Fair enough.
Mikaeli Hitting Metal, also known as You Hit Metal 17 Times and other, similar names, is an Analog Horror-Comedy series made by Adrian Gray. The series features Mikaeli, a contestant on a game show where he must hit metal to win. Every day. What starts as just a standard Instagram meme page posting the same video every day morphs into a much deeper story involving the sinister Veil Industries and its Mirage system.
The full series can be found on its Instagram page
, as well as on Adrian Gray's YouTube channel.
This series provides examples of the following tropes:
- Analog Horror: The news report segments and Veil Industries internal media are presented in this style.
- Commie Land: The game show is set in East Germany during the Cold War. Mikaeli wins a photo of motorcar for his performance on the show. He's then immediately arrested, because property is theft.
- Converse with the Unconscious: Michael's wife tries to get through to him while he's comatose. It works.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Michael Lee of Veil Industries is one of the minds behind Mirage and all the horrors it entails.
- Evil Is Petty: Michael gets back at Samantha by forcing her to take his place in the simulation. And just for good measure, he turns her avatar into a hideous monster with a gravelly voice.
- Gag Dub: The game show segments consist of footage from a real German show called Wetten, dass..?, dubbed over with an original story.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: It soon becomes apparent that Mikaeli is trapped in one. After he escapes, he forces Samantha to take his place, and it's revealed that the game show host is a victim as well.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: How Mikaeli escapes the simulation. After learning that overstimulating himself can cause the simulation to crash, he does so by repeatedly hammering the metal anvil nonstop, the exact repetitive torment he'd been forced to do 17 times a day in the time loop.
- "I Want" Song: "Fair Enough", a jaunty little tune about Mikaeli's growing desperation to leave the time loop.
- Inside a Computer System: Veil Industries' flagship product, Mirage, is a virtual reality system offering a variety of experiences for its customers to choose from.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: This is the true nature of the game show Mikaeli is trapped in, a Mirage world designed to be his personal hell.
- Musical Episode: Two of them, both taking place inside the game show.
- Organic Technology: An entity called the Source produces organic nodes that are inserted into subjects' brains, which allows them to enter Mirage experiences.
- Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror: At its heart, the series is a comedy, with communism jokes and musical numbers, and the game show segments keep a lighthearted tone even as the participants are lamenting their situation. The horror elements are much more insidious.
- Trouble Entendre: In a news interview, Michael assures those following the story that they will be kept "in the loop".
- Villain Protagonist: Mikaeli's true identity is Michael Lee, the shady CEO of Veil Industries.
