The relationship between the uncanny valley and "Be Right Back"

Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror has a variety of ideas with the mindset of of invading one’s comfort zone by gradually easing the viewer into the episode; in “Be Right Back,” he manages to create this same level of gradual discomfort throughout the episode starting with the casual and uplifting introduction within the first ten minutes of the episode. After Ash’s death, his “revival” proves to be an important factor during Martha’s pregnancy. The artificial intelligence attempting to mimic Ash was realistic and proved to be advanced even with limited knowledge on Ash himself and how he interacted with his wife. The introduction of Ash as a tangible being, however, proved to be the downfall of Martha herself.

The relationship between the uncanny valley and “Be Right Back” is evident in Martha’s relationship to the recreation of Ash as an AI. Although “Be Right Back” was set in a time further than society today, its values remain true. Martha had indulged in the realization of how eerie the artificial can be. His mannerisms in his speech, how he presented himself to Martha, and even how they interacted with each other intimately differed greatly from the original Ash. The constant “Is this not something Ash would do?” further diminished her immersion and invoked a sense of a company attempting to get user feedback on its product. The principles of how one determines whether it is human or not is dependent on how one is able to relate with another being, whether it be living or artificial as a means of depicting the uncanny valley aspect of “Be Right Back.” In Martha’s case, she was not able to realize it until the supposed final stage: a material realization of Ash. She attempted to see it as a perfect recreation of Ash, and failed to do so as it progressed. In her comparison with the Artificial Ash and the original Ash, Martha fails in accepting the Artificial Ash and instead places him within her own uncanny valley which in turn does not bode well for either party, but it allows Martha to accept her grieving and move on past the incident of Ash’s death.