History Series / BlackMirrorSeriesOne

'''Christmas special:''' ''Series/BlackMirrorChristmasSpecial''

[[foldercontrol]]

!!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'']]
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Set an unspecified time in the future, where everyone owns designer houses and has mechanical implants.
* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Liam calls his wife out for seeking comfort in Jonas' arms only four days after they (temporarily) split.
* 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.
* DownerEnding: Completing the set, this ending sees [[spoiler:Liam unemployed and without his family, cutting out his grain which risks leaving him blind]]. Although it can be argued than given what having a grain's done to his life, it might be a BittersweetEnding.
* 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]]. In this context it can be considered a JustifiedTrope because the resolution of the human eye is many times beyond our current HD and Ultra HD standards, with superior detail retention so would stand being zoomed in quite a lot before it became noticeably pixelated.
* 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.
* GreetingGestureConfusion: Liam and Jonas share an awkward moment of this when saying goodbye after their night out.
* GrievousBottleyHarm: {{Subverted|Trope}}. [[spoiler:When Liam hits Jonas with a liquor bottle, it simply thuds and injures him rather than shattering. Even kept realistic when Liam forcibly smashes it off the ground, as only the neck doesn't shatter.]]
* JerkJustifications: After finding out that his wife [[spoiler:may be cheating on him, Liam 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.
* 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.
* LyingToProtectYourFeelings: A fib about the [[spoiler:length of a relationship with an old boyfriend]] kicks off the drama.
* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: It's pretty heavily implied that [[spoiler:Jonas]] is Jodie's father, [[LawOfInverseFertility given that Ffion and Liam were trying for a baby at the time]].
* 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 [[spoiler:''isn't Liam'']].
* MoodLighting: Very much present in the final moments when the reality of Liam (blue and cold) is intercut with tender memories of his wife (golden and warm).
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Liam after he wakes up in the car and reviews the footage of him mistreating Jonas.
* 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.]]
* TheOperatorsMustBeCrazy: When the girl at Jonas' place tries to call the police for help, her call is being rejected by the operator because she doesn't have a grain implant to provide evidence.
* OtherStockPhrases: Liam wife's assertive "That's not what it looks like." when they watch the video of her and Jonas together in the bedroom.
* ProperlyParanoid: As much of a jerk Liam is, [[spoiler:his wife ''[[JerkassHasAPoint was]]'' [[JerkassHasAPoint cheating on him]].]]
* 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. And it's implied there is a black market for memories, as one character had hers [[OrganTheft forcibly removed.]]
* 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.'']]
* YourCheatingHeart: Turns out Ffion did [[spoiler:sleep with Jonas]] when she and Liam fell out for a week, and [[spoiler:Jonas]] might be the father of her child.
[[/folder]]

* [[Recap/BlackMirrorTheNationalAnthem The National Anthem]]

!!Fifteen 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 Creator/Channel4 immediately after the 2011 final of ''Series/TheXFactor'' ended over on {{ITV}}(1). [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqTyZoupc1w Trailer here.]]

[[folder:Tropes related to ''Fifteen Million Merits'']]
%%* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture
* 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 And 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: The sterile environment of future Earth.
* BitingTheHandHumor:
** The show is a satire of ''Series/TheXFactor''... and it's co-written by Konnie Huq, former presenter of "The Xtra Factor" spinoff show (she's also Charlie Brooker's wife).
** Produced by a subsidiary of Endemol, the producers of ''Series/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, forced into that position by the Cuppliance serum.]]
* 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.]]
* 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 only swearing once.]]
-->'''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--"]]
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:While Bing gets a bigger degree of freedom and comfort, he becomes part of the entertainment he hates while looking at trees he'll never touch, and it is strongly implied he is still longing for Abi and the emotional connection he felt to her. Meanwhile, Abi is still 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
* EverythingIsBetterWithPenguins: Abi makes origami penguins out of food wrappers, which serve as a HopeSpot through the episode. See AnimalMotif above.
* FantasticCasteSystem: As far as the episode shows, overweight janitors make up the lowest caste, followed by bicyclists who power the society. Performers such as singers, porn stars, and comedians are next, presumably followed by elites. It's not stated whether or not these castes are hereditary, but aside from janitors going to and from bicyclists, they are very difficult to change.
* 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.
* ForcedToWatch: [[spoiler:Having used up his merits, Bing is unable to skip the advert that depicts Abi getting sexually exploited.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Bing is trying to talk with Abi but is interrupted a couple of times by the ads for the porn program "Wraith Babes". It seems a funny RunningGag at the beginning, [[spoiler: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 might be more spacious and fancy, but it is still just a larger version of the plasma-screen 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.]]
* HardWorkMontage: Of Bing working his way up to ''[[TitleDrop Fifteen Million Merits]]''.
* HopelessAuditionees: [[spoiler: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 "[[TheRedStapler Bing Shard]]" even becomes a popular object for the avatars to have.]]
* JerkAss: Dustin, Wraith and Hope. The latter two for [[spoiler:coercing Abi into being a porn star instead of a singer; Wraith even wanted to see her tits before she sung, and Hope interrupted her, gave her a compliment, and then started talking down to her.]]
* 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 preprepared soundbite ahead of her audition.
* TheManIsStickingItToTheMan: At the end, [[spoiler:Bing becomes this, having his own little weekly show in which he viciously calls out the society and its conventions... [[{{Hypocrite}} although he still profits off it anyway]].]]
* MorningRoutine: We watch Bing go about his day, starting in the morning.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:Oh Bing, you should have just let Abi stay on her bicycle.]]
* ObligatoryEarpieceTouch: The security guard backstage at ''Hot Shot''' touches his earpiece whenever there is a command given to him.
* OnlySaneMan: Bing.
* PantsPositiveSafety: [[spoiler: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.
* RapeAsDrama: [[spoiler:Abi's first porno film is effectively this. And Bing is ''{{forced to watch}}'' as someone he loves is raped on camera.]]
* 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.]]
* ScreensAreCameras: With a very similar technology to Microsoft's UsefulNotes/{{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 co-opted and repackaged as entertainment by the very system he was railing against. He becomes richer and more famous, but stays just as empty inside]].
** Especially telling is [[spoiler:Bing going on a national TV show in front of a panel of judges and threatening to slit his throat in protest]], an idea that Brooker floated years before in one of his Screen Burn editorials.
* 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]].]]
* 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 out of ''his own free will''. Abi drank from the Cuppliance and succumbed to the pressure of being forced to go into porn, whereas Bing sneaked 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' 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.
** [[DarkReprise It also plays during]] [[spoiler:Abi's porn]].
*** 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.]]
* 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.]]
* TruthSerum: Cuppliance is more of an [[spoiler:obedience serum]] which is forced on all ''Hot Shot'' contestants.
* UpToEleven: ''Series/TheXFactor'' parody takes the judges' nasty comments in this direction: "You came across as unlikeable and fundamentally quite worthless."
* WeWillSpendCreditsInTheFuture: Merits are this world's currency.
* WhamLine: "I suppose..."
[[/folder]]

!![[Recap/BlackMirrorTheNationalAnthem The National Anthem]]

!!The National Anthem

[[CaptainErsatz Princess Susannah]] is kidnapped while the abductor taunts the police and press by releasing videos on the internet. The singular demand? That the Prime Minister [[{{Squick}} 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 4 PM deadline into an empty UsefulNotes/{{London}}, when everybody is too busy watching the Prime Minister fucking a pig on television, solely to prove a point.]]
* BestialityIsDepraved: The horrifying ransom demand Princess Susannah's kidnapper makes of the Prime Minister to ensure her release.
* 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: The Prime Minister is 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. Nevertheless, ''they keep watching''.]] Also RapeAsDrama as [[spoiler:the act is 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]].
* ChekhovsGunman: Early in the episode, a seemingly-unrelated newscast mentions [[spoiler:a controversial artist named Carlton Bloom, who is eventually revealed as the kidnapper. Bloom can also be seen for a brief moment thirty-three minutes and sixteen seconds in, unidentified as such]].
* ComeToGawk: Everyone in the UK watches the broadcast either for amusement or out of pity. Even those expressing disgust at others for watching are watching it themselves in horror.
* DecoyHidingPlace: The government is led to believe the video was uploaded from an abandoned college, so a strike team moves in. It turns out to be a fake, complete with a decoy damsel.
* DistressedDamsel: Princess Susanna, a beloved princess, is kidnapped.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:The Prime Minister does... ''it'', saves the princess, and even boosts his political career after the act (if only because everyone felt both awe and sorry for him). The ending shows that he's been destroyed ''as a person'' anyway, traumatized 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' finger. In an appallingly extreme bluff, it's the ''kidnapper's'']].
* {{Fingore}}: [[spoiler:Princess Susannah's finger is cut off for the government trying to bypass the kidnapper's demand. It turns out it's the ''kidnapper's'' finger instead.]]
* FreezeFrameBonus: The kidnapper's list of demands at the end of the Website/YouTube video.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: The pub some of the public are watching in has a chalkboard in the background showing odds for a betting pool of various possible outcomes, including the prime minister sobbing, vomiting, and so on.
* HostageSituation: An {{Expy}} of Princess Diana and Kate Middleton has been kidnapped by an unknown group, whose demand makes up the premise of the plot.
* HostageVideo: Two of them, one with the ultimatum (with the hostage clearly baffled at the demands), and another once the kidnapper discovers a cheat.
* 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 prove a point and create a twisted art performance]], humanity as a whole doesn't exactly come out of this one well.
* 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 Twenty-First 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.]]
* NewMediaAreEvil: While shaping up to be an overarching theme in the series, its presence here is overt nonetheless.
** OldMediaAreEvil: That said, however, from what we see of the more 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 UsefulNotes/DavidCameron (who, incidentally, episode writer Creator/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. Still, Brooker was later amused to see [[https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/shortcuts/2015/sep/21/pigs-prime-minister-black-mirror-ashcroft-allegation-charlie-brooker Cameron accused of something reminiscent of this episode...]]
* NoPartyGiven: The episode never states to which party Callow belongs, though he stands in for Cameron, a Conservative PM.
* PassThePopcorn: During one of the news reports discussing the reactions on Website/YouTube and Twitter a message to this effect is briefly shown.
* SaveThePrincess: [[spoiler:As it happens, ''they didn't need to''.]]
* 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]].
* 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 [[BileFascination morbid anticipation]], she walked across a bridge unnoticed.]]
* SlaveToPR: The Prime Minister; played for drama. [[spoiler:If he doesn't do the deed, Susannah will die and the backlash will wreck him. He does eventually acquiesce, but the experience is extremely traumatic]].
* StreisandEffect: In-Universe. They tried to take down the video on [=YouTube=], but it only made it even more popular. The news tried to censor it by not talking about it, but it only made it more popular on social media.
* TakeThat: To David Cameron. Although played with; while the Callow[=/=]Cameron links are there, and while Callow isn't exactly a paragon of humanity himself, he is portrayed quite sympathetically and his experiences are ultimately ''not'' something to be laughed at or dismissed.
* VomitDiscretionShot: Poor, poor Michael Callow.
* XanatosGambit: Michael Callow finds himself on the receiving end of one after [[spoiler:the SWAT team fails to find Princess Susannah. Either he has sex with a pig and gets mocked by the country or he doesn't have sex with a pig, keeping his dignity but losing any chance at retrieving Princess Susannah and incurring critical backlash from the country for prioritizing his dignity above the life of Princess Susannah.]]
[[/folder]]

* ManipulativeEditing: Parodied with the ''Hot Shot'' producer who makes Abi record a preprepared soundbite ahead of her audition.

* TheManIsStickingItToTheMan: At the end, [[spoiler:Bing becomes this, having his own little weekly show in which he viciously calls out the society and its conventions... [[{{Hypocrite}} although he still profits off it anyway]].

* 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. Bloom can also be seen for a brief moment thirty-three minutes and sixteen seconds in, unidentified as such]].

* DecoyHidingPlace: The abandoned college, complete with a decoy damsel.
* DistressedDamsel: Princess Susanna.
* 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. As it's something Charlie Brooker is fond of referencing, to the point of being a RunningGag in his Screen Burn column, it's [[LampshadeHanging very possible]].

* [[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 [[BileFascination morbid anticipation]], she walked across a bridge unnoticed.]]

* [[TakeThat Take That, David Cameron!]]: Although played with; while the Callow[=/=]Cameron links are there, and while Callow isn't exactly a paragon of humanity himself, he is portrayed quite sympathetically and his experiences are ultimately ''not'' something to be laughed at or dismissed.

* [[spoiler:XanatosGambit]]: [[spoiler:Michael Callow finds himself on the receiving end of one after the SWAT team fails to find Princess Susannah. Either he has sex with a pig and gets mocked by the country or he doesn't have sex with a pig, keeping his dignity but losing any chance at retrieving Princess Susannah and incurring critical backlash from the country for prioritizing his dignity above the life of Princess Susannah.]]

* SlaveToPR: The Prime Minister.

* WhosYourDaddy: It's pretty heavily implied that [[spoiler:Jonas]] is Jodie's father, [[LawOfInverseFertility given that Ffion and Liam were trying for a baby at the time]].

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Set an unspecified time in the future, where everyone owns designer houses and has mechanical implants.

* SlaveToPR: The Prime Minister.

%%* AsceticAesthetic

* TheManIsStickingItToTheMan: At the end, [[spoiler:Bing becomes this, having his own little weekly show in which he viciously calls out the society and its conventions... although he still profits off it anyway]].

%%* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture

* 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.]]

* HotScoop[=/=]IntrepidReporter: Malaika, a rare completely negative example of this combination.

* 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]].
* BestialityIsDepraved: The horrifying ransom demand Princess Susanna's kidnapper makes of the Prime Minister to ensure her release.

** BlackComedyRape: The Prime Minister is 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''.]] Also RapeAsDrama as [[spoiler:the act is 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]].

* 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. As it's something Charlie Brooker is fond of referencing, to the point of being a RunningGag in his Screen Burn column, it's [[LampshadeHanging very possible]].
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:The Prime Minister does... ''it'', saves the princess and even boosts his political career after the act (if only because everyone felt both awe and sorry for him). The ending shows that he's been destroyed ''as a person'' anyway, traumatized 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}}: [[spoiler: Princess Susannah's finger is cut off for the government trying to bypass the kidnapper's demand. It turns out it's the ''kidnapper's'' finger instead]].

* HostageSituation: An {{Expy}} of Princess Diana/Kate Middleton has been kidnapped by an unknown group, whose demand makes up the premise of the plot.

* 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]].
* 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.

** 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.

* [[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]].

* [[TakeThat Take That, David Cameron!]]: Although played with; while the Callow[=/=]Cameron links are there, and while Callow isn't exactly a paragon of humanity himself, he is portrayed quite sympathetically and his experiences are ultimately ''not'' something to be laughed at or dismissed.
* [[spoiler: XanatosGambit]]: [[spoiler: Michael Callow finds himself on the receiving end of one after the SWAT team fails to find Princess Susannah. Either he has sex with a pig and gets mocked by the country or he doesn't have sex with a pig, keeping his dignity but losing any chance at retrieving Princess Susannah as well as receiving critical backlash from the country for prioritizing his dignity above the life of Princess Susannah]].

!!15 Million Merits

[[folder:Tropes related to ''15 Million Merits'']]

* 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 And 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]].

* ClusterFBomb: [[spoiler: Bing's heartfelt speech on stage ventures into this territory, though it initially sounds like he's only swearing once.]]:
-->'''Bing:''' [[spoiler: Fuck You! For Me, For Us, ''for everyone.'' '''Fuck You!''']]

* CurseCutShort: [[spoiler:The Scouse ''Hot Shot'' hopeful to the judges: "This is my ''destiny''- and I can ''sing''! F-"]]
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:While Bing gets a bigger degree of freedom and comfort, he becomes part of the entertainment he hates while looking at trees he'll never touch, and it is strongly implied he is still longing for Abi and the emotional connection he felt to her. Meanwhile, Abi is still doped out her mind, exploited and filmed for the pleasure of thousands... if not millions]].

** The vending machine has its own recommendations section: "People who liked [apple] also liked [banana]"

* GildedCage: [[spoiler:Bing's new home might be more spacious and fancy, but it is still just a larger version of the plasma-screen 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]].
* HopelessAuditionees: [[spoiler: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]].

* 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]].

* ManipulativeEditing: Parodied with the ''Hot Shot'' producer who makes Abi record a pre-prepared soundbyte ahead of her audition.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:Oh Bing, you should have just let Abi stay on her bicycle]].

* PantsPositiveSafety: [[spoiler:Where Bing hides the makeshift glass dagger. Fortunately the ''Hot Shot'' judges don't ask him to take a seat]].

* RapeAsDrama: [[spoiler:Abi's first porno film is effectively this. And Bing is ''{{forced to watch}}'' as someone he loves is raped on camera]].

** Especially telling is [[spoiler: Bing going on a national TV show in front of a panel of judges and threatening to slit his throat in protest]], an idea that Brooker floated years before in one of his Screen Burn editorials.

* 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 out 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]].

* 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.

*** 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.]]

* [[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]].

* 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]].

* UpToEleven: ''Series/TheXFactor'' parody takes the judges' nasty comments in this direction: "You came across as unlikeable and fundamentally quite worthless".

* 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.
* 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]]. Although it can be argued than given what having a grain's done to his life, it might be a BittersweetEnding.

* 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]].

* 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]].

* LittleWhiteLie: A fib about the [[spoiler:length of a relationship with an old boyfriend]] kicks off the drama.

* StreisandEffect: In-Universe. They tried to take down the video on YouTube, but it only made it even more popular. The news tried to censor it by not talking about it, but it only made it more popular on social media.

* YourCheatingHeart: Turns out Ffion did [[spoiler:slept with Jonas]] when she and Liam fell out for a week, and [[spoiler:Jonas]] might be the father of her child.

* ScreensAreCameras: With a very similar technology to Microsoft's {{Kinect}} in use.

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 Creator/Channel4 immediately after the 2011 final of ''TheXFactor'' ended over on {{ITV}}(1). [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqTyZoupc1w Trailer here.]]

** The show is a satire of ''TheXFactor''... and it's co-written by Konnie Huq, former presenter of "The Xtra Factor" spinoff show (she's also Charlie Brooker's wife).

* UpToEleven: ''TheXFactor'' parody takes the judges' nasty comments in this direction: "You came across as unlikeable and fundamentally quite worthless".

%%* HostageVideo

*** 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.
*** 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]].

* ProperlyParanoid: As much of a jerk Liam is, [[spoiler:his wife [[JerkassHasAPoint ''was'' cheating on him]].]]

* ProperlyParanoid: As much of a jerk Liam is, [[spoiler:his wife ''was'' cheating on him.]]

* 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]].