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Plaything is the fourth episode of Black Mirror Series 7.
It opens with Cameron Walker (Peter Capaldi – Soft Top Hard Shoulder) trying to steal some booze from the Off Licence, in 2034, whilst wearing headphones with ZX Spectrum loading tunes playing away…
Unfortunately, for him, such actions attract the local police, and whilst hauled to the cop shop, they pay a visit to his apartment, to find a load of tech junk apparently lying around, with the unwelcome visitors making a discovery, for which we’re not yet made privvy, since it’s one of those stories when its hand will be revealed at the time it chooses.
While being interviewed, Cameron tells DCI Kano (James Nelson-Joyce – This City Is Ours) and psychologist Jen Minter (Michele Austin – Hard Truths) about his life going back to 1994 – and bringing us back into the realm of Bandersnatch, when he went to Tuckersoft, coming across not just the owner, Mohan Thakur (Asim Chaudhry – Barbie), but also renowned programmer Colin Ritman (Will Poulter – Death Of A Unicorn).
Back then, the younger Cameron (Lewis Gribben – Generation Z) was reviewing games for a local rag, and Colin was working on a new game called Thronglets, which looks rather like Populous, a game where you’d grow a civilisation. However, these difference here, is that these are REAL characters, that breath and feel, and seem to think of the player as some sort of God.
As circumstances lead to him checking the game out at home, some hallucinogenic help from friend Lump (Josh Finan – The Responder) allows Cameron to actually understand the random, gibberish dialogue coming from the Thronglets, themselves.
Although the plot feels like it owes a huge debt to The Simpsons‘ Treehouse of Horror VII segment, The Genesis Tub, in which Lisa creates life out of her baby tooth and some accidental static electricity, Plaything has a lot going for it – the ZX Spectrum audio, the way it perfectly replicates the loading of .bat files, and the the use of Future Sound Of London’s We Have Explosive, which was also used in the PS1 game, Wipeout, a huge experience at the time, and one that has never been bettered.
I was hoping we’d get another game to play like Bandersnatch‘s Nohzdyve (above), and then later on today, I chanced upon a Thronglets game on Netflix! Gameplay below!
Additionally, following this episode, Radiohead’s Just video, now makes sense.
Plaything is now available on Netflix.
Score: 8/10
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Director: David Slade
Producer: Russell McLean
Writer: Charlie Brooker
Music: Brian Reitzell
Cast:
Older Cameron Walker: Peter Capaldi
Younger Cameron Walker: Lewis Gribben
DCI Kano: James Nelson-Joyce
Jen Minter: Michele Austin
Lump: Josh Finan
Mohan Thakur: Asim Chaudhry
Colin Ritman: Will Poulter
WPC Yvonne Best: Ami Tredrea
PC Mo Raiker: Darryl Foster
Duster: Michael Taibi
Shopkeeper: Kavé Niku
Gordon: Jay Simpson
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.