Episodes of Black Mirror are generally dark and often leave you feeling uneasy after seeing them. This feeling arises because the subject matter is recognizable and very close to reality. Crocodile is perhaps one of the darkest episodes so far, but doesn’t succeed as well in making you think as a viewer.
In this third episode of the fourth season, two parallel storylines are told. Mia (Andrea Riseborough) is an architect who at a young age, after a night out with a friend, on the way home witnesses how they hit a cyclist, who is dies instantly. Since they both drank and her friend is afraid to go to prison, they decide to make the body disappear. She goes on with her life, but years later that friend is back at her door. He wants to confess what he did in a letter to the wife of the deceased man. Mia does not want that and takes extreme measures. It makes her a monster.
The other storyline is about Shazia (Kiran Sonia Sawar), an insurance agent who, through a box that can visualize memories, investigates whether the insurance should pay out. An interesting device that you can imagine large companies using. In a few words it is made clear that this method has been made mandatory by the government in the world of Crocodile and everyone has to cooperate in such research. Shazia investigates a simple accident with a self-driving pizza delivery truck and at one point crosses paths with Mia.
The goal the author of the series, Charlie Brooker, has is clear. When technology is used for something (in this case a better testimony) eventually it can be dangerous if it ends up in the wrong hands. Yet this message is less present here. Mia is initially a complex character, but as the episode progresses she slowly becomes a serial killer who seems to stop at nothing and it goes to the extreme here. The horror elements drown out the rest too much and the dark humor through which Mia can finally be found feels forced. So far I thought this was the least interesting episode of this season.
[score6]