Black Mirror (Channel Four)

WARNING: Contains definite spoilers! Only proceed if you don't mind the spoilers!


The three part drama conceived by Charlie Brooker was always going to be as thought provoking as it was grimly miserable – reflecting a world that is almost recognisable, if we’re not careful. The idea that we are being constantly distracted by screens around us is very real considering that I have already broken off writing this so far around four times to check something on Facebook and my email. I expected intelligent plot, a sort of gentle mocking and the creeping feeling that things are not going to end particularly well in each of the stories and I was certainly in no way disappointed. I found the stories disturbing but somehow deliciously satisfying in their terror – I haven’t felt this way since watching things such as Tales of the Unexpected or The Twilight Zone – a sort of satisfaction that even though Socrates said the life unexamined is not worth living but the examined life is sometimes too scary to consider living.

The first part of the series is ‘The National Anthem’ written by Brooker himself, the troubling tale of a kidnapping with the most alarming ransom imaginable. Fictional Prime Minister, Michael Callow is awoken to be told that the much admired Princess Susannah has been kidnapped. In his bleary eyed shock he watches the video of the sobbing princess reading out the written statement of her kidnapper but his advisors freeze the video, leaving the princess in a rictus of pain and anguish on the screen. The Prime Minister demands to know the request and is warned in advance, somehow in disbelief that it could be as bad as the looks on his advisors faces belie, but it is worse than he could have imagined. The Princess sobs her way through the statement, culminating with the kidnappers demand that at 4pm on all channels, Michael Callow must have un-simulated sex with a pig, live on TV. At this point you almost laugh out loud, I think I did laugh out loud, mainly in disbelief and even Callow himself believes it to be a joke at first, even up to the point where he is expected to carry out the demand his face is masked in shock and disbelief that it isn’t a terrible nightmare or hallucination. Everyone around him seeks to stop the kidnapper, to find them before the deadline and whilst they are embroiled in their tasks, the public has gotten word of the situation and the world is abuzz with conversation, wondering if he will do it. The ransom demand video has been on YouTube, Twitter is alight with debate, the media aglow with speculation – everyone is either helping track down the princess or staring at any available screen, fascinated and sickened by the events that are unfolding. As the drama builds to a climax, I as a viewer was holding out hope that the outcome would be a less distressing one but, as reality can often be harsh and this is while an unreal world, somehow frighteningly possible, it was never going to end well. The distraught Prime Minister Callow is torn between sacrificing his dignity and doing something which he and society would consider abhorrent or feeling guilt and blood on his hands if the princess were to be executed for his failure to acquiesce to the request. Every emotion is played out on his face and the amazing Rory Kinnear takes us along on his fearful journey. The deed must take place and somehow even from the start it seems inevitable, even though in most dramas the person is released before the demands are met, but this is no ordinary drama. Callow goes through with the demand, sobbing and hysterical, and like the public in the drama that are staring wide eyed and grimacing at screens all over the land – so too are we in a mixture of shock, disgust and dark admiration that someone would be willing to go through with that to preserve the life of someone else. So engrossed and horrified are the public gaping at the reflecting screens that they are unaware that the princess was actually released before the event took place, their distraction allowed the man whose final ‘artistic’ work would be his gruesome and yet thought provoking legacy to the world – a Turner Prize winning artist whose proof that things can occur unnoticed while everyone is busy glued to screens rather than paying attention to real life. As if wanting to give brief glimmer of some hope to the watching audience, the Prime Minister is shown in a year’s time with more support and the Princess has recovered and is getting back to normality but it seems that Callow’s marriage may be in turmoil. The drama is, while the subject matter may be brutal, beautifully crafted and the mocking tone behind it all somehow echoes Charlie Brooker with his tongue very firmly in his cheek. It serves as almost a stark warning, looking through that Black Mirror to the other side, to what we could turn into, the dark side of our technologically convenient lives.

The second part of the drama '15 Million Merits' written by Charlie Brooker and Kanaq Huq, appears to be a somewhat sterilised, claustrophobic version of a future where people are compartmentalised into individual living spaces surrounded by giant screens bombarding them with adverts and entertainment. The citizens of the futuristic city appear to be classified by their fitness level – the fit spend their days cycling on stationary bikes, like some sort of metaphor for going nowhere, seemingly to provide power to the city which rewards them with merits to spend on transitory pleasures such as erotic visions or clothing for their “doppel” (avatars). The unfit are tasked with cleaning duties or they can be humiliated on gameshows for entertainment and reward, the fit watching their antics with smug superiority as they pointlessly travel nowhere. In this world, Bingham Madsen (the immensely talented Daniel Kaluuya) lives, flooded with visual stimuli from the moment of waking until exhausted sleep – interrupted in every part of his life by adverts that incur a penalty to skip. Even the food that he eats is dispensed from a screen covered vending machine, giving the further impression that nothing is real. On attempting to retrieve an apple from the vending machine and believing it to be lost, he is helped by a colleague with an interest in him but he pays little attention. On meeting the beautiful Abi (Jessica Brown-Findlay), a stranger to his work section, after hearing her sing whilst on the loo he nervously babbles at her and she walks away seemingly unimpressed. Later however, he manages to strike up a conversation with her, helping her with the vending machine in the same way the girl did previously to try and impress. After urging her to take part in the talent show Hot Shots due to her singing talent and seemingly for his desire to experience something ‘real’, he offers to pay the 15 million merits entry fee, explaining that he inherited the money from his brother. Abi reluctantly agrees and this leads them to exit the drudgery of the day to day grind to attend the talent show with Bing as her friends and family guest. What follows is first uplifting, as Abi sings beautifully – in the sterile, cold world, a beautiful angelic voice ringing out – but then soon turns to misery as Abi is described as an ‘Above Average Singer’ and recommended that she enters the world of pornography due to her stunning looks. As the doppels of the fellow citizens of the city pump their arms in the air and encourage her to go for it, the hosts of the show make it seem as if she would be letting herself and everyone else down if she says no and she reluctantly agrees, to Bing’s distress. In his home/cell, now without the merits to skip adverts, Bing is forced to watch adverts of Abi with a haunted look on her face taking part in sexual displays. Even shutting his eyes cannot save him from the pain as the adverts pause when his eyes are shut, forcing him to watch them when he opens his eyes again and like a traumatised beast trapped in a cage he lashes out, smashing his room and gouging at the screens. He retains one of the large shards of glass and resolves to do something, anything to stop the system. After working hard, eating leftovers and saving as much as possible Bing saves enough to enter Hot Shots on his own and waits tirelessly in their waiting room to be chosen day after day. Eventually he gets his chance and is brought in front of the judges where he first dances then holds the glass shard to his throat and makes a tearful, emotional plea for something real and threatens to kill himself. The judges find him intriguing and offer him a TV show where he can rant about the unfairness of everything. I think that the most surprising, yet somehow unavoidable, thing is that he takes the job – selling his ‘performances’ for the chance to experience something real. In an ending that reverberates with ‘Nineteen Eighty Four’ Bing is seen staring listlessly into the distance at a forest of trees behind a glass screen; life is as real as it is going to get. There is something terrifyingly haunting about the episode, in the time of spending our hard earned money purchasing things that are real but somehow not tangible such as clothes for a character that doesn’t strictly speaking exist or mp3 instead of a CD or cassette. Yearning for something real, perhaps that’s what we all want yet every day we slip ever further into the technological abyss.

The third and final part of the drama 'The Entire History of You' written by Jesse Armstrong, plays out as a modern day fable of obsession over detail and poses the question that if you could easily gain proof of a partners infidelity, would you be happier or more miserable? Would your life be improved if you could record all of your memories and play them over and over again? After attending an appraisal in his job as a lawyer, Liam Foxwell (Toby Kebbell) is concerned about his performance and is seen replaying the memory back to try and gauge the reactions of his bosses. In this world, people can be fitted with a 'grain' behind their ear that records every memory and can be watched by the person themselves or projected onto screens for others to view. Memories can be deleted too should a person decide so. The grain technology seems to have led to the crime of ‘gouging’ where people’s grains are stolen in attacks and a woman, at the dinner party that Liam attends with his wife Ffion (Jodie Whittaker), explains that she is happier without hers, despite the gouging being harrowing. At the dinner party, Ffion seems to be laughing at another of the guests, Jonas, jokes and seems to be looking fondly at him as if there is history between them. Liam is uneasy as Jonas boasts that he often masturbates to replays of memories from previous relationships and Ffion seems uncomfortable. At home, after saying goodnight to the babysitter, Liam and Ffion discuss the evening. Liam’s jealousy brims over with Ffion finally admitting that she once went out with Jonas. Liam is consumed with anger and jealousy and after watching a previous experience with Ffion while having sex with her, only for her to be doing the same, he spends the night getting drunk and then drives over to confront Jonas and demand that he delete the memories of his wife from his sexual repository. After a struggle, Liam wakes with little memory of what happened at Jonas’ but on replaying events he notices something and goes to see his wife. Ffion tries to calm Liam down but it is too late, everything he believed has been thrown into question as he noticed that Jonas had a memory of sleeping with FFion 18 months ago and the paternity of their baby is now possibly in turmoil. Liam is left bereft in his empty apartment, not only did he fear that his partner cheated but he had actual proof and his excision of the grain behind his ear seems to reflect his desire to be happy rather than right or to rid himself of the hurt. The story does highlight some very interesting issues and despite there being numerous possibilities as to what aspect of life to focus on, the spotlight is very much on the idea of whether you would rather have the facts at your fingertips or live in blissful ignorance. There is a thick streak of paranoia throughout the entire tale and in truth, would Liam have noticed that much if he didn’t have the grain or would it just be a squirming doubt within him when, it seems from the beginning, his life was idyllic. All in all the story does lead you to consider how happy you would be if you could spend time replaying your life – would you do it?