Netflix Red Rose Is A Clever Cautionary Tale. I’ll admit, which I didn’t think would be any good at all. But I started watching it almost solely because the episode duration’s were EXACTLY aligned with my daily treadmill duration. A lame reason to watch anything, granted. Well, that and the THiNC. Discord group… Regardless, my initial hot take was not very hopeful. But once I hit play, I realized that this was actually going to be a more extended version of a Black Mirror episode. Actually, Red Rose is more like an entire season of Black Mirror, but one that is a single chain of events aligned into one story. So thanks Lisa for the recommendation!
Red Rose actually rotates through a number of different technologically fragile, and really dangerous issues that threaten our lives today. Questions like, technological location tracking, tech obsession, social tech blindness, technological manipulation… etc., etc. The deeper into the story you go, the more you realize just how wide open Pandora’s Box really is already.
The thing that really surprised me was the sheer number of switchbacks that the show presents us. I won’t get into them here, so as to not spoil the reveals that occur throughout the course of the show… but I will say that in the final fifteen minutes an entirely different shoe drops than I had expected. So, just with that, I can recommend the show. But also, selfishly, having lived in England for a bit, hearing a really thick, legit British accent – as opposed to the standard American attempts at one. For example, I had no idea that the modern lexicon of British English included the phrase (spelled phonetically) NOW-T… as in naught. Or Nothing. Better yet, OW-T… as in, aught… or anything. Just loved that.
Although this series doesn’t seem to be cut from the same cloth of normal THiNC. films and shows, it touches on so many complicated and intricate details. The main topic I found the most interesting was how complications, fights, and altercations only get worse when experienced through the echo chamber of social networks. And the reality of it is that technology is really just chum, a draw, that entraps and enchains. The show definitely asks some really good questions, even if the underpinning details – the prime mover – is a bit hokey. That aside, I enjoyed the show and it gave me pause, really. It’d be interesting to hear what you think of it below…
Edited by: CY