For anyone still haunted by the Christmas special of Black Mirror that aired in 2014 called “White Christmas,” Taylor Swift’s latest video for the title track of her new album, Lover, will surely instill a bit of PTSD. Co-directed by Drew Kirsch (who also did “You Need To Calm Down”) and Swift herself, the video opens on a little girl holding a snow globe by the Christmas tree as the camera quickly zooms inside of it where there is a house awash in multi-colored rooms comprising its different stories. The first room, red and bedecked in twinkling lights, presents Swift with her (and Beyonce’s) black backup dancer, Christian Owens, a pointed leading man choice when taking into account her newfound flair for being political. Considering Swift has historically kept all of her videos decidedly white (she’s no Madonna in the “Borderline,” “Like A Prayer” or “Secret” videos–or pretty much any video where she ends up choosing a black or Latin love interest), “Lover” feels rather forced in many ways, and there are a number of instants where it looks as though Owens is detached from his body, surrendering to being used for this Allison Williams type in Get Out’s whims.
And why not? It’s a big enough place to hide fairly well from Swift’s neuroses. With seven rooms comprising three stories of the house (plus an attic), each one has their own color motif: blue, green, purple, orange, pink and blue. It’s certainly not as dreary as the log cabin Matt (Jon Hamm) and Joe (Rafe Spall) are relegated to in “White Christmas.” Yet it can’t help but possess the same sinister vibes. Particularly when there’s a shot of multiple versions of their coupled selves in each room, a topsy-turvy one in the orange room signifying that all is most definitely not right in this “love nest.”
Sure, it appears to be literal fun and games as among such white girl whims of Taylor are included: forcing him to play board games inspired by her lyrics and song titles on the album and throwing a party and then getting jealous when he talks to one of their guests. So much for the trust that comes with a supposed “healthy” relationship. But maybe it’s hard to trust someone you’re secretly oppressing with all that Elmyra-caliber love (as evidenced when she “playfully” pantomimes reeling him in like a fish–that ain’t no joke).
Scenes of the two swimming in a fishbowl in the bathroom speak to Taylor’s sentiments in any media-covered relationship, in addition to presaging the video’s twist Black Mirror-inspired ending. For we’re soon zooming back out of the door’s peephole, back out of the snow globe–held in this spawn of something wicked’s hands–and we now see that the parents observing her on this Christmas morning are the very ones in that snow globe. Mind. Blown.
How many carbon copies are there? Is Christian Owens’ character okay in there? Or forced to an eternity of “love” imprisonment with this crazy white bitch who wants to play house? Anyway, someone get Charlie Brooker on the phone with Taylor ‘cause he might have a lawsuit on his hands.
