Black Mirror: 15 Million Merits

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April 20, 2013 by nextsimulacrum

Black Mirror is a satirical British TV series created by Charlie Brooker, currently consisting of two 3-episodes seasons, every episode about 50 minutes long. When the first season started broadcasting on 4 December 2011, it caused a pretty big public outcry because of the vulgarity and absurd of the first episode. However, this probably should be seen as an achievement, after all it is more or less what satire is aimed at.

I honestly think it’s a very original production. What makes it interesting is also that every episode can be watched as a separate film: every of them depicts a completely different world with totally different characters as well as new issues. It is concentrated on both existing and possible problems of society, exaggerating and enhancing them with assistance of sci-fi elements. As the title indicates, it aims to perform a function of a mirror and it’s pretty much of a dystopian nature. It mostly concerns media, its function and increasing influence on people’s lives, their relationships and communication with each other.

15 Million Merits

Since every episode of the series can be watched and analyzed separately, I would like to focus my attention on the second episode of the first season, called 15 Million Merits. It probably would be fair to say that this episode is the least original of the series, but this is also why it makes it the most interesting to me. Shorty I would describe it as a nice fresh interpretation of Brave New World with a flavour of Orwell’s 1984.

Paradoxically, in the world which is no longer physical, physical energy is all the system wants from people. At the same time it makes a perfect sense, since people need to move that their bodies would function properly. They live in the cyberspace or, more precisely, their projections do. Their avatars can be accessorized and in a way they represent people more vividly than their own bodies. In the real world they all wear identical grey tracksuits and every day they have to ride exercise bikes which generate the power needed to run this vast cyber-system.

When riding a bike, people earn “merits”, a currency which is used in both real and cyber lives (for instance, getting some toothpaste in the morning). All their physical life pretty much consists of getting up, riding a bike, coming back home, going to sleep. Their cyber-life, however, is something like a very restricted lower-quality version of SecondLife.com. Seriously, if people must live in cyberspace, couldn’t you please at least improve its graphics? But the incentive to improve an application is the notion that your consumer can decide not to use it anymore. What’s the point of making any effort if your consumer can’t run away anyway?

They live in small rooms with no furniture apart from a bed, and their walls are actually huge screens that are continuously broadcasting advertisements of porn or of a reality talent show called Hot Shot. You are obliged to watch them: just like in 1984, you can’t turn your screens off. You can turn off an advertisement, but every time you have to pay a penalty fine and your merits are not endless. Differently from 1984, however, screens do not watch you back, but actually there’s no need to: you have no life to live outside the cyberspace anyway. So you keep playing games or accessorizing your avatar, and you pay for everything in merits that you earn riding a bike.

In this background, of course, we need our main character who is deeper than others and not content with this style of life. There’s also an every dystopia’s necessity: a moronic neighbour who blindly follows all the rules of the system and thoroughly enjoys it without ever stopping to think if there’s any meaning behind it (what he’s probably incapable of). This incredibly annoying guy whose bike is adjacent to the main character’s Bing’s reminds me of Parsons family, not any less annoying and pathetic neighbours of Winston Smith in 1984. And then there is a girl the main character falls in love with, her name is Abi, he hears her singing in the toilet and decides to pay for her chance to participate in Hot Shot. The price for participation is 15 million merits and it’s all the money he has. And yet he decides to offer it to her because it’s a real thing which means much more than worthless avatar accessories he doesn’t care about.

Hot Shot, an equivalent of X factor, is a metaphor of people’s dreams. It’s the only way to escape from your grim life and not to have to ride your bike anymore. In contrast to Brave New World where people are constantly being convinced that they are happy, here they openly admit that people’s lives are grim. They encourage you to try to get out of it, if you dare, if you can. But your chances are low, there are too many people who want to. It’s the biggest achievement you can attain here after all. I like the irony of Abba’s I Have a Dream playing in the beginning of the episode.

And they have a dream, Bing and Abi, they hope that she’ll succeed and will be able to step into this other world behind the screen. And she does, but instead of becoming a singer, she’s suggested to become a porn star. Your voice is average, they say, but your looks are not. “Realistically, it’s that or the bike”. Judges “reassure” her that she would be drugged to feel no shame. They say it openly. Avatars in the audience shout “do it, do it”. She agrees. For Bing, it’s the worst thing that could have ever happened. And we can be pretty sure that Abi thinks the same way.

Then Bing decides to save up merits to get on the stage, to give a moving speech to make people think about the dire situation they’re in and to kill himself. Deep down, he would like to change the world. He doesn’t have a weapon, so he sneaks a piece of broken glass and threatens to cut his throat. He gives a long, fierce speech about how pointless and artificial everything is. And gets the least expected answer: an approval. In Brave New World you are obliged to think the same as everyone does. They don’t tolerate open criticism and if you don’t comply, you’re exiled. This world is even worse: they don’t deny anything, they don’t try to make you think that you live in an ideal system. They openly embrace your criticism and this is how they destroy the effect. Not only they don’t deny it, they even include him in the system, suggesting to start a talk show where he would give the same type of speeches twice a week.

And he, our great rebel against the system, agrees. What else could have he done anyway? Once his speech was met with clapping from the ones he was attacking, its potential power was destroyed. They would have twisted and used his suicide, too. And now he had a chance to get off the bike. Isn’t it what everyone wanted to do? And the peace of glass he was holding becomes his talk show’s attribute. As well as an accessory you can buy for your avatar.