Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 71 (click to see context) from:
* DownerEnding: Our hero gets to be part of the entertainment he hates while looking at trees he'll never touch, while Abi is doped out her mind, exploited, and filmed for the pleasure of thousands... if not millions.
to:
* DownerEnding: Our hero While Bing gets to be a bigger degree of freedom and comfort, he becomes part of the entertainment he hates while looking at trees he'll never touch, while and it is strongly implied he is still longing for Abi and the emotional connection he felt to her. Meanwhile, Abi is doped out her mind, exploited, and filmed for the pleasure of thousands... if not millions.
Changed line(s) 80 (click to see context) from:
* GildedCage: [[spoiler:Bing's new home is more of a plasma-screen cage, but as we leave him gazing upon the simulated forest we can see he'd rather be free to explore a real one]].
to:
* GildedCage: [[spoiler:Bing's new home is might be more spacious and fancy, but it is still just a larger version of a the plasma-screen cage, but cage he used to live in in. And as we leave him gazing upon the simulated forest we can see he'd rather be free to explore a real one]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Commented out zero content examples
%%% Zero Context Examples are not allowed on the wiki. Please add context before uncommenting them.
%%%
%%%
%%%
%%%
Changed line(s) 17 (click to see context) from:
* BestialityIsDepraved
to:
Changed line(s) 22 (click to see context) from:
* DistressedDamsel
to:
Changed line(s) 26 (click to see context) from:
* {{Fingore}}
to:
Changed line(s) 28,29 (click to see context) from:
* HostageSituation
* HostageVideo
* HostageVideo
to:
Changed line(s) 31,32 (click to see context) from:
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: In between a faceless and ill-informed mob loudly braying for the Prime Minister's actions on social networking sites [[spoiler: and watching a man who's been compelled to have sex with a pig live on national television with horrified fascination]], self-serving politicians and media cynically attempting to twist the issue to their advantage while putting on an air of 'above-it-all' self-righteousness and self-importance all throughout out and the kidnapper who put everything into motion in the first place [[spoiler: solely to [[AnAesop prove a point]] and [[MadArtist create a twisted art performance]]]], humanity as a whole doesn't exactly come out of this one well.
* [[spoiler:MadArtist]]: [[spoiler: Who is also revealed at the end to be a Turner Prize winner in a rather blunt TakeThat against the modern art world. The whole sequence of events is even described, a year later, as "The First Great Artwork of the 21st century" by a controversial critic in what may be a reference to Damien Hirst and others who made similar comments about the September 11 attacks]].
* [[spoiler:MadArtist]]: [[spoiler: Who is also revealed at the end to be a Turner Prize winner in a rather blunt TakeThat against the modern art world. The whole sequence of events is even described, a year later, as "The First Great Artwork of the 21st century" by a controversial critic in what may be a reference to Damien Hirst and others who made similar comments about the September 11 attacks]].
to:
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: In between a faceless and ill-informed mob loudly braying for the Prime Minister's actions on social networking sites [[spoiler: and watching a man who's been compelled to have sex with a pig live on national television with horrified fascination]], self-serving politicians and media cynically attempting to twist the issue to their advantage while putting on an air of 'above-it-all' self-righteousness and self-importance all throughout out and the kidnapper who put everything into motion in the first place [[spoiler: solely to [[AnAesop prove a point]] point and [[MadArtist create a twisted art performance]]]], performance]], humanity as a whole doesn't exactly come out of this one well.
*[[spoiler:MadArtist]]: MadArtist: [[spoiler: Who is also revealed at the end to be a Turner Prize winner in a rather blunt TakeThat against the modern art world. The whole sequence of events is even described, a year later, as "The First Great Artwork of the 21st century" by a controversial critic in what may be a reference to Damien Hirst and others who made similar comments about the September 11 attacks]].
*
Changed line(s) 57 (click to see context) from:
* AsceticAesthetic
to:
Changed line(s) 64 (click to see context) from:
* ClusterFBomb: [[spoiler: Bing's heartfelt DespairSpeech on stage ventures into this territory, though it initially sounds like he's employing a PrecisionFStrike]]:
to:
* ClusterFBomb: [[spoiler: Bing's heartfelt DespairSpeech speech on stage ventures into this territory, though it initially sounds like he's employing a PrecisionFStrike]]:only swearing once.]]:
Changed line(s) 68 (click to see context) from:
* [[spoiler: DownerEnding: Our hero gets to be part of the entertainment he hates while looking at trees he'll never touch, while Abi is doped out her mind, exploited, and filmed for the pleasure of thousands... if not millions.]]
to:
* [[spoiler: DownerEnding: Our hero gets to be part of the entertainment he hates while looking at trees he'll never touch, while Abi is doped out her mind, exploited, and filmed for the pleasure of thousands... if not millions.]]
Changed line(s) 71 (click to see context) from:
* EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture
to:
Changed line(s) 88 (click to see context) from:
* [[spoiler:RapeAsDrama]]: [[spoiler:Abi's first porno film is effectively this. And Bing is ''{{forced to watch}}'' as someone he loves is raped on camera]].
to:
* [[spoiler:RapeAsDrama]]: RapeAsDrama: [[spoiler:Abi's first porno film is effectively this. And Bing is ''{{forced to watch}}'' as someone he loves is raped on camera]].
Changed line(s) 92 (click to see context) from:
* [[spoiler:ShaggyDogStory]]: [[spoiler:Not only has Bing chosen to buy into the celebrity status his rant gave him instead of actually making a moral stand, it's even possible that he's decided to do so of ''his own free will''. Abi drank from the Cuppliance and succumbed to the pressure of being forced to go into porn, whereas Bing snuck into the auditions without partaking of it and yet metaphorically followed the same path to fame as she did]].
to:
* [[spoiler:ShaggyDogStory]]: ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler:Not only has Bing chosen to buy into the celebrity status his rant gave him instead of actually making a moral stand, it's even possible that he's decided to do so of ''his own free will''. Abi drank from the Cuppliance and succumbed to the pressure of being forced to go into porn, whereas Bing snuck into the auditions without partaking of it and yet metaphorically followed the same path to fame as she did]].
Changed line(s) 98 (click to see context) from:
* [[TakeThat Take that, X-Factor!]]
to:
Changed line(s) 100 (click to see context) from:
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture
to:
Changed line(s) 104,105 (click to see context) from:
* [[WeWillSpendCreditsInTheFuture We Will Spend Merits In The Future]]
* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"I suppose..."]]
* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"I suppose..."]]
to:
* WhamLine:
Changed line(s) 114 (click to see context) from:
* [[spoiler:DownerEnding: Completing the set, this ending sees Liam without a job and without his family, cutting out his grain which risks leaving him blind]].
to:
* [[spoiler:DownerEnding: DownerEnding: Completing the set, this ending sees [[spoiler: Liam without a job and without his family, cutting out his grain which risks leaving him blind]].
Changed line(s) 126 (click to see context) from:
* [[spoiler:MentalAffair: It's a subtle one, but in the scene where Ffion and Liam are having sex whilst replaying their memories, the memory Ffion is playing back ''isn't Liam''.]]
to:
* [[spoiler:MentalAffair: MentalAffair: It's a subtle one, but in the scene where Ffion and Liam are having sex whilst replaying their memories, the memory Ffion is playing back ''isn't Liam''.]][[spoiler:''isn't Liam'']].
Changed line(s) 131 (click to see context) from:
* [[spoiler: WhosYourDaddy: It's pretty heavily implied that Jonas is Jodie's father, [[LawOfInverseFertility given that the couple were trying for a baby at the time]].]]
to:
* [[spoiler: WhosYourDaddy: It's pretty heavily implied that Jonas [[spoiler: Jonas]] is Jodie's father, [[LawOfInverseFertility given that the couple were trying for a baby at the time]].]]
Changed line(s) 133 (click to see context) from:
* [[spoiler: YourCheatingHeart: Turns out Ffion did have a relationship with Jonas when they fell out for a week, and he might be the father of her child]].
to:
* [[spoiler: YourCheatingHeart: Turns out Ffion did [[spoiler: have a relationship with Jonas Jonas]] when they fell out for a week, and he might be the father of her child]].child.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
'''Christmas special:''' ''Series/BlackMirrorChristmasSpecial''
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 21 (click to see context) from:
* {{Dogme 95}}: Two characters discuss whether the list of demands about the filming of the video - meant to make it as hard as possible to fake - are references to the movement.
to:
* {{Dogme UsefulNotes/{{Dogme 95}}: Two characters discuss whether the list of demands about the filming of the video - meant to make it as hard as possible to fake - are references to the movement.
Deleted line(s) 133 (click to see context) :
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 59,60 (click to see context) from:
* BreakTheCutie: Abi, intending to be a singer, winds up [[spoiler:going into pornography, more or less forced into that position through public humiliation and harassment on ''Hot Shot''.]]
** The compliance serum probably had something to do with that too, to be fair.
** The compliance serum probably had something to do with that too, to be fair.
to:
* BreakTheCutie: Abi, intending to be a singer, winds up [[spoiler:going into pornography, more or less forced into that position through public humiliation and harassment on ''Hot Shot''.]]
** The compliance serum probably had something to do with that too, to be fair.by the Cuppliance serum.]]
** The compliance serum probably had something to do with that too, to be fair.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Useful Notes/ pages are not tropes
Deleted line(s) 18 (click to see context) :
* BritishRoyalFamily
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
The Presidents Daughter is no longer a trope.
Changed line(s) 11,12 (click to see context) from:
[[CaptainErsatz Princess Susannah]] [[ThePresidentsDaughter is kidnapped]] while the abductor taunts the police and press by releasing videos on the internet. The singular demand? That the Prime Minister have sexual intercourse with a pig on live television. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjfw5mr6fQ8 Trailer here (obviously NSFW)]]
to:
[[CaptainErsatz Princess Susannah]] [[ThePresidentsDaughter is kidnapped]] kidnapped while the abductor taunts the police and press by releasing videos on the internet. The singular demand? That the Prime Minister have sexual intercourse with a pig on live television. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjfw5mr6fQ8 Trailer here (obviously NSFW)]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 103 (click to see context) from:
* UpToEleven: The ''XFactor'' parody takes the judges' nasty comments in this direction: "You came across as unlikeable and fundamentally quite worthless".
to:
* UpToEleven: The ''XFactor'' ''TheXFactor'' parody takes the judges' nasty comments in this direction: "You came across as unlikeable and fundamentally quite worthless".
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Removed natter.
Changed line(s) 17 (click to see context) from:
** BlackComedyRape: The Prime Minister is effectively being forced to have sex against his will, yet soon as the video of the demand is posted on Website/YouTube, people are leaving comments mocking the Prime Minster for what he has to do. [[spoiler:Everyone in the country is tuning in to the broadcast of the act and looking forward to it with a sort of horrible glee. This lasts for about a second once it has begun and then practically everyone is shaking their heads in horror and feeling sorry for the Prime Minister. ''They keep watching though''.]] YMMV, though, but this could also be RapeAsDrama as [[spoiler:the act is presented as awful and traumatic for the PM, and Charlie Brooker is using it as a fairly obvious AnAesop about new media.]] Also used in-universe: [[spoiler:part of the whole point is to show the initial belief of BlackComedyRape and then move to RapeAsDrama]].
to:
** BlackComedyRape: The Prime Minister is effectively being forced to have sex against his will, yet as soon as the video of the demand is posted on Website/YouTube, people are leaving comments mocking the Prime Minster for what he has to do. [[spoiler:Everyone in the country is tuning in to the broadcast of the act and looking forward to it with a sort of horrible glee. This lasts for about a second once it has begun and then practically everyone is shaking their heads in horror and feeling sorry for the Prime Minister. ''They keep watching though''.]] YMMV, though, but this could also be Also RapeAsDrama as [[spoiler:the act is presented as awful and traumatic for the PM, and Charlie Brooker is using it as a fairly obvious AnAesop about new media.]] Also used in-universe: [[spoiler:part of the whole point is to show the initial belief of BlackComedyRape and then move to RapeAsDrama]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
*** The version that plays during [[spoiler:Abi's porn video is actually her being made to sing it during the video. The implication is that, since her rise to stardom came from her being a singer, her singing became her gimmick as a porn star - thus, she's forced to sing it over and over in each of her videos.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 52 (click to see context) from:
* AnAesop: Several. Chiefly that our current state of affairs is soul-destroying - of doing pointless work to buy pointless items and with the carrot of celebrity dangled as the only way out. That people will subject themselves to ever greater indignities to escape this prison, but that in reality find that it's just another prison. That real talent and real spirit is being filtered out in favour of homogenous slop, as helped along by the former. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking That Simon Cowell is a prick]].
to:
* AnAesop: Several. Chiefly that our current state of affairs is soul-destroying - of doing pointless work to buy pointless items and with the carrot of celebrity dangled as the only way out. That people will subject themselves to ever greater indignities to escape this prison, but that in reality find that it's just another prison. That real talent and real spirit is being filtered out in favour of homogenous slop, as helped along by the former. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking That And that Simon Cowell is a prick]].
Changed line(s) 64 (click to see context) from:
* ClusterFBomb: [[spoiler: Bing's heartfelt speech on stage ventures into this territory, though it initially sounds like he's employing a PrecisionFStrike]]:
to:
* ClusterFBomb: [[spoiler: Bing's heartfelt speech DespairSpeech on stage ventures into this territory, though it initially sounds like he's employing a PrecisionFStrike]]:
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
**** This has become either HilariousInHindsight or HarsherInHindsight (depending on your viewpoint) with the recent allegation that Cameron [[spoiler: put his genitals in a dead pig's mouth as part of a university club initiation ceremony.]] While the context IS different, people have been making the comparison between this and Black Mirror, [[https://twitter.com/charltonbrooker?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor Charlie Booker included]].
Deleted line(s) 43 (click to see context) :
** This has become either HilariousInHindsight or HarsherInHindsight (depending on your viewpoint) with the recent allegation that Cameron [[spoiler: put his genitals in a dead pig's mouth as part of a university club initiation ceremony.]] While the context IS different, people have been making the comparison between this and Black Mirror, [[https://twitter.com/charltonbrooker?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor Charlie Booker included]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** This has become either HilariousInHindsight or HarsherInHindsight (depending on your viewpoint) with the recent allegation that Cameron [[spoiler: put his genitals in a dead pig's mouth as part of a university club initiation ceremony.]] While the context IS different, people have been making the comparison between this and Black Mirror, [[https://twitter.com/charltonbrooker?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor Charlie Booker included]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* ChekhovsGunman[=/=]RewatchBonus: Early in the episode, a seemingly-unrelated newscast mentions [[spoiler:a controversial artist named Carlton Bloom, who is eventually revealed as the kidnapper]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 118 (click to see context) from:
* GrievousBottleyHarm: {{Subverted|Trope}}. [[spoiler:When Liam hits Jonas with a liquor bottle, it simply thuds and injurs him rather than shattering. Even kept realistic when Liam forcibly smashes it off the ground, as only the neck doesn't shatter.]]
to:
* GrievousBottleyHarm: {{Subverted|Trope}}. [[spoiler:When Liam hits Jonas with a liquor bottle, it simply thuds and injurs injures him rather than shattering. Even kept realistic when Liam forcibly smashes it off the ground, as only the neck doesn't shatter.]]
Changed line(s) 128,129 (click to see context) from:
* [[spoiler: WhosYourDaddy: It's pretty heavily implied that Jonas is Jodie's father]].
** [[spoiler: LawOfInverseFertility: Given that the couple were trying for a baby at the time.]]
** [[spoiler: LawOfInverseFertility: Given that the couple were trying for a baby at the time.]]
to:
* [[spoiler: WhosYourDaddy: It's pretty heavily implied that Jonas is Jodie's father]].
** [[spoiler: LawOfInverseFertility: Givenfather, [[LawOfInverseFertility given that the couple were trying for a baby at the time.time]].]]
** [[spoiler: LawOfInverseFertility: Given
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Deleted line(s) 15 (click to see context) :
* ActorAllusion: One of the talking heads on TV is described as "an actress from DowntonAbbey who knows the princess." Allen Leech (Branson in DowntonAbbey) and Jessica Brown Findlay (Sybil from DowntonAbbey) are both in Black Mirror, although Leech is in this episode while Findlay is in the succeeding episode "15 Million Merits".
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Less editorializing
Changed line(s) 18 (click to see context) from:
** BlackComedyRape: Having sex with an animal is by definition raping it, and the Prime Minister being effectively forced to have sex against his will would in itself be rape, yet soon as the video of the demand is posted on Website/YouTube, people are leaving comments mocking the Prime Minster for what he has to do. [[spoiler:Everyone in the country is tuning in to the broadcast of the act and looking forward to it with a sort of horrible glee. This lasts for about a second once it has begun and then practically everyone is shaking their heads in horror and feeling sorry for the Prime Minister. ''They keep watching though''.]] YMMV, though, but this could also be RapeAsDrama as [[spoiler:the act is presented as awful and traumatic for the PM, and Charlie Brooker is using it as a fairly obvious AnAesop about new media.]] Also used in-universe: [[spoiler:part of the whole point is to show the initial belief of BlackComedyRape and then move to RapeAsDrama]].
to:
** BlackComedyRape: Having sex with an animal is by definition raping it, and the The Prime Minister being is effectively being forced to have sex against his will would in itself be rape, will, yet soon as the video of the demand is posted on Website/YouTube, people are leaving comments mocking the Prime Minster for what he has to do. [[spoiler:Everyone in the country is tuning in to the broadcast of the act and looking forward to it with a sort of horrible glee. This lasts for about a second once it has begun and then practically everyone is shaking their heads in horror and feeling sorry for the Prime Minister. ''They keep watching though''.]] YMMV, though, but this could also be RapeAsDrama as [[spoiler:the act is presented as awful and traumatic for the PM, and Charlie Brooker is using it as a fairly obvious AnAesop about new media.]] Also used in-universe: [[spoiler:part of the whole point is to show the initial belief of BlackComedyRape and then move to RapeAsDrama]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* JerkJustifications: After finding out that his wife may be cheating, the main character of this episode absolutely ''loses it'', including self-medicating with alcohol, screaming at his wife, and assaulting the man he suspects her of cheating with. His behavior becomes so irrational and angry that it is not hard to see how a viewer could fear for the lives of the other characters in the story.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* BrickJoke: The woman in the audition room, who claims to be a great singer but is consistently passed up for other, more beautiful or memetic hopeful contestants. [[spoiler:Her turn is finally shown at the end, and she's completely told off by the judges.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 60 (click to see context) from:
** The compliance serum probably had something to do that too, to be fair.
to:
** The compliance serum probably had something to do with that too, to be fair.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 38 (click to see context) from:
* SaveThePrincess
to:
* SaveThePrincessSaveThePrincess: [[spoiler:As it happens, ''they didn't need to''.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 18 (click to see context) from:
** BlackComedyRape: Having sex with an animal is pretty much by definition raping it, and the Prime Minister being effectively forced to have sex against his will would in itself be rape, yet soon as the video of the demand is posted on Website/YouTube, people are leaving comments mocking the Prime Minster for what he has to do. [[spoiler:Everyone in the country is tuning in to the broadcast of the act and looking forward to it with a sort of horrible glee. This lasts for about a second once it has begun and then practically everyone is shaking their heads in horror and feeling sorry for the Prime Minister. ''They keep watching though''.]] YMMV, though, but this could also be RapeAsDrama as [[spoiler:the act is presented as awful and traumatic for the PM, and Charlie Brooker is using it as a fairly obvious AnAesop about new media.]] Also used in-universe: [[spoiler:part of the whole point is to show the initial belief of BlackComedyRape and then move to RapeAsDrama]].
to:
** BlackComedyRape: Having sex with an animal is pretty much by definition raping it, and the Prime Minister being effectively forced to have sex against his will would in itself be rape, yet soon as the video of the demand is posted on Website/YouTube, people are leaving comments mocking the Prime Minster for what he has to do. [[spoiler:Everyone in the country is tuning in to the broadcast of the act and looking forward to it with a sort of horrible glee. This lasts for about a second once it has begun and then practically everyone is shaking their heads in horror and feeling sorry for the Prime Minister. ''They keep watching though''.]] YMMV, though, but this could also be RapeAsDrama as [[spoiler:the act is presented as awful and traumatic for the PM, and Charlie Brooker is using it as a fairly obvious AnAesop about new media.]] Also used in-universe: [[spoiler:part of the whole point is to show the initial belief of BlackComedyRape and then move to RapeAsDrama]].
Changed line(s) 23 (click to see context) from:
* [[spoiler:DownerEnding: The Prime Minister does...''it'', saves the princess and even boosts his political career after the act. The ending shows that he's been pretty much destroyed ''as a person'' anyway, traumatised and with an utterly destroyed marriage. And it turns out he didn't even need to go through with it in the first place.]]
to:
* [[spoiler:DownerEnding: The Prime Minister does...''it'', saves the princess and even boosts his political career after the act. The ending shows that he's been pretty much destroyed ''as a person'' anyway, traumatised and with an utterly destroyed marriage. And it turns out he didn't even need to go through with it in the first place.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Deleted line(s) 41 (click to see context) :
* ShoutOut: The special effects guru they hire to fake the sex-scene won an award for the effects in [[{{Firefly}} “that space cowboy thing"]] to which he looks annoyed that they can't remember what that space cowboy thing was called and tells them [[Film/{{Serenity}} "Tranquillity".]] Brooker, by the way, has gone on record as loving JossWhedon in general and ''Firefly'' in particular many times in the past.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 18 (click to see context) from:
** BlackComedyRape: Having sex with an animal is pretty much by definition raping it, and the Prime Minister being effectively forced to have sex against his will would in itself be rape, yet soon as the video of the demand is posted on Website/YouTube, people are leaving comments mocking the Prime Minster for what he has to do. [[spoiler:Everyone in the country is tuning in to the broadcast of the act and looking forward to it with a sort of horrible glee. This lasts for about a second once it has begun and then practically everyone is shaking their heads in horror. ''They keep watching though''.]] YMMV, though, but this could also be RapeAsDrama as [[spoiler:the act is presented as awful and traumatic for the PM, and Charlie Brooker is using it as a fairly obvious AnAesop about new media.]] Also used in-universe: [[spoiler:part of the whole point is to show the initial belief of BlackComedyRape and then move to RapeAsDrama]].
to:
** BlackComedyRape: Having sex with an animal is pretty much by definition raping it, and the Prime Minister being effectively forced to have sex against his will would in itself be rape, yet soon as the video of the demand is posted on Website/YouTube, people are leaving comments mocking the Prime Minster for what he has to do. [[spoiler:Everyone in the country is tuning in to the broadcast of the act and looking forward to it with a sort of horrible glee. This lasts for about a second once it has begun and then practically everyone is shaking their heads in horror.horror and feeling sorry for the Prime Minister. ''They keep watching though''.]] YMMV, though, but this could also be RapeAsDrama as [[spoiler:the act is presented as awful and traumatic for the PM, and Charlie Brooker is using it as a fairly obvious AnAesop about new media.]] Also used in-universe: [[spoiler:part of the whole point is to show the initial belief of BlackComedyRape and then move to RapeAsDrama]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 35 (click to see context) from:
** Michael Callow is fairly clearly intended to be at least reminiscent of DavidCameron (who, incidentally, episode writer CharlieBrooker has an intense hatred of).
to:
** Michael Callow is fairly clearly intended to be at least reminiscent of DavidCameron UsefulNotes/DavidCameron (who, incidentally, episode writer CharlieBrooker has an intense hatred of).
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 31 (click to see context) from:
* [[spoiler:MadArtist]]: [[spoiler: Who is also revealed at the end to be a Turner Prize winner in a rather blunt TakeThat against the modern art world. The whole sequence of events is even described, a year later, as "The First Great Artwork of the 21st century" by a controversial critic]].
to:
* [[spoiler:MadArtist]]: [[spoiler: Who is also revealed at the end to be a Turner Prize winner in a rather blunt TakeThat against the modern art world. The whole sequence of events is even described, a year later, as "The First Great Artwork of the 21st century" by a controversial critic]].critic in what may be a reference to Damien Hirst and others who made similar comments about the September 11 attacks]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 41 (click to see context) from:
* ShoutOut: The special effects guru they hire to fake the sex-scene won an award for the effects in [[{{Firefly}} “that space cowboy thing"]] to which he looks annoyed that they can't remember what that space cowboy thing was called and tells them [[{{Serenity}} "Tranquillity".]] Brooker, by the way, has gone on record as loving JossWhedon in general and ''Firefly'' in particular many times in the past.
to:
* ShoutOut: The special effects guru they hire to fake the sex-scene won an award for the effects in [[{{Firefly}} “that space cowboy thing"]] to which he looks annoyed that they can't remember what that space cowboy thing was called and tells them [[{{Serenity}} [[Film/{{Serenity}} "Tranquillity".]] Brooker, by the way, has gone on record as loving JossWhedon in general and ''Firefly'' in particular many times in the past.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
'''NOTE:''' Since some episodes contain spoilers beyond the trailers and intro, avoid opening folders unless you're happy to have things spoiled. '''''Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''''
Changed line(s) 130 (click to see context) from:
[[/folder]]
to:
----
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
'''Main page:''' ''Series/BlackMirror''
'''Series two:''' ''Series/BlackMirrorSeriesTwo''
[[foldercontrol]]
!!The National Anthem
[[CaptainErsatz Princess Susannah]] [[ThePresidentsDaughter is kidnapped]] while the abductor taunts the police and press by releasing videos on the internet. The singular demand? That the Prime Minister have sexual intercourse with a pig on live television. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjfw5mr6fQ8 Trailer here (obviously NSFW)]]
[[folder:Tropes related to ''The National Anthem'']]
* AnAesop: A rare in-universe example. [[spoiler: The kidnapper actually releases the Princess half an hour ''before'' the 4pm deadline into an empty London when everybody is too busy watching the Prime Minister fucking a pig on television, solely to prove a point]].
* ActorAllusion: One of the talking heads on TV is described as "an actress from DowntonAbbey who knows the princess." Allen Leech (Branson in DowntonAbbey) and Jessica Brown Findlay (Sybil from DowntonAbbey) are both in Black Mirror, although Leech is in this episode while Findlay is in the succeeding episode "15 Million Merits".
* BestialityIsDepraved
* BlackComedy: Blacker than black. You ''will'' laugh after the ransom demand is first read out; from thereon in it gets a lot blacker and much less comedic as the full implications of the kidnapping and its ransom start to play out.
** BlackComedyRape: Having sex with an animal is pretty much by definition raping it, and the Prime Minister being effectively forced to have sex against his will would in itself be rape, yet soon as the video of the demand is posted on Website/YouTube, people are leaving comments mocking the Prime Minster for what he has to do. [[spoiler:Everyone in the country is tuning in to the broadcast of the act and looking forward to it with a sort of horrible glee. This lasts for about a second once it has begun and then practically everyone is shaking their heads in horror. ''They keep watching though''.]] YMMV, though, but this could also be RapeAsDrama as [[spoiler:the act is presented as awful and traumatic for the PM, and Charlie Brooker is using it as a fairly obvious AnAesop about new media.]] Also used in-universe: [[spoiler:part of the whole point is to show the initial belief of BlackComedyRape and then move to RapeAsDrama]].
* BritishRoyalFamily
* DecoyHidingPlace: The abandoned college, complete with a decoy damsel.
* DistressedDamsel
* {{Dogme 95}}: Two characters discuss whether the list of demands about the filming of the video - meant to make it as hard as possible to fake - are references to the movement.
* [[spoiler:DownerEnding: The Prime Minister does...''it'', saves the princess and even boosts his political career after the act. The ending shows that he's been pretty much destroyed ''as a person'' anyway, traumatised and with an utterly destroyed marriage. And it turns out he didn't even need to go through with it in the first place.]]
* FingerInTheMail: The kidnapper mails the Princess' finger to the press after it is revealed that the PM is using a [[ItMakesSenseinContext body double in a sex tape.]] [[spoiler: However, forensic examination shows it's NOT the Princess's finger. In an appallingly extreme bluff, it's the ''kidnapper's'']].
* {{Fingore}}
* FreezeFrameBonus: The kidnapper's list of demands at the end of the Website/YouTube video.
* HostageSituation
* HostageVideo
* HotScoop[=/=]IntrepidReporter: Malaika, a rare completely negative example of this combination.
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: In between a faceless and ill-informed mob loudly braying for the Prime Minister's actions on social networking sites [[spoiler: and watching a man who's been compelled to have sex with a pig live on national television with horrified fascination]], self-serving politicians and media cynically attempting to twist the issue to their advantage while putting on an air of 'above-it-all' self-righteousness and self-importance all throughout out and the kidnapper who put everything into motion in the first place [[spoiler: solely to [[AnAesop prove a point]] and [[MadArtist create a twisted art performance]]]], humanity as a whole doesn't exactly come out of this one well.
* [[spoiler:MadArtist]]: [[spoiler: Who is also revealed at the end to be a Turner Prize winner in a rather blunt TakeThat against the modern art world. The whole sequence of events is even described, a year later, as "The First Great Artwork of the 21st century" by a controversial critic]].
* NewMediaAreEvil: While shaping up to be an overarching theme in the series, it's presence here is overt nonetheless.
** OldMediaAreEvil: That said, however, from what we see of the traditional forms of media they don't exactly escape unscathed either.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Princess Susannah is basically a cross between Princess Diana - widely popular among the public and a campaigner for good causes - and Kate Middleton - a fashionable recent university graduate, only recently married.
** Michael Callow is fairly clearly intended to be at least reminiscent of DavidCameron (who, incidentally, episode writer CharlieBrooker has an intense hatred of).
*** However, Brooker has denied that Callow is based on Cameron, and notes that in any case the Prime Minister is probably the most sympathetic character in the episode.
* PassThePopcorn: During one of the news reports discussing the reactions on Website/YouTube and Twitter a message to this effect is briefly shown.
* SaveThePrincess
* SensoryAbuse: In a last ditch attempt to stop people watching the broadcast, it's preceded with a minute-long tone [[BrownNote that supposedly causes nausea]].
* [[spoiler:ShaggyDogStory]]: [[spoiler:As if the Prime Minister actually giving in to the kidnapper's demands wasn't bad enough, a scene shortly afterwards reveals that he didn't ''have'' to go through with it. The Princess was released a few minutes before the deed was done, but with everyone else glued to their screens in morbid anticipation, she walked across a bridge unnoticed]].
* ShoutOut: The special effects guru they hire to fake the sex-scene won an award for the effects in [[{{Firefly}} “that space cowboy thing"]] to which he looks annoyed that they can't remember what that space cowboy thing was called and tells them [[{{Serenity}} "Tranquillity".]] Brooker, by the way, has gone on record as loving JossWhedon in general and ''Firefly'' in particular many times in the past.
* VomitDiscretionShot: Poor, poor Michael Callow.
* [[TakeThat Take That, David Cameron!]]: Although played with; while the Callow[=/=]Cameron links are there, and Callow isn't exactly a paragon of humanity himself, he is ultimately sympathetic and his experiences are ultimately ''not'' something to be laughed at or dismissed.
[[/folder]]
!!15 Million Merits
The only distraction in a {{Dystopian}} life of endless physical toil is a series of tedious games and TV talent shows on every screen, which people can enter at the cost of work tokens. This episode's premiere screening was [[MeaningfulReleaseDate deliberately scheduled]] to begin on {{Channel 4}} immediately after the 2011 final of ''TheXFactor'' ended over on {{ITV}}(1). [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqTyZoupc1w Trailer here.]]
[[folder:Tropes related to ''15 Million Merits'']]
* AdvertOverloadedFuture: Adverts aren't just omnipresent - viewers are ''forced'' to look at them, and fined for skipping them.
* AnAesop: Several. Chiefly that our current state of affairs is soul-destroying - of doing pointless work to buy pointless items and with the carrot of celebrity dangled as the only way out. That people will subject themselves to ever greater indignities to escape this prison, but that in reality find that it's just another prison. That real talent and real spirit is being filtered out in favour of homogenous slop, as helped along by the former. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking That Simon Cowell is a prick]].
* AnimalMotifs: Abi's is a penguin - she makes origami ones out of packaging, one is seen waddling around on a screen in her cell and [[spoiler:Bing has a wooden one in his GildedCage as a reminder]]. There may also be a bit of subtext in Bing sitting and pulling apart one of the origami penguins after he [[spoiler:inadvertently leads her into life as a porn star]].
** Not to mention [[spoiler:the replacement of the paper penguin with a wooden one later, as Bing realises he's only succeeded in swapping one fake and unfulfilling existence for another, slightly more expensive one]].
* ApatheticCitizens: A whole society content to ride exercise bikes; the only available way to express themselves is to buy pre-approved items for their virtual avatar.
* AsceticAesthetic
* BitingTheHandHumor: The show is a satire of TheXFactor... and it's written by Konnie Huq, former presenter of "The Xtra Factor" spinoff show.
** And produced by a subsidiary of Endemol, the producers of BigBrother.
* BreadAndCircuses: Food provided, at a price. Shelter given, but with a catch. Entertainment and hope supplied, to keep you content. Seeing as we never see who is in charge though, we're not really sure what is really going on.
* BreakTheCutie: Abi, intending to be a singer, winds up [[spoiler:going into pornography, more or less forced into that position through public humiliation and harassment on ''Hot Shot''.]]
** The compliance serum probably had something to do that too, to be fair.
* ChekhovsGun: The empty Cuppliance carton which Bing hangs onto after Abi's audition, as well as [[spoiler:a shard of the screen he breaks while desperately trying to tune out Abi's porn video]].
* ClusterFBomb: [[spoiler: Bing's heartfelt speech on stage ventures into this territory, though it initially sounds like he's employing a PrecisionFStrike]]:
-->'''Bing:''' [[spoiler: Fuck You! For Me, For Us, ''for everyone.'' '''Fuck You!''']]
* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: Everybody apart from Bing (and perhaps Abi).
* CurseCutShort: [[spoiler:The Scouse ''Hot Shot'' hopeful to the judges: "This is my ''destiny''- and I can ''sing''! F-"]]
* [[spoiler: DownerEnding: Our hero gets to be part of the entertainment he hates while looking at trees he'll never touch, while Abi is doped out her mind, exploited, and filmed for the pleasure of thousands... if not millions.]]
* {{Dystopia}}: In a very thinly veiled metaphor, everyday people are made to cycle on exercise bikes all day (the bikes are connected to generators which supply all of the country's electrical power) to earn money (the "merits" of the title), with the only escape being through a nakedly manipulative and psychopathic talent show. Some are then demoted further to being cleaners ("lemons", due to their yellow uniforms), and thus subject to mockery from everyone else (including a video game where they get blown to pieces).
* EmptyShell: [[spoiler: Abi seems to be one by the end]].
* EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture
* FatSlob: How the media portray overweight people, and how the citizens are encouraged to see them, especially with the games ''Botherguts'' and ''Fattax'', not to mention the one where they get to shoot overweight cleaners.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Bing is trying to talk with Abi but is interrupted a couple of times by the ads for the porn programme "Wraith Babes". It seems a funny RunningGag at the beginning, but it's '''really not'''.
* FreezeFrameBonus: Media gossip is very briefly visible scrolling along the top of Bing's mirror.
** The vending machine has its own recommendations section: "People who liked [apple] also liked [banana]"
* FutureSlang: A few examples, such as the nickname for the avatars ("Doppels").
* GildedCage: [[spoiler:Bing's new home is more of a plasma-screen cage, but as we leave him gazing upon the simulated forest we can see he'd rather be free to explore a real one]].
* HopelessAuditionees: The silver-haired Scouse woman plays this role. The show keeps her waiting for what must be months before letting her on, just to tell her to go home.
* {{Hypocrite}}: By the end, [[spoiler: Bing.]]
* IronicEcho: [[spoiler:Bing holds a shard of glass to his throat and gives a heartfelt rant about how people waste their lives consuming and criticizing others, how television is completely synthetic and that everyone will do anything for money. The next time Bing is seen, he now owns an expensive apartment, and spends his time holding the same glass shard to his throat while criticizing consumers and giving manufactured speeches he doesn't believe for money. Also, the "Bing Shard" even becomes a popular object for the avatars to have]].
* JerkJock: Dustin liked ''Botherguts''"... and when he's not busy laughing at fat people he can be found abusing the cleaners and leering at violent porn.
* ManipulativeEditing: Parodied with the ''Hot Shot'' producer who makes Abi record a pre-prepared soundbyte ahead of her audition.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Oh Bing, you should have just let Abi stay on her bicycle.
* OnlySaneMan: Bing.
* PantsPositiveSafety: Where Bing hides the makeshift glass dagger. Fortunately the ''Hot Shot'' judges don't ask him to take a seat.
* ProductPlacement: Parodied by pushing it to its limits.
* PunnyName: The ''Hot Shot'' judges are named Wraith, Hope and Charity.
* [[spoiler:RapeAsDrama]]: [[spoiler:Abi's first porno film is effectively this. And Bing is ''{{forced to watch}}'' as someone he loves is raped on camera]].
* ScreensAreCameras: With a very similar technology to Microsoft's {{Kinect}} in use.
* SelfDeprecation: In the last few scenes, [[spoiler:Bing]] is a fairly obvious Charlie Brooker parallel. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY5It0jnD6M His speech]] sounds a lot like [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59OJ17raqWw some of Charlie's angrier pieces]]... [[spoiler:and promptly gets resold as a twice-weekly TV show. He becomes richer and more famous, but stays just as empty inside]].
* SensoryAbuse: That high-pitched tone again... here it's used to ensure citizens RESUME VIEWING if they try to avoid watching the screens. The true horror of this reveals itself when [[spoiler:Bing is [[BerserkButton forced to watch his beloved be raped]].]]
* [[spoiler:ShaggyDogStory]]: [[spoiler:Not only has Bing chosen to buy into the celebrity status his rant gave him instead of actually making a moral stand, it's even possible that he's decided to do so of ''his own free will''. Abi drank from the Cuppliance and succumbed to the pressure of being forced to go into porn, whereas Bing snuck into the auditions without partaking of it and yet metaphorically followed the same path to fame as she did]].
* ShowWithinAShow: ''Hot Shot'', among others.
* SoundtrackDissonance: Used to great effect with ''Anyone Who Knows What Love Is'' - Abi sings a cover on ''Hot Shot'' and Irma Thomas's original version plays over the credits. While the schmaltzy version of ''I Have A Dream'' is very fitting as we're introduced to this made-up world, a sweet song about experiencing love as something real sounds depressingly ironic as we leave it.
** It also plays during [[spoiler:Abi's porn]].
* StepfordSmiler: The female judge is hinted as being this. Despite playing along, some of her actions and expressions seem to indicate that she is physically uncomfortable with what happens on her show.
* [[TakeThat Take that, X-Factor!]]
* TokenMinority: [[spoiler:Bing gets himself onto the show just because the staff need "an ethnic" to round out the auditionees]].
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: [[spoiler: Bing delivers one when he gets onto Hot Shot, and all it gets him is a spot on a TV channel, where he can rant and rave and just be another part of the landscape]].
* TruthSerum: Cuppliance is more of an obedience serum which is forced on all ''Hot Shot'' contestants.
* UpToEleven: The ''XFactor'' parody takes the judges' nasty comments in this direction: "You came across as unlikeable and fundamentally quite worthless".
* [[WeWillSpendCreditsInTheFuture We Will Spend Merits In The Future]]
* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"I suppose..."]]
[[/folder]]
!!The Entire History Of You
Set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, the advancement of technology means every memory a person has is stored digitally and can be watched and re-watched. Naturally, [[FinaglesLaw this is not necessarily a good thing when you're paranoid.]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bFCqK81s7Y Trailer here.]]
[[folder:Tropes related to ''The Entire History of You'']]
* AmoralAttorney: At the very beginning of the drama the main character has a job review at a Law firm. The interviewing panel mention a new initiative to allow adults to retroactively sue their parents for not paying enough attention to them as children/infants - using the drama's 'Grain' technology (lifetime memory recorder) to elicit evidence. The main character briefly questions the ethics and morality of this.
* [[spoiler:DownerEnding: Completing the set, this ending sees Liam without a job and without his family, cutting out his grain which risks leaving him blind]].
* DrowningMySorrows: Happens around halfway through the episode.
* EnhanceButton: Regardless of the distance or clarity of an event, the "grain" can zoom close enough to read lips and examine facial expressions, even if the event was across the room. Taken to the extreme when [[spoiler: Liam loads a memory where he briefly looked indirectly at a TV, before zooming so far into the said TV that he can clearly see what the people in the background of the footage are doing]].
** Not entirely without merit as an idea. If the grain can record and retrieve stored visual information from the brain, remember that the human eye captures incredibly high-resolution images at very fast rates.
*** Ish. The retina is ~80 megapixels, but the optic nerve has only ~10 megabits/second of bandwidth. If you want speed of update, it can only be for a small region of interest... your brain fills in the gaps as best it can. The area of maximum visual acuity on the retina (the fovea) is pretty small, too.
* FreezeFrameBonus: In-universe. Memories can be paused, rewound and manipulated to zoom in and analyse faces or even read lips. Given how it's used throughout the episode, it probably doesn't feel like a "bonus" to the characters, though.
* TheGlomp: Much to Liam's surprise, he gets to do his own as a joke later too.
* GrievousBottleyHarm: {{Subverted|Trope}}. [[spoiler:When Liam hits Jonas with a liquor bottle, it simply thuds and injurs him rather than shattering. Even kept realistic when Liam forcibly smashes it off the ground, as only the neck doesn't shatter.]]
* LittleWhiteLie: A fib about the length of a relationship with an old boyfriend kicks off the drama.
* LongingLook: Perceived by Liam, and with the beauty of replay you can search for every instance, and watch it; over and over again.
* LoveMakesYouCrazy: Well, maybe not as much as the luxury of reviewing your past and that of your partner's.
* [[spoiler:MentalAffair: It's a subtle one, but in the scene where Ffion and Liam are having sex whilst replaying their memories, the memory Ffion is playing back ''isn't Liam''.]]
* NoEnding: The ending, while giving a satisfying close, ''leaves a great deal hanging and ends rather abruptly.'' [[spoiler:Liam makes Ffion leave with Jodie, and the episode ends right as he removes his grain implant; what happens to the characters is then left entirely to speculation]].
* ProphetEyes: {{Inverted|Trope}}. The grain gives the same effect when a person replays memories in their head, but provides sight into the past instead.
* TransferableMemory: The "grain" that almost everybody has implanted in their skulls. Used to play back memories on any TV complete with zoom, crop and reconstruction technology. Is also used in security checks when boarding planes. Oh and it's implied there is a black market for memories, as one character had hers [[OrganTheft forcibly removed]].
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Set an unspecified time in the future, where everyone owns designer houses and has mechanical implants.
* [[spoiler: WhosYourDaddy: It's pretty heavily implied that Jonas is Jodie's father]].
** [[spoiler: LawOfInverseFertility: Given that the couple were trying for a baby at the time.]]
* WorstAid: [[spoiler:Liam removes his grain by cutting the skin with a razor blade and pulling it out with cuticle trimmers. ''It even takes him a few attempts to get a grip on his implant.'']]
* [[spoiler: YourCheatingHeart: Turns out Ffion did have a relationship with Jonas when they fell out for a week, and he might be the father of her child]].
[[/folder]]
'''Series two:''' ''Series/BlackMirrorSeriesTwo''
[[foldercontrol]]
!!The National Anthem
[[CaptainErsatz Princess Susannah]] [[ThePresidentsDaughter is kidnapped]] while the abductor taunts the police and press by releasing videos on the internet. The singular demand? That the Prime Minister have sexual intercourse with a pig on live television. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjfw5mr6fQ8 Trailer here (obviously NSFW)]]
[[folder:Tropes related to ''The National Anthem'']]
* AnAesop: A rare in-universe example. [[spoiler: The kidnapper actually releases the Princess half an hour ''before'' the 4pm deadline into an empty London when everybody is too busy watching the Prime Minister fucking a pig on television, solely to prove a point]].
* ActorAllusion: One of the talking heads on TV is described as "an actress from DowntonAbbey who knows the princess." Allen Leech (Branson in DowntonAbbey) and Jessica Brown Findlay (Sybil from DowntonAbbey) are both in Black Mirror, although Leech is in this episode while Findlay is in the succeeding episode "15 Million Merits".
* BestialityIsDepraved
* BlackComedy: Blacker than black. You ''will'' laugh after the ransom demand is first read out; from thereon in it gets a lot blacker and much less comedic as the full implications of the kidnapping and its ransom start to play out.
** BlackComedyRape: Having sex with an animal is pretty much by definition raping it, and the Prime Minister being effectively forced to have sex against his will would in itself be rape, yet soon as the video of the demand is posted on Website/YouTube, people are leaving comments mocking the Prime Minster for what he has to do. [[spoiler:Everyone in the country is tuning in to the broadcast of the act and looking forward to it with a sort of horrible glee. This lasts for about a second once it has begun and then practically everyone is shaking their heads in horror. ''They keep watching though''.]] YMMV, though, but this could also be RapeAsDrama as [[spoiler:the act is presented as awful and traumatic for the PM, and Charlie Brooker is using it as a fairly obvious AnAesop about new media.]] Also used in-universe: [[spoiler:part of the whole point is to show the initial belief of BlackComedyRape and then move to RapeAsDrama]].
* BritishRoyalFamily
* DecoyHidingPlace: The abandoned college, complete with a decoy damsel.
* DistressedDamsel
* {{Dogme 95}}: Two characters discuss whether the list of demands about the filming of the video - meant to make it as hard as possible to fake - are references to the movement.
* [[spoiler:DownerEnding: The Prime Minister does...''it'', saves the princess and even boosts his political career after the act. The ending shows that he's been pretty much destroyed ''as a person'' anyway, traumatised and with an utterly destroyed marriage. And it turns out he didn't even need to go through with it in the first place.]]
* FingerInTheMail: The kidnapper mails the Princess' finger to the press after it is revealed that the PM is using a [[ItMakesSenseinContext body double in a sex tape.]] [[spoiler: However, forensic examination shows it's NOT the Princess's finger. In an appallingly extreme bluff, it's the ''kidnapper's'']].
* {{Fingore}}
* FreezeFrameBonus: The kidnapper's list of demands at the end of the Website/YouTube video.
* HostageSituation
* HostageVideo
* HotScoop[=/=]IntrepidReporter: Malaika, a rare completely negative example of this combination.
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: In between a faceless and ill-informed mob loudly braying for the Prime Minister's actions on social networking sites [[spoiler: and watching a man who's been compelled to have sex with a pig live on national television with horrified fascination]], self-serving politicians and media cynically attempting to twist the issue to their advantage while putting on an air of 'above-it-all' self-righteousness and self-importance all throughout out and the kidnapper who put everything into motion in the first place [[spoiler: solely to [[AnAesop prove a point]] and [[MadArtist create a twisted art performance]]]], humanity as a whole doesn't exactly come out of this one well.
* [[spoiler:MadArtist]]: [[spoiler: Who is also revealed at the end to be a Turner Prize winner in a rather blunt TakeThat against the modern art world. The whole sequence of events is even described, a year later, as "The First Great Artwork of the 21st century" by a controversial critic]].
* NewMediaAreEvil: While shaping up to be an overarching theme in the series, it's presence here is overt nonetheless.
** OldMediaAreEvil: That said, however, from what we see of the traditional forms of media they don't exactly escape unscathed either.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Princess Susannah is basically a cross between Princess Diana - widely popular among the public and a campaigner for good causes - and Kate Middleton - a fashionable recent university graduate, only recently married.
** Michael Callow is fairly clearly intended to be at least reminiscent of DavidCameron (who, incidentally, episode writer CharlieBrooker has an intense hatred of).
*** However, Brooker has denied that Callow is based on Cameron, and notes that in any case the Prime Minister is probably the most sympathetic character in the episode.
* PassThePopcorn: During one of the news reports discussing the reactions on Website/YouTube and Twitter a message to this effect is briefly shown.
* SaveThePrincess
* SensoryAbuse: In a last ditch attempt to stop people watching the broadcast, it's preceded with a minute-long tone [[BrownNote that supposedly causes nausea]].
* [[spoiler:ShaggyDogStory]]: [[spoiler:As if the Prime Minister actually giving in to the kidnapper's demands wasn't bad enough, a scene shortly afterwards reveals that he didn't ''have'' to go through with it. The Princess was released a few minutes before the deed was done, but with everyone else glued to their screens in morbid anticipation, she walked across a bridge unnoticed]].
* ShoutOut: The special effects guru they hire to fake the sex-scene won an award for the effects in [[{{Firefly}} “that space cowboy thing"]] to which he looks annoyed that they can't remember what that space cowboy thing was called and tells them [[{{Serenity}} "Tranquillity".]] Brooker, by the way, has gone on record as loving JossWhedon in general and ''Firefly'' in particular many times in the past.
* VomitDiscretionShot: Poor, poor Michael Callow.
* [[TakeThat Take That, David Cameron!]]: Although played with; while the Callow[=/=]Cameron links are there, and Callow isn't exactly a paragon of humanity himself, he is ultimately sympathetic and his experiences are ultimately ''not'' something to be laughed at or dismissed.
[[/folder]]
!!15 Million Merits
The only distraction in a {{Dystopian}} life of endless physical toil is a series of tedious games and TV talent shows on every screen, which people can enter at the cost of work tokens. This episode's premiere screening was [[MeaningfulReleaseDate deliberately scheduled]] to begin on {{Channel 4}} immediately after the 2011 final of ''TheXFactor'' ended over on {{ITV}}(1). [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqTyZoupc1w Trailer here.]]
[[folder:Tropes related to ''15 Million Merits'']]
* AdvertOverloadedFuture: Adverts aren't just omnipresent - viewers are ''forced'' to look at them, and fined for skipping them.
* AnAesop: Several. Chiefly that our current state of affairs is soul-destroying - of doing pointless work to buy pointless items and with the carrot of celebrity dangled as the only way out. That people will subject themselves to ever greater indignities to escape this prison, but that in reality find that it's just another prison. That real talent and real spirit is being filtered out in favour of homogenous slop, as helped along by the former. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking That Simon Cowell is a prick]].
* AnimalMotifs: Abi's is a penguin - she makes origami ones out of packaging, one is seen waddling around on a screen in her cell and [[spoiler:Bing has a wooden one in his GildedCage as a reminder]]. There may also be a bit of subtext in Bing sitting and pulling apart one of the origami penguins after he [[spoiler:inadvertently leads her into life as a porn star]].
** Not to mention [[spoiler:the replacement of the paper penguin with a wooden one later, as Bing realises he's only succeeded in swapping one fake and unfulfilling existence for another, slightly more expensive one]].
* ApatheticCitizens: A whole society content to ride exercise bikes; the only available way to express themselves is to buy pre-approved items for their virtual avatar.
* AsceticAesthetic
* BitingTheHandHumor: The show is a satire of TheXFactor... and it's written by Konnie Huq, former presenter of "The Xtra Factor" spinoff show.
** And produced by a subsidiary of Endemol, the producers of BigBrother.
* BreadAndCircuses: Food provided, at a price. Shelter given, but with a catch. Entertainment and hope supplied, to keep you content. Seeing as we never see who is in charge though, we're not really sure what is really going on.
* BreakTheCutie: Abi, intending to be a singer, winds up [[spoiler:going into pornography, more or less forced into that position through public humiliation and harassment on ''Hot Shot''.]]
** The compliance serum probably had something to do that too, to be fair.
* ChekhovsGun: The empty Cuppliance carton which Bing hangs onto after Abi's audition, as well as [[spoiler:a shard of the screen he breaks while desperately trying to tune out Abi's porn video]].
* ClusterFBomb: [[spoiler: Bing's heartfelt speech on stage ventures into this territory, though it initially sounds like he's employing a PrecisionFStrike]]:
-->'''Bing:''' [[spoiler: Fuck You! For Me, For Us, ''for everyone.'' '''Fuck You!''']]
* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: Everybody apart from Bing (and perhaps Abi).
* CurseCutShort: [[spoiler:The Scouse ''Hot Shot'' hopeful to the judges: "This is my ''destiny''- and I can ''sing''! F-"]]
* [[spoiler: DownerEnding: Our hero gets to be part of the entertainment he hates while looking at trees he'll never touch, while Abi is doped out her mind, exploited, and filmed for the pleasure of thousands... if not millions.]]
* {{Dystopia}}: In a very thinly veiled metaphor, everyday people are made to cycle on exercise bikes all day (the bikes are connected to generators which supply all of the country's electrical power) to earn money (the "merits" of the title), with the only escape being through a nakedly manipulative and psychopathic talent show. Some are then demoted further to being cleaners ("lemons", due to their yellow uniforms), and thus subject to mockery from everyone else (including a video game where they get blown to pieces).
* EmptyShell: [[spoiler: Abi seems to be one by the end]].
* EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture
* FatSlob: How the media portray overweight people, and how the citizens are encouraged to see them, especially with the games ''Botherguts'' and ''Fattax'', not to mention the one where they get to shoot overweight cleaners.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Bing is trying to talk with Abi but is interrupted a couple of times by the ads for the porn programme "Wraith Babes". It seems a funny RunningGag at the beginning, but it's '''really not'''.
* FreezeFrameBonus: Media gossip is very briefly visible scrolling along the top of Bing's mirror.
** The vending machine has its own recommendations section: "People who liked [apple] also liked [banana]"
* FutureSlang: A few examples, such as the nickname for the avatars ("Doppels").
* GildedCage: [[spoiler:Bing's new home is more of a plasma-screen cage, but as we leave him gazing upon the simulated forest we can see he'd rather be free to explore a real one]].
* HopelessAuditionees: The silver-haired Scouse woman plays this role. The show keeps her waiting for what must be months before letting her on, just to tell her to go home.
* {{Hypocrite}}: By the end, [[spoiler: Bing.]]
* IronicEcho: [[spoiler:Bing holds a shard of glass to his throat and gives a heartfelt rant about how people waste their lives consuming and criticizing others, how television is completely synthetic and that everyone will do anything for money. The next time Bing is seen, he now owns an expensive apartment, and spends his time holding the same glass shard to his throat while criticizing consumers and giving manufactured speeches he doesn't believe for money. Also, the "Bing Shard" even becomes a popular object for the avatars to have]].
* JerkJock: Dustin liked ''Botherguts''"... and when he's not busy laughing at fat people he can be found abusing the cleaners and leering at violent porn.
* ManipulativeEditing: Parodied with the ''Hot Shot'' producer who makes Abi record a pre-prepared soundbyte ahead of her audition.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Oh Bing, you should have just let Abi stay on her bicycle.
* OnlySaneMan: Bing.
* PantsPositiveSafety: Where Bing hides the makeshift glass dagger. Fortunately the ''Hot Shot'' judges don't ask him to take a seat.
* ProductPlacement: Parodied by pushing it to its limits.
* PunnyName: The ''Hot Shot'' judges are named Wraith, Hope and Charity.
* [[spoiler:RapeAsDrama]]: [[spoiler:Abi's first porno film is effectively this. And Bing is ''{{forced to watch}}'' as someone he loves is raped on camera]].
* ScreensAreCameras: With a very similar technology to Microsoft's {{Kinect}} in use.
* SelfDeprecation: In the last few scenes, [[spoiler:Bing]] is a fairly obvious Charlie Brooker parallel. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY5It0jnD6M His speech]] sounds a lot like [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59OJ17raqWw some of Charlie's angrier pieces]]... [[spoiler:and promptly gets resold as a twice-weekly TV show. He becomes richer and more famous, but stays just as empty inside]].
* SensoryAbuse: That high-pitched tone again... here it's used to ensure citizens RESUME VIEWING if they try to avoid watching the screens. The true horror of this reveals itself when [[spoiler:Bing is [[BerserkButton forced to watch his beloved be raped]].]]
* [[spoiler:ShaggyDogStory]]: [[spoiler:Not only has Bing chosen to buy into the celebrity status his rant gave him instead of actually making a moral stand, it's even possible that he's decided to do so of ''his own free will''. Abi drank from the Cuppliance and succumbed to the pressure of being forced to go into porn, whereas Bing snuck into the auditions without partaking of it and yet metaphorically followed the same path to fame as she did]].
* ShowWithinAShow: ''Hot Shot'', among others.
* SoundtrackDissonance: Used to great effect with ''Anyone Who Knows What Love Is'' - Abi sings a cover on ''Hot Shot'' and Irma Thomas's original version plays over the credits. While the schmaltzy version of ''I Have A Dream'' is very fitting as we're introduced to this made-up world, a sweet song about experiencing love as something real sounds depressingly ironic as we leave it.
** It also plays during [[spoiler:Abi's porn]].
* StepfordSmiler: The female judge is hinted as being this. Despite playing along, some of her actions and expressions seem to indicate that she is physically uncomfortable with what happens on her show.
* [[TakeThat Take that, X-Factor!]]
* TokenMinority: [[spoiler:Bing gets himself onto the show just because the staff need "an ethnic" to round out the auditionees]].
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: [[spoiler: Bing delivers one when he gets onto Hot Shot, and all it gets him is a spot on a TV channel, where he can rant and rave and just be another part of the landscape]].
* TruthSerum: Cuppliance is more of an obedience serum which is forced on all ''Hot Shot'' contestants.
* UpToEleven: The ''XFactor'' parody takes the judges' nasty comments in this direction: "You came across as unlikeable and fundamentally quite worthless".
* [[WeWillSpendCreditsInTheFuture We Will Spend Merits In The Future]]
* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"I suppose..."]]
[[/folder]]
!!The Entire History Of You
Set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, the advancement of technology means every memory a person has is stored digitally and can be watched and re-watched. Naturally, [[FinaglesLaw this is not necessarily a good thing when you're paranoid.]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bFCqK81s7Y Trailer here.]]
[[folder:Tropes related to ''The Entire History of You'']]
* AmoralAttorney: At the very beginning of the drama the main character has a job review at a Law firm. The interviewing panel mention a new initiative to allow adults to retroactively sue their parents for not paying enough attention to them as children/infants - using the drama's 'Grain' technology (lifetime memory recorder) to elicit evidence. The main character briefly questions the ethics and morality of this.
* [[spoiler:DownerEnding: Completing the set, this ending sees Liam without a job and without his family, cutting out his grain which risks leaving him blind]].
* DrowningMySorrows: Happens around halfway through the episode.
* EnhanceButton: Regardless of the distance or clarity of an event, the "grain" can zoom close enough to read lips and examine facial expressions, even if the event was across the room. Taken to the extreme when [[spoiler: Liam loads a memory where he briefly looked indirectly at a TV, before zooming so far into the said TV that he can clearly see what the people in the background of the footage are doing]].
** Not entirely without merit as an idea. If the grain can record and retrieve stored visual information from the brain, remember that the human eye captures incredibly high-resolution images at very fast rates.
*** Ish. The retina is ~80 megapixels, but the optic nerve has only ~10 megabits/second of bandwidth. If you want speed of update, it can only be for a small region of interest... your brain fills in the gaps as best it can. The area of maximum visual acuity on the retina (the fovea) is pretty small, too.
* FreezeFrameBonus: In-universe. Memories can be paused, rewound and manipulated to zoom in and analyse faces or even read lips. Given how it's used throughout the episode, it probably doesn't feel like a "bonus" to the characters, though.
* TheGlomp: Much to Liam's surprise, he gets to do his own as a joke later too.
* GrievousBottleyHarm: {{Subverted|Trope}}. [[spoiler:When Liam hits Jonas with a liquor bottle, it simply thuds and injurs him rather than shattering. Even kept realistic when Liam forcibly smashes it off the ground, as only the neck doesn't shatter.]]
* LittleWhiteLie: A fib about the length of a relationship with an old boyfriend kicks off the drama.
* LongingLook: Perceived by Liam, and with the beauty of replay you can search for every instance, and watch it; over and over again.
* LoveMakesYouCrazy: Well, maybe not as much as the luxury of reviewing your past and that of your partner's.
* [[spoiler:MentalAffair: It's a subtle one, but in the scene where Ffion and Liam are having sex whilst replaying their memories, the memory Ffion is playing back ''isn't Liam''.]]
* NoEnding: The ending, while giving a satisfying close, ''leaves a great deal hanging and ends rather abruptly.'' [[spoiler:Liam makes Ffion leave with Jodie, and the episode ends right as he removes his grain implant; what happens to the characters is then left entirely to speculation]].
* ProphetEyes: {{Inverted|Trope}}. The grain gives the same effect when a person replays memories in their head, but provides sight into the past instead.
* TransferableMemory: The "grain" that almost everybody has implanted in their skulls. Used to play back memories on any TV complete with zoom, crop and reconstruction technology. Is also used in security checks when boarding planes. Oh and it's implied there is a black market for memories, as one character had hers [[OrganTheft forcibly removed]].
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Set an unspecified time in the future, where everyone owns designer houses and has mechanical implants.
* [[spoiler: WhosYourDaddy: It's pretty heavily implied that Jonas is Jodie's father]].
** [[spoiler: LawOfInverseFertility: Given that the couple were trying for a baby at the time.]]
* WorstAid: [[spoiler:Liam removes his grain by cutting the skin with a razor blade and pulling it out with cuticle trimmers. ''It even takes him a few attempts to get a grip on his implant.'']]
* [[spoiler: YourCheatingHeart: Turns out Ffion did have a relationship with Jonas when they fell out for a week, and he might be the father of her child]].
[[/folder]]
