Could Miley's Black Mirror episode be based on Britney Spears?
I can't help but wonder.... #FreeBritney https://t.co/pKMeXqupLh
- PAPER Magazine (@papermagazine) June 6, 2019
Spoilers ahead for those that haven't watched.
Following the release of the anticipated 5th season of 'Black Mirror', an episode starring Miley Cyrus that revolves around a disillusioned pop star named Ashley O who is forced to maintain an impossibly positive image by her handlers in order to sustain sales and keep her career thriving, is earning comparisons to a real life pop star: Britney Spears.
The tension between who Ashley O is to the eyes of the general public and her fans, and who she actually is, drives the episode's narrative arc. Fans are comparing the episode to the viral #FreeBritney campaign, which consists of fans demanding Britney be freed from her lifelong conservatorship that landed her in a mental hospital earlier this year. [Spoiler (click to open)](In the episode, Ashley O herself is drugged and forced into a hospital after attempting to break free from her handlers)
All the comparisons under the cut.
- In the late 90s and early 00s, Spears was marketed as America's Girl Next Door. Just like Ashley O, her public persona was impossibly upbeat. There were heartwarming books about her bond with her family, dolls styled after her that sang her songs and replicated her music video outfits, cheerful Pepsi commercials, and a starring role in Crossroads where she played a wholesome virgin.
- As she became an adult, every decision Britney made in her life was heavily scrutinized, and eventually began to eat away at her carefully crafted public persona the more tabloids intervened in her affairs. This highlighted the divide between the image being sold through her music/career, and who she really was a person.
- Like Ashley O attempted to break free of her image and go rogue, Britney tried to go down the same route. She wrote and recorded multiple songs against the wishes of her label, and even leaked one of the songs on the radio. Her label quickly swooped in and decided to completely scrap her project (then titled "The Original Doll") altogether. In the lyrics of the scrapped single, she eerily sings "Everyone's watching as she starts to fall/ They want her to break down/ To be a legend of her fall / She wants you to know/ She's been cloned." Can you say... Ashley Eternal?
- Just like Ashley O wrote songs about feeling caged and exploited, Britney wrote similar songs that never were released. In one titled 'Rebellion', she sings "Be wary of others/ The ones closest to you/ The poison they feed you, and the voodoo that they do"
- After Britney escaped her team by publicly rebelling throughout 2007-2008, she was eventually admitted into a psych ward twice and placed under a lifelong conservatorship that was tightly controlled by her father, manager, and lawyers. Months after treatment, she was back to resuming her career with the comeback album 'Circus' - reverting back to a polished and pristine career trajectory in line with her early years.
- In Black Mirror, when Ashley O fights back and refuses to take her medication, she is drugged and placed under a chemical coma while her team continues her career through holograms and studio-engineered music created by using her previous vocal recordings stored within the AI doll Ashley Too. They cover the hospitalization through a sob story of a fatal allergic reaction that landed her in a coma.
This echoes the latest news we know of Britney Spears, where it's been reported that Spears was admitted into a mental hospital against her will after refusing to take her medication. Her team initially stated she had checked into the facility herself due to stress relating to her father's health.
Though it's all a coincidence the episode heavily echoes what Spears is presumed to be going through, Miley Cyrus herself has advocated for Britney Spears, shouting "Free Britney!" during a recent performance at Beale Street Festival. Could it be a coincidence too that Cyrus, also a former Disney star who worked with Britney's management team between 2013-2017, would choose to play a character like Ashley O?
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