“I was so happy when I read Amy because she’s such an interesting character she’s fun and goofy they wrote her really well. “It’s such a treat when you get a script where the character is well-written and especially with female roles,” she says. Why 'Black Mirror' Offered More Escapism With Season 4Ĭampbell says she can’t predict how viewers will react to “Hang the DJ” - “What’s great about Black Mirror is how divisive the audience is,” she says - but she can’t help but have a soft spot for her character. It’s a really great ending and I think it’s nice that in these months it’s a ray of hope.” “Will people get it? Will it make sense? Then when I finally saw the edit, they really smashed it. “When we were filming the ending, as we were getting up to that point, we were worrying about the payoff,” Campbell admits. The real-life match at the end of the episode elicits large awaiting (knowing?) smiles from both real versions of Amy and Frank - a happy ending, simulations aside - and the “Hang the DJ” chorus of The Smiths’ rebellious 1986 song “Panic” blares as the end credits role. The concept of digital consciousness remains a theme throughout season four, also popping up in episodes “USS Callister” and “Black Museum,” and in this case, simulated Amy and Frank had rebelled 998 times out of 1,000 against a system that was keeping them apart. When the story widens out to Amy receiving Frank as a 98 percent match on her dating app in a bar, it is understood that the Amy and Frank of the episode were digital simulations being used over and over by a dating app to find the statistics of their connection. Where her heart leads her, however, is into obscurity, as once Amy figures it out, she and Frank and their world disappear.

I really haven’t seen anything like ‘Hang the DJ’ yet.” Where you’re not giving enough of chance to someone or not spending your energy on one person, and unable to make that connection you are wanting to make. “That means you’re perhaps not taking the time to get to know people properly or have a proper lasting relationship. “The idea of option paralysis and having too many options at your fingertips almost jolts your thinking about how online dating can be quite harmful,” Campbell says of the darker side of the story. After their first date, the story begins to shift more to Amy’s perspective, though it follows both Amy and Frank as they continue to work the system and bounce from one sub-par relationship to another. The system logs likes and dislikes, habits and connections by putting the single through relationships that can last anywhere from weeks to years. The expiration date on their relationship, viewers come to learn, is because the algorithm pairs people with as many matches as it takes in order to find the perfect one. Getting a match is the modern meet-cute and I thought did that really well.” “Now meet-cutes are over the phone and you can’t see someone in an app. “I think we’re kind of beyond romantic comedies about the meet-cute where you bump into someone at a library or someone accidentally pours coffee over you and that’s how two people meet,” Campbell says of the influence that online dating is having on entertainment. Instead of having a one-night stand, they fall asleep side-by-side, touching hands. Only given 12 hours until their relationship will expire, Amy and Frank enjoy a date that is, by all accounts, a nice night together. Though it seems that an app has paired them together, it gradually becomes clear that Amy and Frank live in some sort of world that is governed by this dating system. When viewers first meet Amy (Campbell), she is, in fact, on an awkward first date with her first “match” Frank (Cole). I like the fact that this went right to the fact that it was really, really awkward ( laughs).” “Sometimes you see a first date and it’s a little bit more romantic and easy. “I loved the way the story was written because it was the perfect picture of that first date,” Campbell, who plays hopeful single Amy, tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Black mirror episodes explained