Have you ever wondered where our society is heading? Where might our obsession with menial distractions, infuriatingly tedious apps, and unrelenting talent shows lead us? The answer is 15 Million Merits, the second instalment of Charlie Brooker's dark trilogy, Black Mirror.
Set in the moderately distant future, 15 Million Merits envisions a world ruled by the Hot Shots judges – a triumvirate not too dissimilar to the judges of the X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. The populace of the world are confined to a life of physical drudgery, existing in a world of touch-screens, apps and poor quality entertainment, all the while peddling exercise bikes to earn merits to buy food, update their avatars with unnecessary gimmicks, skip irritating adverts, afford new programs and – for the fine price of 15 million merits – a chance to audition for Hot Shots. Those who get through go on to lead their lives as part of the social elite (but still at the behest of the judges), and those that do not, return to their lives on the bikes, peddling away for meaningless merits for meaningless things with no apparent goal in mind (hey, sounds like my understanding of contemporary economics!).
At the heart of it, though, 15 Million Merits is a love story – albeit perverted by the world in which they live, but a love story nonetheless. Bing (Daniel Kaluuya) is an exemplar of the general populace; he spends his days on the bike, increasing his merits, partaking in brainless app games (which bear a resemblance to both traditional time-wasting games for the discerning smartphone user, and X Box Kinect), or spending some quality time with himself watching Wraith Babes. He meets Abi (Jessica Brown Findlay), a fellow peddler, and they gradually develop a bond. Bing soon discovers that Abi is an incredibly talented singer and, with a bit of encouragement and financial support, convinces her to try her luck on Hot Shots, perhaps leading her to a better life. Of course, this being Black Mirror, Abi's talent and attractiveness turns out to be more of a curse than a blessing...
There was also a third party in this romance, portrayed by Isabella Laughland, who seemed to harbour emotions for Bing, but was completely over-looked by him whilst he was busy pursuing Abi. Unfortunately, her character was not fleshed-out and played only a minor part in the scheme of things, and I was surprised she didn't become more prominent later on as a grounding relationship for Bing... Alas, it was not meant to be!
Daniel Kaluuya certainly provided a magnificent performance, going from listless worker to love-struck human being, crying out for something real in this artificial world, and then the ultimate anguish at Abi's “success” and the state of the world. This was, of course, amplified by the antagonistic yet hypnotic judges, brilliantly played by Rupert Everett, Julia Davis and Ashley Thomas, who bore some kind of resemblance to their real life counter-parts (although I have no recollection of Louis Walsh ever running a porn station...). One of the many successes of 15 Millions Merits, as with Black Mirror’s first episode, The National Anthem, is that the characters have been realised perfectly, making them not only believable but actually empathy-invoking. In The National Anthem, one felt for Michael Callow in his desperate and unavoidably damning situation, and now in 15 Million Merits, Bing's emotional agony is truly palpable as he throws himself against the walls of his touchscreen cell.
Obviously the satire at 15 Million Merits' core is our obsession with mundane distractions. The sight of someone buried in a smartphone app on the tube, or slinging birds at pigs whilst queueing for a coffee, or flicking a virtual piece of paper into a virtual bin is becoming an all too familiar sight, and now with innumerable sport simulators using motion-sensing technology (“Just like playing real tennis, but without the fresh air, genuine exercise or human contact!” GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY TENNIS!) the future as envisioned in this episode is an ever-present possibility. And the unskippable adverts (well, skippable with a penalty) and the inability to sign off from it all were other elements that felt pertinent to things today – especially when enduring two minutes of unskippable commercials on 4OD whilst trying to watch a show parodying that very thing!
I couldn't help but feel that the cynical observations of talent shows were also rather spot on! In spite of Abi's evident talent, the judges demanded more from her, asking that she sacrifice her integrity and sell herself out to their commercialism in order to reach the “top”. She got to where she supposedly wanted to be (or rather, what everybody else classed as “the place to want to be”), but she was no longer true to herself. This was, to me, the perfect analogy for the media parasite, the X Factor; a show that pulls in both the talented and the not-quite-so-talented in droves, gets them to perform like dancing monkeys and tries to mould them into something more commercially viable. On paper, it's a great platform for budding artists, but has the grandeur of the X Factor made it lose sight of that agenda in exchange for marketability? This was a parallel I felt Black Mirror drew particularly well, albeit in slightly hyperbolic take on reality – either comply with what they expect from you, or your back on the bike, peddling away your days.
Bing's climatic and rousing speech on the stage of Hot Shots perfectly encapsulated my feelings about these televised talent shows, and again Kaluuya’s performance was incredibly invoking. Naturally, though, the judges managed to find a way to make even his revolutionary speech against their regime into something to be marketed and broadcast for the masses...
Once again, Black Mirror proved to be absolutely phenomenal, and is certainly my favourite thing on television at the moment. Plus, this particular episode couldn’t have been booked for a better time slot - immediately after the X Factor finale!
The final instalment, The Entire History of You, depicts a world in which people have the technology to replay recordings of their past experiences, and one couple have a particularly bad evening...
If you missed 15 Million Merits, you can catch it on 4OD here.
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