UNEDITED EXCLUSIVE: Black Mirror Season 1 Episode 2 "Fifteen Million Merits" REACTION!

The novel 1984 took place in Orwell’s future but it was actually about Orwell’s present. Likewise, 15 Million Merits isn’t predicting what life will be like in the future. It’s about the here and now. Like Winston in 1984, Bing rebelled against a dehumanizing social order only to be subsumed by it. The message is: what can one man do? The apparent answer: nothing. I don’t want to believe that. I’m getting too old for dystopian futures without solutions. If humanity has already lost its freedom and dignity, it’s time for the artists, writers, and other revolutionaries to show us how our freedom and dignity can be regained.

Tumbili

lots of reaction channels that have done black mirror usually have like 30 minute long discussions after each episode, and even that is often not enough to mull over all the themes and ideas the show presents - i can't binge this show myself, i usually have to take a day off after each episode to think it over, so i absolutely understand how you feel. what i love the most about black mirror is that the technology is clearly futuristic and yet it is scarily close to what we already have, and so it is easy to make that leap to how we got to that point from here.

Jordan Peele is a huge Black Mirror fan, it was the monologue in this episode that made him invite Daniel Kaluuya in for auditions on Get Out - this is also one of my favourite episodes, you end up thinking about it for a good 30 mins afterwards just trying to work out what you just watched, like was that a happy or depressing ending??

Chris

This one feels a bit 00s now to me, featuring the Mii-style 'Doppels' and x-factor/idol style TV shows which probably peaked then. Still relevant though. I think a key point to know is that Charlie Brooker, who devised this show and wrote this episode (actually, co-wrote with his wife Konnie Huq, who was an x-factor presenter!) , is a very glum/dark satirist who earned a living by arguably selling people the things he was complaining about. Of course, he's self aware to realise that, so I think a lot of that went into this episode. I think the strongest message is that in our current culture, any real counter-culture or dissenting voice is pacified and co-opted into the mainstream culture. Think, Topshop selling hippy and punk clothes. Any alternative to the system becomes part of it.