The judges could be a trio of Stepford Smilers who hate the way the system works. One of them even has sympathy for Bing's hate filled speech during the audition. They seem to know how to cut right to the dealmaking to monetize even that though, which seems to point to a massively cynical business acumen, and/or an acute sense of how to quickly neutralize what could be a real threat to the system they feed on. It is possible that one or more of the judges did sympathize, but their superiors would come down hard on them if they actually lost control of the show to his message—whereas the payoff of a revolutionary moment from that speech was far from likely either way. One gets the feeling that taking a real (not for show) radical stand against the order of things in that world can make an individual personally fall very hard in the caste system—and for all we know, even the cleaners in the bicycle facilities could have something to lose (like being relegated to cleaning toxic waste somewhere else).
You could make a strong case for Judge Charity being a Stepford Smiler, as she appears visibly uncomfortable with Judge Hope and Judge Wraith's antics. Also, when they and the audience successfully coerce Abi to join Judge Wraith, she is shown crying, implying that she feels sorry for Abi and is only going along with the other judges to keep up appearances. It's entirely possible that, as a woman, she's just as oppressed by their society as Abi is, and has had to do morally questionable things, or, at the very least, subject others to unfortunate fates, to maintain her high position in their society.
The woman who had a crush on Bing and is shown to be jealous of his attraction to Abi can be seen looking upset while watching the judges suggest and coerce Abi into pornography. Was she just expressing more annoyance and jealousy at the attention Abi gets for her looks, or was she horrified and disgusted at watching Abi being forced into being sexually exploited?
Complete Monster: Judge Wraith, a vicious misogynist and the purveyor of the seedy WraithBabes, is the worst of the judges lording over the bleak society. When singer Abi Khan is judged by him on the idol show Hot Shots, Wraith pressures her into joining his porn channel, having her drugged and raped when she gives in, something he has done to countless other women. After Bing threatens suicide to protest what became of her on live television, Wraith callously pushes for him to open his throat.
Despite its dark tones, 15 Million Merits has one moment near the end: Bing ends his televised rant (with a shard of glass to his throat) by saying, in an incredibly serious manner "Farewell forever" looking as if he's about to commit suicide, then he suddenly drops to a more friendly, neutral expression and adds "until the same time next week" and salutes with the glass shard! The sudden Mood Whiplash is momentarily hilarious.
The Hot Shot green room bouncer deliberately winding up the silver haired Scouse auditionee by pretending his earpiece is telling him to go for "an ethnic one"... before calling on Bing.
Even funnier is how, after all the build up, the Scouse girl's audition is awful, to say the least.
Genius Bonus: The three theological virtues in Christian philosophy are faith, hope, and charity. Simply put, these respectively refer to the belief in the truth of God's revelation and obedience to him, the belief that God is eternally present in everyone's life, and the love of God and our neighbors more than of oneself. The judges on Hot Shot are named Wraith (rhymes with faith), Hope, and Charity, and the Show Within a Show distracts the masses from their lives and clearly any religious beliefs — with thousands of people shown to religiously watch Hot Shot, even chanting in unison. Moreover, Wraith runs the pornographic media, which drugs the porn actresses into obedience, while Hope runs the blogging and vlogging media, which is typically associated with documenting one's life periodically. Charity, meanwhile, is the most kind of the judges.
Bing getting interrupted a couple of times by the omnipresent porn ads while trying to talk to Abi is quite funny at first, but becomes very harsh after her audition, when she becomes a porn star in a Rape as Drama show.
Bing convincing Abi to audition for Hot Shot is treated as a cute and heartwarming moment, despite him essentially pressuring her and being well-intentioned while doing so. The judges of Hot Shot would use a similar method to coerce Abi into becoming a porn star.
MoviePass 2.0 has announced an ad program with a disturbing resemblance to the technology in this episode.
Jerkass Woobie: Bing, by the end of the episode. He essentially doomed the girl he had a crush on and faith in to a horrible fate in which she will be forced to perform humiliating sexual acts against her will for millions of people, and he has to live with the guilt of knowing what he'd done, but he loses all sympathy points when he gives into the system that screwed her in the first place to make his own life more bearable.
Moment of Awesome: Bing managing to gain 15 million merits, by himself without any help whatsoever in the span of about two or three months! Abi was quoted earlier saying 12 million took six months to gain them and the lady who gave Bing the stamp said it would stay on for about two months so if it's calculated, yeah Bing was able to cycle to gain 15 million merits in a pretty short amount of time without skipping any advertisements or having to buy food. Wow! For a show filled with such a bleak world that is quite the acomplishment.
Bing's reason you suck speech is also this and tearjerker.
While somewhat darkly comedic, the fact that society has become so prejudiced against fat people, one can easily play a video game where you can run around senselessly murdering them.
Doubles with Tear Jerker. Abi first appearing in a porno, so drugged out of her mind, her face is forever trapped as a Thousand-Yard Stare, and she can only sit, respond, and comply with the other porn actors' perverted desires. Essentially, she's being raped.
As if what's mentioned above wasn't disturbing enough, Bing tries to look away, but the screen follows everywhere his eyes look. And when he closes his eyes and tries covering his ears, he's met with horrificSensory Abuseforcing him to watch the rest of the video.
Two candidates are shown while Abi is being pressured to accept "the offer": a man who gleefully cheers for Abi's upcoming fate and a young woman (the one with the crush on Bing) who silently stares blankly at the scene. Along with the above Alternative Character Interpretation, it's not hard to interpret the latter's reaction as possibly fearing the same thing happening to her.
Paranoia Fuel: The fact that such forced advertisement policy is plausible to be implemented in real life is chilling, to say the least.
The Woobie: Abi. Less than a week into joining Bing's facility, she has the misfortune of being (well-intendedly) pressured by Bing into going on Hot Shot so her talents can be realized, and then ends up being pressured into becoming a porn star on Judge Wraith's show by the sociopathic Hot Shot judges, where she'll be drugged out of her mind and raped repeatedly for the pleasure of millions of near equally sociopathic viewers, with no known way out of her predicament. Her one and only chance at salvation also ends up giving into the system to better his own life, condemning her to the fate he unintentionally set her up to end up in. To top it all off, we learn early in the episode that she had just turned 21 a week prior, likely meaning that even if there's a chance she'll be retired someday, it won't be for a long, long time.
has announced an ad program with a disturbing resemblance to the technology in this episode.