Arkangel (Black Mirror)

"Arkangel"
Black Mirror episode
Promotional poster released as part of the "13 Days of Black Mirror"
Episode no.	Series 4 Episode 2
Directed by	Jodie Foster
Written by	Charlie Brooker
Featured music	"I'm a Mother" by the Pretenders
Original release date	29 December 2017 (2017-12-29)
Running time	52 minutes
Guest appearances
Rosemarie DeWitt as Marie Sambrell Brenna Harding as Sara Sambrell Nicholas Campbell as Russ Sambrell Owen Teague as Trick Aniya Hodge as Sara (age 3) Sarah Abbott as Sara (age 9) Nicky Torchia as Trick (age 12)
Episode chronology
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List of episodes

"Arkangel" is the second episode of the fourth series of the British science fiction anthology series Black Mirror. Written by series creator and showrunner Charlie Brooker and directed by Jodie Foster, it premiered on Netflix on 29 December 2017, along with the rest of series four. In the episode, the single mother Marie (Rosemarie DeWitt) enrols her daughter Sara in a trial of Arkangel, an implanted technology which allows Marie to track Sara's location, current vision and hearing, and automatically censors distressing material.

The main theme of the episode is helicopter parenting; as a woman raised by a single mother, Foster had many views which influenced the script, such as a more complex characterisation of Marie, and was given control of casting. For the filming in November 2016, Foster chose a location in Canada to represent working-class America. Differently-aged versions of Sara are played by different actors, with Brenna Harding playing her as a teenager.

Critics saw Marie as a parent afflicted with much anxiety and guilt and compared Arkangel to existing technologies for child monitoring, such as microchip implants and smartwatches. They were mostly laudatory of Foster's directing style and DeWitt's acting but less complimentary of the storyline and moral, which were seen as simplistic, with many reviewers suggesting themes the episode could have explored in more detail. In one scene, a nurse incorrectly implies that an emergency contraception (EC) pill induces abortion, rather than preventing pregnancy. The episode was poorly received in comparison to other Black Mirror episodes.