperreality” in which the world has essentially become a simulation of itself. For him, Disneyland epitomizes and literalizes this notion, but the same might also be said of the virtual city of San Junipero. See Baudrillard (2014).
- 8.
For a discussion of the utopian potential of gaming (and virtual reality in general) in Ready Player One, see Nordstrom (2016).
- 9.
In an interview, Brooker has stated that he would have liked to have covered an even wider range of time frames (including the 1920s and the 1960s) but couldn’t do so simply due to budgetary limitations (Formo, 2016).
- 10.
These prejudices seem to have been largely overcome in the physical world of the 2030s as well. Late in the episode, Kelly and Yorkie are married in the physical world so that Kelly can sign the papers authorizing Yorkie’s euthanasia, but their marriage does not particularly appear to raise eyebrows. Meanwhile, Brooker has stated in an interview that he made both characters women to add an extra utopian dimension to the virtual world of 1987 San Junipero, given that same-sex marriage would have been impossible in the real world of 1987 (Hibberd, 2016).
References
Badham, J. (Director), & Schneider, H. (1983). WarGames [Motion Picture] USA: MGM/UA Entertainment Company.
Baudrillard, J. (2014). Simulacra and Simulation, trans. S. F. Glaser, original work published in French in 1981. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Booker, M. K. (1994). Technology, History, and the Postmodern Imagination: The Cyberpunk Fiction of William Gibson. Arizona Quarterly, 50(4), 63–87.
Brooker, C. (Writer), & Harris, O. (Director). (2013). Be Right Back. [Television series episode] In B. Reisz (Producer). Black Mirror. London: Channel 4.
Brooker, C. (Writer), & Harris, O. (Director). (2016). San Junipero. [Television series episode] In L. Borg (Producer). Black Mirror. Los Gatos: Netflix.
Brooker, C. (Writer), & McCarthy, C. (Director). (2017). Black Museum. [Television series episode] In I. Hogan (Producer). Black Mirror. Los Gatos: Netflix.
Brooker, C. (Writer), & Tibbetts, C. (Director). (2014). White Christmas. [Television series episode] In B. Reisz (Producer). Black Mirror. London: Channel 4.
Cline, E. (2011). Ready Player One. London: Century Random House.
Crary, R. (2013). 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep. London: Verso.
Duffer, M., & Duffer, R. (Writers & Directors). (2016–). Stranger Things. [Television Series] Los Gatos: Netflix.
Eliot, T. S. (1922). The Waste Land. New York: Boni and Liverlight.
Fisher, M. (2009). Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? London: Zero Books.
Formo, B. (2016, October 27). Black Mirror: Charlie Brooker and Gugu Mbatha-Raw Talk ‘San Junipero’ in Our Spoiler Interview. Collider. http://collider.com/black-mirror-san-junipero-explained-netflix-interview/
Gibson, W. (1984). Neuromancer. New York: Ace Books.
Gilliam, T. (Director), & Cassavetti, P., & Milchan, A. (Producers). (1985). Brazil [Motion Picture]. USA: Universal Pictures.
Hibberd, J. (2016, October 23). Black Mirror Showrunner Explains Season 3 Endings. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved from http://www.ew.com/article/2016/10/23/black-mirror-postmortem-interview-season-3/
Hughes, J. (Director), & Hughes, J., Friesen, G., Manning, M., Meyer, A., & Tanen, N. (Producers). (1985). The Breakfast Club [Motion Picture]. USA: Universal Pictures.
Jameson, F. (1991). Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Jankel, A., & Morton, R. (Directors), & Wagg, P. (Producer). (1985). Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future. [Television Movie] London: Channel 4.
Kerman, J. B. (1992). Virtual Space and Its Boundaries in Science Fiction Film and Television: Tron, ‘Max Headroom’ and WarGames. In D. E. Morse, M. B. Tymn, & C. Bertha (Eds.), The Celebration of the Fantastic: Selected Papers from the Tenth Anniversary International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (pp. 191–203). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Lisberger, S. (Director), & Kushner, D. (Producer). (1982). Tron [Motion Picture]. USA: Walt Disney Company.
Namco. (1980). Pac-Man [Video Game]. Namco.
Nordstrom, J. (2016). “A Pleasant Place for the World to Hide”: Exploring Themes of Utopian Play in Ready Player One. Interdisciplinary Literary Studies: A Journal of Criticism and Theory, 18(2), 238–256.
Rogin, M. (1987). Ronald Reagan, the Movie and Other Episodes in Political Demonology. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ross, A. (1991). Strange Weather: Culture, Science, and Technology in the Age of Limits. London: Verso.
Schumacher, J. (Director), & Bernhard, H. (Producer) (1987). The Lost Boys. [Motion Picture] USA: Warner Bros.
Scott, R. (Director), & Deeley, M. (Producer). (1982). Blade Runner [Motion Picture]. USA: Warner Bros.
Staiger, J. (1999). Future Noir: Contemporary Representations of Visionary Cities. In A. Kuhn (Ed.), Alien Zone II: The Spaces of Science Fiction Cinema (pp. 97–122). London: Verso.
Stone, O. (Director), & Pressman, E. R. (Producer). (1987). Wall Street [Motion Picture]. USA: 20th Century Fox.
Taito Corporation. (1986). Bubble Bobble [Video Game]. Taito.
Taito Corporation. (1987). Top Speed [Video Game]. Taito.
Welsh, B. (Writer), & Armstrong, J. (Director). (2011). The Entire History of You. [Television series episode] In B. Reisz (Producer). Black Mirror. London: Channel 4.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Daraiseh, I., Booker, M.K. (2019). Unreal City: Nostalgia, Authenticity, and Posthumanity in “San Junipero”. In: McSweeney, T., Joy, S. (eds) Through the Black Mirror. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19458-1_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19458-1_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-19457-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-19458-1
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)