[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/BLACK_MIRROR_LOGO_1269.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:If technology is a drug, then what, precisely, ''are the side-effects?'']]

-->[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Live More. Connect More. Travel More. Share More. [[Stepford Smiler Smile More ]]
. Buy More. Consume More. Think More. Experience More. Remember More. See More. Share More. Remember More. Learn More. Make More. Play More. Make More. Connect More. [[AnAesop MORE.]] [[{{Anvilicious}} MORE.]] [[MadnessMantra M--MORE.]]]] [-[[/folder]]

[[folder: [[Broken Record more. more. ]]
BeYourself. [[LossOfIdentity No More]]. The Future Is Broken.]]-]
-->--[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke5AKVtvkdc Black Mirror Season 2 trailer]]

''Black Mirror'' is a UK television drama [[GenreAnthology anthology]] series produced (and mostly written) by ''Series/DeadSet'' creator CharlieBrooker. [[ThematicSeries The episodes follow different characters and settings yet retain similar]] BlackComedy themes of techno-paranoia and general unease with the world. The series is heavily inspired by ''Series/TheTwilightZone'', and [[MeaningfulName its name stems from the reflection visible in a blackened digital screen.]]

The first series ended up winning the International Emmy for "Best TV movie/Mini-Series", and the second series started on 11th of Feb 2013. The trailers for [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0TmXRrDpP8 Season 1]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke5AKVtvkdc Season 2]].

!!Tropes for the overall series:
* BritishBrevity: There is a grand total of ''six'' episodes over two series, both lasting three episodes each. Justified in that the first season was only meant to be a mini-series, but it proved to be so successful that the show was commissioned for another one.
* CreativeClosingCredits: Combined with TheStinger, the credits show the aftermath of the each story.
* NewMediaAreEvil: The first series.
* SlidingScaleOfCynicismVersusIdealism: Falls on the side of cynicism. Boy ''howdy'', does it ever.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Every episode with the exception of "The National Anthem".

In order of broadcast the stories are:

[[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 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: This said, however, from what we see of the traditional forms of media they don't exactly escape unburned 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 dicussing 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]].
* 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.
* 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 Compliance carton which Bing hangs onto after Abi's audition.
* 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.
* FreezeFrameBonus: Media gossip is very briefly visible scrolling along the top of Bing's mirror.
** "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.]]
* 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 bycycle.
* 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.
* [[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]].]]
* 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: Compliance 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 half way 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.
* 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
* [[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 razorblade 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]]
----
!!Be Right Back
The first episode of season 2 is also set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture and follows Martha [[DeathByOriginStory after her lover, Ash, dies suddenly.]] Pushed into a special grieving service by a friend, Martha soon finds her deceased partner's social media activity deconstructed [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman to partially duplicate an artificial version of him.]] Shockingly, this isn't entirely a good thing. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld9m8Xrpko0 Trailer here.]]

[[folder: Tropes related to ''Be Right Back'']]
* {{Adorkable}}: Creepy as he is, there is something endearing about synthetic Ash's bemused attempts to please.
* [[spoiler:ArtificialHuman: Ash later appears in robot replica form.]]
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor
* BigNO: Martha near the very end of the episode atop a cliff [[spoiler: realising she cannot bring herself to get rid of the Ash copy]].
* BigShutUp: Counts as a RuleOfThree, when her friend Fiona tells her of the service which can bring Ash "back to life" as software based on his online persona.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Martha doesn't kill herself, and couldn't bring herself to make Ash's replica do it. She lives with their young daughter, keeps Ash locked in the loft, and it's heavily implied Martha is no closer to coping with Ash's death.]]
** The only thing that keeps it from being a complete DownerEnding is [[spoiler:that Martha has her daughter and has a healthy relationship with her.]]
* BrickJoke: A BlackComedy version: In the beginning of the episode, Ash and Martha argue over the music in the tape. Ash mentions that he find Music/TheBeeGees acceptable, but Martha doesn't think he genuinely likes them. [[spoiler:When Martha decides to get rid of the Ash copy, the same Bee Gees single "If I Can't Live Without You" plays, and it mentions that the song is "cheesy". Turns out Martha was right, though (given what she already went through) she's not exactly pleased to find that out]].
* CameBackWrong: {{Averted|Trope}} physically, but played straight psychologically. The false Ash is identical to his deceased counterpart, but reverts to a SoullessShell whenever a gap in data exists. Naturally, it soon starts to upset Martha when her returned partner occasionally questions how to be himself.
* [[spoiler:CloningBlues: It's ambiguous whether it affects the false Ash, but it certainly doesn't help Martha.]]
* DeathByOriginStory: {{Enforced|Trope}}. Martha gets to bring Ash back to life, but only in a replica with a fraction of his memory and personality.
* [[spoiler: DeceptivelyHumanRobots]]: Starts a while but Martha realizes it by the end.
* DramaticIrony[=/=]HarsherInHindsight: The episode has Martha and Ash singing "If I Can't Have You" together, and after a lighthearted argument in the van about Music/TheBeeGees, Martha jokingly threatens to crash on purpose. Anyone who has seen the trailers (or is re-watching the episode) knows Ash will soon die in a car crash, leaving Martha struggling to live without him.
* [[spoiler:EatingOptional: Ash can "chew and swallow" but has no need to eat.]]
* EmptyShell: What the replacement Ash is behind the all the information that had been shared online.
* EverythingIsOnline: Ash has his entire personality and being rebuilt simply from his online details and information. [[spoiler: We later find out it's only most of, or a large part of his personality]].
* [[spoiler:ExpendableClone: It'd be easy enough for Marther to dispose of her Ash replacement, if she could bring herself to do it.]]
* FreakOut: Martha effectively has this at the end [[spoiler:when after asking the Ash replicant to leap off a cliff, her emotional tirade at it not showing a fear of dying as the real Ash would, makes it mimic ''that'', begging her not to kill him]].
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The ArcSymbol of the next episode was used during the ad breaks in place of the Channel 4 logo.
* GenreSavvy: [[spoiler:When Fake!Ash's voice starts cutting out, he desperately warns Martha not to look in the bathroom while his physical self constructs; surprisingly, she actually heeds his warning and doesn't open the door.]]
* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: {{Subverted}}, as an exhausted Ash gives up on sex, leaving a humble Martha stating it was fine to stop. [[spoiler:Later played straight when his physical copy is willing to partake in sex whenever she wants, and can immediately learn what it needs to know by consulting the internet.]]
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Martha, unable to live with the Fake!Ash, commands it to kill itself, and it provides little argument for it's life; when Martha affirms it has to die (as the real Ash would beg for his life) she tells the machine it nothing more than a cheap imitation of him. As the machine constantly calibrates its actions to match its human counterpart, it hears this as a command, ''resulting in Fake!Ashe breaking down and leaving Martha unable to kill it.'']]
* INeedAFreakingDrink: Martha after [[spoiler:"Ash" appears in a replica body of the original]]. She's also pregnant, and [[spoiler:the Ash replicant]] warns her about drinking while carrying a child.
* LargeHam: '''"BUT IT'S NOT FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIR!"'''
* LawOfInverseFertility[=/=]SomeoneToRememberHimBy: Martha quickly discovers that she's pregnant [[RuleOfDrama not long after Ash dies suddenly.]]
* LiteralMinded: The Ash replacement. Justified, considering he isn't a real person.
* MorningSickness
* TheMourningAfter: Well, ''sort of''. Martha hasn't gotten over Ash and doesn't date another man, except... [[ItMakesSenseInContext it's complicated.]]
* NoAntagonist: Marther struggles with the fake Ash, but it's clear what she's really struggling with is her own loss.
* ReplacementGoldfish: The unnamed service.
* ThreeLawsCompliant: Implied, as Ash is critical Martha's drinking while she's pregnant and [[spoiler:his robot form insists on picking up broken glass for her and refuses to hit her when she asks him to,]] both of which protect her and the baby (in keeping with the first law). [[spoiler:The second and third arise when she commands Ash's replica to kill itself despite it stating it has no reason to do so.]]
* TransferableMemory: The artificial Ash is rebuilt from bits and pieces of text, speech and video collected from his social media accounts. Unfortunately, this quickly results in technological snags whenever certain traits and memories are discussed.
* TuringTest: At its heart the new technology is just an advancement of programs like Website/{{Cleverbot}} and coupled with the ability to learn, it passes the test flawlessly until it runs into gaps in the data.
[[/folder]]
----
!!White Bear
Awaking [[LaserGuidedAmnesia without memory of who she is]], a woman soon finds [[ImplacableMan an armed, masked man is pursuing her]] with the intent of killing her. Of course, things wouldn't be as bad [[BystanderSyndrome if everyone would stop filming it on their phones and help.]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2spS4Lc3CM Trailer here.]]

[[folder: Tropes related to ''White Bear'']]
* ActionGirl: Jem[[spoiler:'s character.]]
* AfterTheEnd: All media now displays a symbol that turns 90% of people into zombies, resulting in them filming anything interesting. Those who aren't affected either run to survive or hunt those who run. [[spoiler:It turns out that's a lie - those people are ordinary people.]]
* AmbiguousEnding: Does Victoria ever [[spoiler:get out of the amnesia-induced torture loop? Is she stuck there till she dies? Or is she eventually executed and put out of her misery? Or do human rights activists have her freed and instead put in a maximum security prison? The possibilities are endless.]]
* ArcSymbol: A lambda (λ) type symbol frequently appears on pieces of technology and the pursuer's mask.
* [[spoiler: AmnesiaLoop: Stuck in a particularly painful one.]]
* AmnesiacHero
* AuthorTract: The episode's uncomfortable ending, wherein we learn that [[spoiler:the general public now takes part in the punishment of some criminals via a kind of interactive, voyeuristic theme park]], echoes CharlieBrooker's criticisms of the 24-hour news cycle and its constant exploitation of tragedy. (For an example, see his recent commentary on the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9Z6OVDsndA Oscar Pistorius murder case]].)
* BothSidesHaveAPoint: There's lots of evidence that can be used to support whether [[spoiler: Victoria should be kept in the ironic hell or not.]]
* [[spoiler:BlackAndGreyMorality: ¾ in the way in, it becomes clear that there are no decent characters in the whole episode.]]
* BookEnds: [[spoiler:The protagonist is punished, has everything explained to her, and then has her memory wiped to do it again tomorrow. ''It's also at least the 18th time it's happened.'']]
** [[spoiler:''in october'']]
* [[spoiler:BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood: The White Bear Justice Park owners certainly think it is.]]
* {{Brainwashed}}: Nine out of ten people have been, according to Jem.
* BigDamnHeroes: Jem comes back to help Victoria after escaping Baxter in the forest.
* BystanderSyndrome: Passing people not only ignore the protagonist's cries for help, they simply start recording the events on their phone. [[spoiler: Turns out the reason is far more insidious than initially thought.]]
* ChekhovsGun: Several, especially the ones that resurface in the protagonist's memory.
** White Bear holds a negative significance for the protagonist: [[spoiler:it was the type of teddy the little girl had, and was a symbol of the search for her.]]
** The symbol that brainwashes the public: [[spoiler:it was her boyfriend's tattoo.]]
** The little girl: [[spoiler:was actually her victim.]]
** Her wrist bindings: [[spoiler:used to protect her from the metal wrist-locks when strapped into the chair.]]
** The calendar with crosses: [[spoiler:is keeping track of how many times she's relived the day.]]
* ColdBloodedTorture: Supposedly performed by the Hunters. [[spoiler:Later turns out that the whole experience is a particularly inventive kind.]]
* ComeToGawk: That's all the "normal" people (called "Observers" by the other survivors) do throughout the episode. [[spoiler: And played more straight at the end when they jeer and throw stuff at her as she's paraded through the streets.]]
* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: The Observers. [[spoiler:Originally portrayed as brainwashing, later shown to be ''just as accepting'' without any apparent coercion.]]
* [[spoiler:CoolAndUnusualPunishment]]
* CosyCatastrophe: Deconstructed. The breakdown of law and order is fun for the Hunters, not so much for the other survivors.
* DarkerAndEdgier: The entire series is pretty bleak and harrowing, but this episode really cranked it up a few notches, to the point where it stops being a "satirical dystopian" show and feels more like a simple horror movie.
* DrivenToSuicide: We open up on a failed attempt, hence the amnesia. [[spoiler:It turns out the suicide wasn't actually attempted, though Victoria begs to be killed every single night after remembers.]]
** [[spoiler: Victoria's boyfriend (the one that actually killed the girl) did hang himself in prison.]]
* [[spoiler:TheEndingChangesEverything: About ⅔ into the plot it's revealed that the entirety of the episode was a setup; Victoria's fiancee abducted and burned alive a six year old girl, while she stood and filmed it. After they were caught, the boyfriend committed suicide in his cell, leading to her sentence to be centered around not letting Victoria escape justice.]]
* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:At the end of each Victoria begs to be killed, but White Bear Justice Park don't seem to be in any hurry to do that. And who knows how long this punishment will last.]]
** [[spoiler:It's the whole point of her sentence. People think her fiancee got off easy when he killed himself in prison.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Vast amounts through her slowly returning memory.
** [[spoiler:Most notable is when the protagonist picks up the dropped phone and the other survivor points a taser at her claiming she'll go mad if she looks at it; it's later revealed that the protagonist would have seen it was all a setup, and the tasers are used for days when things don't go to plan.]]
* [[spoiler:HereWeGoAgain: It is revealed that post-apocalypse was a complete ruse so that Victoria can be horribly frightened and emotionally tortured, before she is told the truth and forced to do it again after having her memory wiped.]]
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Jem suggested that the onlookers of them being chased are that way because the White Bear signal really brought out what was beneath the surface. [[spoiler:Then it gets turned very straight as the truth about the protagonist is revealed, with the whole thing being a ruse designed to make sure she "doesn't escape justice" like her boyfriend, as she is chased, brought to the place with a braying crowd watching her, watches the clip she filmed of the little girl's last moments, while she's mind-wiped, every day]].
* ImplacableMan: The Hunters.
* IronicHell: [[spoiler:As punishment for watching and recording while her boyfriend terrified, tortured and murdered a little girl, Victoria now lives her life being constantly terrified and helpless while people just record and watch.]]
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: The IdentityAmnesia variety.
* LargeHam: '''"WHY ISN'T ANYONE HELPINNNNNG USSSSSSSSSS?!?''' and '''"HOW DO YOU LIKE IT!!!"'''. If happiness could be measured in Ham, then all of Victoria's problems in this episode would be solved.
* MalevolentMaskedMen: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]]. Jem specifically tells Victoria they do it to scare survivors. [[spoiler:Turns out it was for specifically just the protagonist]].
* MindScrew
* [[spoiler:MindRape: The memory eraser appears to be this, if the days' events weren't horrible enough.]]
* [[spoiler:TheMole: Baxter was one of the Hunters all along, and he and Jem turn out to both be park employees manipulating Victoria.]]
* NoNameGiven: No introductions are given, so character names are reserved for the credits or brief mentions. For clarification: Victoria is the protagonist with memory loss, Jem and Damien are the survivors she meets at the start, and Baxter is the survivor with the van.
* [[spoiler:NotBrainwashed: ''All'' the people observing, in a fairly chilling example.]]
* [[spoiler:PunchClockVillain: The people subjecting Victoria to her life of torture appear to be simply doing their jobs as employees of the park.]]
* RedShirt: Damien.
* ShoutOut: [[spoiler: The murder is meant to be a nod to the infamous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors_murders Moors murders]] which, even now, still haunt the British public consciousness. Victoria shares a few traits with Myra Hindley - her remorse is [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2002/nov/16/guardianobituaries.ukcrime genuine]] too.]]
* [[spoiler:ThisLoserIsYou: ''You are just as bad as the voyeurs.'']]
* TookALevelInBadass: Victoria spends the whole episode as TheLoad to Jem's ActionGirl, but finally picks up the shotgun while surrounded by Hunters inside White Bear [[spoiler: ...[[ItWorksBetterWithBullets and shoots confetti]]]].
* [[spoiler:TomatoInTheMirror: The protagonist conspired in a murder and is perpetually being punished for her crime.]]
* TraumaCongaLine: [[spoiler:Invoked by the park management.]]
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: It looks like the leading woman is suffering for it after a failed suicide attempt.
* [[spoiler:TrumanShowPlot: It's all a theme park experience, where the protagonist's memory is eventually wiped and done again for more people.]]
* [[spoiler:VillainProtagonist: Victoria, though she and the viewer are completely unaware of it for two thirds of the episode]].
* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: The White Bear Justice Park.]]
* [[spoiler:YouAreWhatYouHate: The White Bear Park visitors are effectively doing to Victoria what she did to Jemima.]]
[[/folder]]

----
!!The Waldo Moment
Following great public popularity, Jamie Salter is widely requested to run in a by-election as Waldo, the fictional animated character he plays. If isn't bad enough with several parties being outraged (who consider it [[AllElectionsAreSeriousBusiness unfunny and facetious]]), the animator soon finds himself being used to ridiculous lengths and ''things start to [[FromBadToWorse get out of hand.]]'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJdJdJUhaIc Trailer here.]]

[[folder: Tropes related to ''The Waldo Moment'']]
* ActorAllusion: In his speech at the debate, Monroe refers to Jamie's [[SarcasmMode most famous]] role as a "corn on the cob in a high-interest personal loan commercial." The actor who plays Jamie also plays Simon, a computer-savvy student in a series of adverts for BT internet.
* AllElectionsAreSeriousBusiness: Despite being only a by-election for MP, the response to Waldo is so massive it spreads to the internet and then internationally. [[spoiler:It even goes abroad in the epilogue.]]
* AnarchyIsChaos: {{Subverted|Trope}}. The idea behind the neutral Waldo party is that he is merely a figurehead, and that in a parliament without political authority ''public vote alone determines laws.''
* AtLeastIAdmitIt: Waldo may be a fictional character who doesn't stand for anything, but encourages people to vote for him because at least he's ''honest'' about being a fictional character who doesn't stand for anything. This particular mindset is deconstructed, however, in that the fact that he admits he doesn't stand for anything doesn't change the fact that he still ''doesn't stand for anything'' -- which means that he's open to the potential for all sorts of nasty things to happen ''through'' him under the guise of populist cynicism and apathy.
* TheAtoner: Jamie tries to be this, but unfortunately his crusade is stopped short [[spoiler: by being beaten up.]]
* [[spoiler:TheBadGuyWins: Everyone loses in some way, especially Jamie. Waldo and his creators, however, continue despite losing the election and manage to go international.]]
* BearyFunny: Waldo teeters between this and BearsAreBadNews.
* BerserkButton: When Liam calls Jamie out on his failed career as a comedian, he lashes out.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: It's technically a cartoon bear who manages to [[spoiler:pretty much TakeOverTheWorld, if the implications of the post-credits scene are any indicator.]]
* BrokenAesop: [[spoiler:Jamie tries to make amends for smearing the reputation of the main parties by speaking out as Waldo and trying to convince everyone otherwise. This being ''Black Mirror'', he is rewarded with getting a beating and [[TheOtherDarrin being replaced as Waldo]], leaving him homeless and probably an alcoholic.]]
* ButtMonkey: Liam Monroe gets a boot to the face, is humiliated live on TV twice and stalked by a van which follows him around to demean him in front of possible voters.
* DemocracyIsFlawed: Specifically, politicians are typically manipulative frauds and people are stupid enough to waste votes. Jamie's manager even proposes using public wi-fi to give Waldo downloads at polling stations in a desperate attempt to get people to vote.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Waldo feels a lot like Italian comedian and party leader Beppe Grillo.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Jamie loses everything, Labour and the Liberal Democrats lose, even the winning Conservatives receive backlash (with its representative even getting a boot to the face) and the Waldo movement spreads worldwide.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler:When asked about going to South America next, Waldo's team is asked if they speak fluent Spanish, to which Jamie's manager cuts in by doing so. ''Guess who [[TheOtherDarrin replaces]] him when they do go international.'']]
* FreezeFrameBonus: The ticker at the bottom of the screen showing the election result includes a line about a controversial art exhibition being withdrawn from the Tate - just like in S1E1. Suggesting at least some of the Black Mirrors take place in the same universe.
* FullCircleRevolution
* HufflepuffHouse: Controversially, the lib dems are this.
** ''"Vote for Monroe! Or Harris! Or even that Lib dem guy!"''
* IAmNotSpock: In-universe - Jamie struggles with distancing himself from the character he plays.
* {{Jerkass}}: Waldo. Monroe.[[spoiler:Jack Napier]].
* JerkassHasAPoint:
** Monroe both in his comment towards the end how the system may indeed be "absurd" but "it built these roads". And even his ReasonYouSuckSpeech towards Jamie in the debate is especially cutting because of the cold fact there is truth in it.
** Waldo's campaign is built on this.
* LandslideElection: Waldo entering politics is taken seriously mainly because of the sheer popularity of the idea. [[spoiler:He even comes second in the poll and goes international.]]
* LaResistance
* LetsGetDangerous: Waldo starts off an innocuous if vulgar comedy character. Then Monroe insults Jamie personally on live TV and he starts ruining people's careers.
* LoveMakesYouEvil: Downplayed. Being shunned by Gwendolyn leads Jamie to call her out try to wreck her career. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone He feels bad about it later.]]
* MayorPain: {{Invoked|Trope}}. Jamie initially acknowledges he shouldn't run because he's neither stupid enough nor intelligent enough to actually do it.
* MemeticMutation: InUniverse. A fictional character becomes so popular ''he runs in a by-election.''
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Jamie comes to this realisation towards the end.
* NeverTrustATrailer: One trailer has an anonymous company representative noting that Waldo is "the perfect assassin." In actuality, [[ItMakesSenseInContext he is only talking about "killing" the reputation of politicians.]]
* NotSoDifferent: Waldo compares himself to the politicians, claiming they're also made-up characters with nothing to say and teams feeding them information; he's just up front about it.
* [[spoiler:TheOtherDarrin: In-universe. Jamie's manager immediately replaces him as Waldo when he calls it quit.]]
* ReasonYouSuckSpeech:
** Monroe delivers one to Jamie directly as he participates as Waldo in a debate.
** Waldo and Jamie respond with their own passionate one against Monroe, Gwendolyn and politicians as a whole.
** Gwendolyn gives one back to Jamie, after he tries to apologise for his earlier actions above, for potentially destroying her career; ensuring that Monroe will, in fact, win the by-election in spite of his rant; and that he has made a mockery of process through by not actually standing for anything or advocating any policies.
* RebelliousRebel: Jamie morphs into this eventually...though no one listens to him once he isn't a turqoise bear.
* ReluctantRuler: Jamie frequently expresses that he is completely indifferent to politics and [[RefusalOfTheCall has no interest in following through with it.]]
* ShoutOut: In the first interview with Tory MP Liam Monroe, Jamie/Waldo mockingly compares him to Franchise/{{Batman}}. And what is Jamie's boss called? [[SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker Jack]] [[Film/{{Batman}} Napier]].
* ManipulativeBastard: Jamie's manager is this played straighter than a line.
* SadClown: For a comedian, Jamie's awfully bitter.
* StrawHypocrite: Waldo encourages people not to care about the elections...Whilst urging them to vote for him in the elections.
* StealthPun: Waldo is controlled using a set of joysticks, otherwise known as waldos.
* StrawmanPolitical[=/=]StrawLoser: [[UpToEleven Every party is this]]: the Conservatives are out of touch and middle class, Labour is completely clueless, and [[HufflepuffHouse the Liberal Democrats are totally useless]] [[TakeThat and come last of the main parties.]]
* SturgeonsLaw: Mentioned on a political scale; specifically, almost all politicians exist only as a fake public reputation who sympathise to get what they want.
* TakeThat: Pretty much every political party. More specifically, "a character from [[HaveIGotNewsForYou a late-night satire show]] who wins votes by being the funny one" could apply to Waldo or Boris Johnson.
** And to [[TakeThatUs Charlie Brooker]], oddly enough: the show Waldo comes from is reminiscent of ''Series/TenOClockLive''. A theme of the episode is that it's a lot easier to complain about the system than suggest any ways to fix it.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Waldo initially starts out mocking politicians, and chewing them out for being false. [[spoiler:When he gets [[TheOtherDarrin a new voice]], he starts getting the public to act violently against those he doesn't like]].
* ViewersAreMorons: So much so, thousands of people would consider voting their favourite fictional character from a late night TV show as a political leader.
* VulgarHumor[=/=]ToiletHumour: Waldo's main shtick, overlapping with SubvertedInnocence.
* YouAreWhatYouHate: Waldo is meant to be a protest character against corrupt politicians, despite it eventually becoming even more morally inept and [[FullCircleRevolution worse than the politicians it was making a stand against.]]
[[/folder]]
----