A Potpourri of Vestiges Review
Murtaza Ali Khan
Amazon
mini TV’s latest offering, a short film titled ‘Recommended For You,’ shows us
the dark side of bingeing, hacking and surveillance. In their earlier release
titled ‘1800 Life,’ a depressed comedian on the brink of committing suicide
receives a random call that develops into a meaningful conversation that helps
change his outlook in life. ‘1800 Life’ served as a reminder that in the present
day and age we are never really alone or off the grid and technology have
invaded itself into almost all the aspects of our life—for better or worse.
‘Recommended For You’ takes the idea to the next level; this time most
definitely for the worse.
The plot follows a young man
named Pranav (brilliantly essayed by
‘Recommended For You’ is all
about the dark side of technology, which is often hiding in plain sight. In the
recent times, a lot of shows have tried to explore this realm. Now, both in
terms of concept and execution, ‘Recommended For You’ is nothing exceptional,
especially given what we have already seen in shows such as 'Black Mirror,’
‘Electric Dreams,’ ‘Solos,’ ‘The Twilight Zone,’ and ‘Love Death + Robots.’
Take, for example, the case
of the episode ‘The Entire History of You’ from ‘Black Mirror.’ The episode is
set in a world where a ‘grain’ technology records people's audiovisual senses,
allowing a person to re-watch their memories. When an insecure husband attends
a dinner party with his wife, he becomes suspicious after seeing her zealously
interact with a friend of hers. This leads him to scrutinize the friend’s
memories and as well as his wife’s about the nature of her relationship with the
friend. Creepy, isn’t it?
In another episode titled
‘Nosedive,’ people can rate each other from one to five stars for every
interaction they have, which can impact their socioeconomic status. When a
young woman overly obsessed with her ratings finds an opportunity to elevate
her ratings greatly and move into a more luxurious residence after being chosen
by her popular childhood friend as the maid of honour for her wedding, several
mishaps cause people to rate her negatively, dropping her rating so much that
her flight is cancelled and she cannot buy a seat on another flight. Things
just keep on getting worse from there on. Scary, isn’t it?
But then not many Indian
offerings can claim to have special effects that can be called truly
world-class as more often than not there are budgetary constraints at play. And
so good writing can really come handy. While ‘Recommended For You’ is about
bingeing, hacking, and surveillance, it is also about loss of privacy, and the
insatiable lust of capitalism. In that sense, the short film does have some
similarities to the popular South Korean show ‘Squid Game’ as well.
Amazon miniTV is an
interesting video streaming service available on Amazon’s shopping app for free
and although ‘Recommended For You’ isn’t exceptional, it is nonetheless an
interesting addition to the short film segment on the platform.
A version of this review was first published in The Daily Guardian.
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