The premiere episode of Netflix’s third season of Black Mirror, entitled “Nosedive,” takes place in a pastel-hued near future where the persistent buzzing of notification tones dictates a person’s social status based on an Uber-esque five-star rating scale. It’s horrifying, but if you want it to nearly come true, Netflix has uploaded the ringtones so you can recreate your own cautionary tale version of “Nosedive” in real life.
The episode shows a well-meaning character named Lacie (Bryce Dallas Howard) attempting to beef up her respectable 4.2 status score by getting back in touch with her childhood friend Naomi (Alice Eve) who also happens to be a social influencer with a near-perfect 4.8 rating. If she gets a little ratings bump by kissing up to Naomi and her high-rated friends at Naomi’s wedding, she can approach the coveted 5.0 rating and thus live the luxurious upper class rated life she’s always dreamed about.
But because it’s Black Mirror, Lacie eventually stumbles down a horrifying but darkly comedic path of technological acceptance thats a perfect example of what a truly great episode of the show can be. And during their Reddit AMA yesterday, series creator Charlie Brooker and Executive Producer Annabel Jones revealed that fans can also ruin their own lives via social media ratings endurance with the actual ringtones from the episode.
Here they are from one to five (click the links for a download page):
“Netflix have just copied-and-pasted them in here — use wisely,” Brooker cautioned his redditors during the AMA, and you’d be wise to listen to him.
While it would have been even more gloriously sinister if Netflix had somehow come up with an app that mimics the social media rating platform from “Nosedive”, these ringtones will have to suffice for the sake of a joke — that is until the events of the episode actually come true.
