Jasmine Sahu is well suited with this new American drama exclusive to Dave.
Lois Cameron explains why this series is much more than your average cosy period drama.
The last episode of this series sees Sherlock and Moriarty attempt to solve the final problem with devastating consequences.
With major cast changes afoot, Jacob Martin ponders whether Being Human can live up to its own scarily high standard.
Ahh, I hope we've all recovered from last week’s jolly animal escapades (although I certainly haven’t bought ham for about a week now). Hm, still feeling a little queasy? Never mind, grab a mince pie and settle down to watch this touching futuristic love story where everything ends happily ever after. Hahaha. Just kidding.
15 Million Merits, the second story in Charlie Brooker’s black black Black Mirror series, imagines a future where technology is integral to our existence. The walls are interactive screens; people are represented by Wii-style avatars; all actions can be controlled by the wave of a hand - even squeezing toothpaste. Everything people do either gains or loses merits, which can be used to buy food, or, more importantly, accessories for their avatars. Life as we know it has been condensed into what is assumed to be the essentials to live: food, exercise, porn. Porn is everywhere in the future: “Wraithbabes” commercials are, ahem, thrust onto every screen and pop up at amusingly inappropriate moments.
While the first twenty or so minutes of the episode could be described as slow compared to last week’s immediate shocker, it’s drama that can’t be rushed. The lack of dialogue for the first two parts allows the intricate visuals to tell the story for us; there's some excellent work from director Euros Lyn (which perhaps explains the Doctor Who-ish feel of the story), who helps a claustrophobic world of virtual oppression.
The story seems simple at first. Boy meets Girl (Jessica Brown-Findlay), who wafts into his life like a softly-spoken, tracksuited, origami-making angel. It’s hard to grow attached to Abi; she’s just so bland, poor thing. Boy falls in love and offers Bland Girl 15 Million Merits to sing on the talent show Hot Shot so she can escape their mundane existence. It’s cute: they hold hands, they dream of a happier world and stuff.
But again, Part Three heralds bad tidings. Bland Abi sings before the judges, who decide that she’s a) BLAND, and b) FIT a.k.a. perfect porn fodder. Suddenly she is being broadcast all over Bing’s walls, reluctantly muttering sexy things on a sofa, rather than actually singing. From here, the story descends into Bing’s struggle to break free, to finally change things, and then… he just accepts a higher level of mundanity. Strange how I’m still assuming that everything will be okay in the end. When will I learn?!
I’m never really sure what the vague phrase “quietly brilliant” actually means (who’s ever been described as “loudly brilliant”?), but if it can be applied to any actor, it must be Daniel Kaluuya, who plays Bing. Of course, as anyone who has seen Kaluuya before knows, this guy is a master at conveying comic genius just by rolling his eyes, and here we see him truly excel as he sulks, rages and despairs. Brooker (and this time, co-writer Konnie Huq) seem to be squeezing every last drop of talent out of these actors and it’s terrific to watch.
Parodying talent shows isn’t exactly unchartered territory, but Hot Shot is more of a sideline into what’s really going on in the story. Saying that, I would have liked to have seen more of Julia Davis (whose character was the spit of Amanda Holden) and Rupert Everett’s Simon Cowell/John Torode hybrid: “That wasn’t good... that was BEYOND INCREDIBLE!”
The underlying messages of this episode are more ambiguous than those of The National Anthem, but 15 Million Merits is still rammed full of unsettling questions. Would we be content to strip life of any emotion, provided we had enough aesthetic distractions? Just how much are X Factor contestants willing to sell themselves? How awful does TV have to be before we stop watching? And the biggest question of all – what are us women being shown in our rooms while Bing sees Jessica Brown-Findlay plastered over his walls? I’m betting it’s knitting patterns.
Black Mirror concludes on Sunday with The Entire History of You, where humankind are able to record memories onto a digital implant:
Trailer: Channel 4
You must log in to submit a comment.
