Celebrate (or destroy) your love with a real-world version of a Black Mirror dating app
Suggesting that some of us aren’t paying sufficiently close attention to the messages—“Technology can be dangerous,” “Don’t give up personal autonomy in the interest of convenience,” “Never turn your back on Jesse Plemons”—that Netflix’s Black Mirror is constantly shouting in our faces, Netflix is offering the show’s fans a chance to turn one of its latest pieces of technodystopia into a reality.
Specifically, the streaming service decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day today by releasing a real-world version of Coach, the expiration-date-setting dating app from the most recent season’s “Hang The DJ.” Just like in the episode—in which Georgina Campbell and Joe Cole are first set up, and then broken up, by the online dating program—you can go to the Coach website, then pass a URL on to your partner, and see how long “the system” thinks you’ve got together. Really, it’s just a silly little Easter egg, unless, of course, the machine spits out a number either you or your partner are uncomfortable with, in which case, please enjoy your fresh new Valentine’s Day fight, courtesy of your friends at Netflix.