Black Mirror on Channel 4
Posted: Wed February 20, 2013 10:45 pm
http://www.channel4.com/microsites/B/black-mirrorBlack Mirror is a British television drama series created by Charlie Brooker. The series is produced by Zeppotron for Endemol. Regarding the programme's content and structure, Brooker noted, "each episode has a different cast, a different setting, even a different reality. But they're all about the way we live now – and the way we might be living in 10 minutes' time if we're clumsy."
The first series aired in December 2011 and I was pleasantly surprised to see a second series start last month. The show is very dark, something that is evident within the first 10 to 15 minutes of the first episode. The second series ups the ante similarly but not as quickly, though it's hard to even approach the first episodes cringe factor.
1 The National Anthem - The opening programme to the series is a 44 minute long political thriller in which fictional Prime Minister Michael Callow (Rory Kinnear) faces a huge and shocking dilemma when (fictional) Princess Susannah, Duchess of Beaumont (Lydia Wilson), a much-loved member of the Royal Family, is kidnapped. For her safe return, the Prime Minister must have sexual intercourse with a pig on national television.[10]
2 15 Million Merits - A satire on entertainment shows and our insatiable thirst for distraction set in a sarcastic version of a future reality. In this world, everyone must cycle on exercise bikes, arranged in cells, in order to power their surroundings and generate currency for themselves called Merits. Everyone is dressed in a grey tracksuit and has a "doppel", a virtual avatar that people can customise with clothes, for a fee of merits. Everyday activities are constantly interrupted by advertisements that cannot be skipped or ignored without financial penalty. Obese people are considered to be second-class citizens, and work either as cleaners around the machines (where they receive verbal abuse) or are humiliated on game shows.
3 The Entire History of You - Set in an alternative reality where most people have a 'grain' implanted behind their ear which records everything they do, see or hear. This allows memories to be played back either in front of the person's eyes or on a screen, a process known as a 're-do'.
I have no idea what Ruddock is talking about: this is about the show Black Mirror, and other than the channel I don't see why you'd merge the two threads.1 Be Right Back - Martha (Hayley Atwell) and Ash (Domhnall Gleeson) are a young couple who move to a remote house in the countryside. Ash is a social media addict and compulsively checks his phone for updates on his social network pages. The day after moving into the house, Ash is killed returning the hire van.
2 White Bear - In a bedroom, a woman named Victoria Skillane (Lenora Crichlow) wakes up in a chair to find she can't recall anything about her life.
3 The Waldo Moment - Jamie Slater (Daniel Rigby) is a failed comedian who performs the voice and movements (via performance capture) of a blue cartoon bear named Waldo, who interviews politicians and other authority figures. The interviewees are fooled into thinking the Waldo interviews are for a children's TV programme, when they're actually for a late-night, topical comedy show. Waldo the bear is extremely popular with the British public, and a pilot for his own series is commissioned, but despite the character's success Jamie is depressed and unsatisfied with his life.
