《黑鏡》聖誕特輯充滿兇險與轉折

Picture, if you will, a world where our digital devices seem eerily alive; where technology lets us block unwanted people not only from our social media streams but from our eyes and ears; and where the maladroit can receive stealthy, real-time pickup and dating advice from debonair coaches resembling the “Mad Men” star Jon Hamm.

如果你願意，可以在心裏勾勒出這樣一個世界，在這裏，我們的數碼設備似乎有着神祕的生機；技術手段可以讓我們屏蔽不想見到的人，不僅是在社交媒體，也可以讓此人從我們的眼前或耳邊消失；笨拙的人可以從溫文爾雅、長得像《廣告狂人》(Mad Men)裏喬恩·哈姆(Jon Hamm)的教練那裏得到隱祕的實時的把妹及約會建議。

This is the very near future imagined by “Black Mirror,” the British anthology drama that mines cautionary, “Twilight Zone”-style narratives from our modern-day obsessions with gadgetry and the Internet, and which returns to American television on Thursday for a holiday-themed special called “White Christmas.”

這是英國詩選劇《黑鏡》(Black Mirror)裏爲我們構想的一個不久的將來，從我們當今對電子小玩意與互聯網的迷戀之中發掘《迷離時空》(Twilight Zone)式的警世敘事，週四，美國電視臺將播出該劇的節日特別集，《白色聖誕》(White Christmas)。

Beneath that seemingly cheerful title lurks an ambiguous premise that begins with Mr. Hamm and Rafe Spall as men who find themselves in a cabin for unknown reasons. A sinister episode full of the series’s trademark twists and turns and a macabre sense of humor unfolds.

歡快的主題之下潛藏着含糊的前提，劇集開始，哈姆與拉菲·斯波(Rafe Spall)飾演兩個男人，由於未知的原因呆在一個木屋裏。這是兇險的一集，充滿這個系列招牌式的轉折，漸漸展現出令人毛骨悚然的幽默感。

Mr. Hamm explained in an interview that “Black Mirror” aims a distorted lens at society to show “where it’s probably going, which is further — and maybe further than we want.”

哈姆在採訪中解釋說，《黑鏡》用扭曲的透鏡審視社會，展現出“未來社會可能會是什麼樣子——可能比我們的希望走得更遠”。

While “Black Mirror,” which is shown on Channel 4 in Britain, is often skeptical of phenomena that spread rapidly and unpredictably, it has also benefited from virality.

《黑鏡》在英國第4頻道播出，儘管它經常諷刺社會中那種出人意料、快速傳播的現象，但它也得益於網絡上的“病毒傳播”(virality)。

The series, which had its first American showings on the satellite broadcast service DirecTV (which will also first show the “White Christmas” special on its Audience channel), has recently been added to Netflix’s on-demand library. It now has its best chance to infiltrate the cultural consciousness of America, where its absurdist explorations of progress gone amok will resonate just as loudly.

這部劇集首次在美國播放是通過衛星廣播服務DirectV（《白色聖誕》特別集的首播也是在它旗下的Audience頻道），最近也加入了Netflix的點播庫。現在它有了極好的機會滲入美國的文化意識，它對“人類進步變得瘋狂”這個主題的荒誕主義式探索肯定會在美國引起強烈反響。

As Charlie Brooker, the creator of “Black Mirror,” explained, what seems to unite people these days is the clumsy way we adapt to new technology and media.

《黑鏡》的主筆查理·布魯克(Charlie Brooker)解釋，如今讓人們聯合在一起的，似乎是我們去適應新技術與新媒體的笨拙方式。

“We’re like people who are playing a driving video game for the first time, and we’re smashing into the walls left and right,” Mr. Brooker said in an interview. “As we get better as a species, we’ll master it. But at the moment we’re colliding with things all the time.”

“我們就像那些第一次玩駕駛類電子遊戲的人，不斷撞到左邊或者右邊的牆上，”布魯克在接受採訪時說，“作爲一個物種，我們在進步，我們會掌握它的。但現在，我們正處在與各種事物不斷碰撞的時刻。”

Mr. Brooker, a British writer, producer and columnist for The Guardian, made his reputation as a satirist and host of shows like “Screenwipe” and “Newswipe,” offering caustic commentary on events and media coverage of them.

布魯克是一位英國作家、製作人與《衛報》(The Guardian)的專欄作家，他以撰寫諷刺作品，主持“屏幕清理”(Screenwipe)和“新聞清理”(Newswipe)等節目聞名，這些節目專門對時事和媒體對這些時事的報道方式發表尖刻的評論。

He also wrote a hit British horror mini-series, “Dead Set,” in 2008, which imagined a zombie apocalypse taking place around the reality series “Big Brother.”

2008年，他還寫過一部轟動的英國恐怖迷你劇《死亡片場》(Dead Set)，想像出一個殭屍末日世界，發生在《老大哥》(Big Brother)真人秀片場。

For a follow-up, Mr. Brooker said he wanted to try his version of a series like Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone,” which offered parables about racism, McCarthyism and nuclear paranoia, concealed in the garb of traditional science fiction.

關於續作，布魯克說他想嘗試拍出洛德·塞林(Rod Serling)的《迷離時空》式的劇集，它表面是一部傳統的科幻劇，實則蘊含着關於種族主義、麥卡錫主義與核妄想的寓言。

The logical 21st-century update would take aim at our relationship with technology, but Mr. Brooker said he wanted to “deliberately unnerve the viewers” rather than scold them.

21世紀合乎邏輯的更新版無疑是針對人與技術之間的關係，但布魯克說，他希望“故意令觀衆煩躁不安”，而不是去責罵他們。

“Most dramas tend to reassure the viewer, I think,” he said. “Even crime procedurals are really about the good guy catching the bad guy.”

“我覺得大多數劇集想要去安撫觀衆，”他說，“就算是犯罪劇，其實也是關於好人抓壞人的。”

What he wanted to create, he said, was “an anthology that would potentially unsettle, and speak about things other than ‘Isn’t crime terrible?’ and ‘Isn’t the class divide an awful thing?’ ”

他說，自己想拍的是“一部詩選劇，其中涌動着令人不安的東西，內容不僅僅是‘犯罪難道不可怕嗎’和‘階級劃分難道不糟糕嗎’。”

“Black Mirror,” which had its first three-episode season in 2011, gained attention as much for its use of actors like Rory Kinnear (“Skyfall”) and Jessica Brown Findlay (“Downton Abbey”) as for its provocative premises.

《黑鏡》於2011年首播，只有三集，挑釁的主題很快引起人們的注意，《大破天幕殺機》(Skyfall)影星羅裏·金奈爾(Rory Kinnear)和《唐頓莊園》(Downton Abbey)影星傑西卡·布朗·芬德利(Jessica Brown Findlay)的加盟也頗引人注目。

Its debut episode, “The National Anthem,” focused on a kidnapping plot in which the captor of a royal family member said he would release her only if the prime minister (Mr. Kinnear) performed an act of bestiality on live television.

第一集《國歌》(The National Anthem)講述了一樁綁架陰謀，作案者綁架了一名皇室成員，宣稱首相（金奈爾飾）必須在電視直播中獸交，他纔會釋放人質。

“Often with ‘Black Mirror,’ the ideas really make me laugh,” said Mr. Brooker, who wrote that episode. “That probably doesn’t come across in the final show.”

“《黑鏡》裏的點子通常會讓我大笑，”布魯克說，他也是這一集的編劇。“不過這最後的一集可能不會讓人笑。”

Mr. Spall said that the format of “Black Mirror,” in which each episode offers a self-contained story, was a welcome corrective to a television environment overrun by serialized narratives.

斯波說，《黑鏡》這種每一集都講述一個完整故事的形式對於當今的電視環境是一種有益的矯正，現在的電視裏連續性敘事太多了。

“Starting a new one can take such a huge amount of energy,” Mr. Spall said. “You go: ‘Am I going to start this series? Am I going to watch the entire back catalog of “The Sopranos”? God, this is going to be three months of my life, gone.’ ”

“重新開始一個新角色要花費大量精力，”斯波說，“你會覺得‘我要接這部劇嗎？我得看完《黑道家族》(The Sopranos)的片尾字幕嗎？天哪，我人生中的三個月就這麼沒了。’”

Even before “Black Mirror” was shown in the United States, Mr. Brooker said he began hearing from Hollywood types who were finding it on shady torrent sites “or getting surreptitious DVD copies or whatever.”

布魯克說，《黑鏡》在美國上映之前，就開始有好萊塢的人和他聯繫，他們是從可疑的種子網站下載，“或者私下傳播的DVD之類渠道”看到這部劇集的。

Mr. Hamm (who watched the show legally on DirecTV) said he was introduced to it by the “Saturday Night Live” alumnus Bill Hader.

哈姆通過DirecTV的服務合法地觀看了這部劇集，他說是曾在“週六夜現場”(Saturday Night Live)合作過的比爾·哈德爾(Bill Hader)介紹他看的。

When he was approached to star in the “Black Mirror” special, Mr. Hamm said he did not have to worry about when or if it would reach American audiences, or what size audience would see it.

後來有人邀請他出演《黑鏡》特別集，至於美國觀衆是否能夠看到這部劇，將在什麼時候看到這部劇，乃至觀衆人數多少，哈姆說自己用不着擔心。

As he has learned from his experiences on “Mad Men,” Mr. Hamm said, “No one cares about ratings anymore.”

他說，出演《廣告狂人》的經歷讓他明白，“現在已經沒有人在乎收視率了”。

“The stigma of not being on network television, which was the gold standard forever, is just obliterated,” he said.

“節目能在電視臺播放曾經是雷打不動的黃金標準，但是如今，不在電視臺播放已經不算什麼恥辱了，”他說。

With the curtain about to come down on “Mad Men,” Mr. Hamm has been appearing in offbeat television roles, playing a morphine-abusing physician during the Russian Revolution on “A Young Doctor’s Notebook” (alongside Daniel Radcliffe) and the voice of a talking toilet on “Bob’s Burgers.”

隨着《廣告狂人》即將落下帷幕，哈姆也開始飾演一些另類的電視角色，他在《一位年輕醫生的筆記》(A Young Doctor’s Notebook)中飾演俄國革命期間一個濫用嗎啡的醫生（該片還有丹尼爾·雷德克里夫[Daniel Radcliffe]加盟），還在《開心漢堡店》(Bob’s Burgers)裏爲一個會說話的馬桶配音。

“It becomes simply about content,” Mr. Hamm said. “If enough people are in your ear — or your virtual ear — about a specific piece of content,” audiences will seek it out.

“一切只是關於內容的，”哈姆說，“如果有很多人對着你的耳朵——或是虛擬的耳朵——談論某段特定的內容，”觀衆就會發現的。

Not that Mr. Hamm is using social media to engage in these discussions, but as “Black Mirror” has taught him, he said, “It’s not going away.”

哈姆並沒有參與社交網絡上的類似討論，但《黑鏡》讓他明白，“這一切不會消失”。

Nor is it worth his energy to complain about it, he said. “I just end up sounding like the old man on the lawn, shaking his fist at those dang teenagers.”

他說，這也不值得自己花費精力去抱怨，“否則我就會像是個站在草坪上的老傢伙，揮舞着拳頭咒罵該死的年輕人。”

Mr. Spall, who admitted to checking his email “100 times a day,” said that expanding his Internet presence any further would be a devastating mistake.

斯波承認自己“每天查100次郵件”，他說，如果繼續擴展自己的網絡活動，肯定會是災難性的錯誤。

“For me, that would be like saying, ‘Hmm, I think I’m going to take up heroin,’ ” he explained. “ ‘I’ve never tried it before, but I think I’m going to get into smack.’ ”

“對於我來說，就好像，‘嗯，我該來點兒海洛因了，’”他說。“我以前從來沒試過，但我想我肯定會上癮的。”