Black Mirror | 15 Million Merits | Channel 4

The second episode is a satire on entertainment shows and our insatiable thirst for distraction set in a sarcastic version of a future reality.

In this world, everyone is confined to a life of strange physical drudgery.

The only way to escape this life is to enter the 'Hot Shot' talent show and pray you can impress the judges.

Sunday | 9:30pm | Channel 4

Catch up on 4oD: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/black-mirror/4od

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Black Mirror
• charlie brooker
• channel 4
• reality
• sarcasm
• sarcastic

[motmot999]

PM gonna get pig aids LOL

[optiuum67]

OINK OINK CALLOW

[CaptainKaddywhak]

@ghjuy101 Saying this was like Fight Club is like saying that apples are like oranges. They both have anti-consumerist messages, but so do a lot of things. Hell, so did Wall-E. They are not really anything alike. Also, the 'contradictoy' ending was purposeful. We comodify everything today. And to get people to buy you have to keep upping the shock value, until you get a guy holding a piece of glass to his throat as a gimmick. Also, no one knows how to escape this capitalist life we lead anymore.

[ghjuy101]

15 million merits whole concept was a boring version of Fight Club with its anti consumerism philosophy taken word for word. The end was contradictory and dull, stick to comedy Brooker.

[mcfishyd]

Who sings 'I have a dream' in this show? I know its an abba song but I was wondering if the actual cover is available anywhere, or who it is?

[thatredhairgal]

This was by far my favourite out of all 3 episodes, loved the 1984 vibes to it!

[L4r00n]

@moonsugar1 even if it wouldn't have been straight after the X-Factor, it would still be ironic to be shown on a television network that also sends stuff like x-factor, in my opinion. Of course that it aired straight after the X-Factor final made me crack up even more in this particular situation.

[moonsugar1]

@L4r00n Actually mate the irony was it aired straight after the X factor final....

[L4r00n]

@derdriui

it's not about saying something is shit so all of it is. The whole movie is about a society where the deepest hopes and dreams are just instrumentalized by a giant powerful Television Network. So while I like this a lot, some people will watch it and find it unsetteling but will use it just for the fulfilment of their needs to revolt. But the real irony in this is, that people mitght find the movie fantastic but won't change. And that's what the movie is about, imo.

[derdriui]

@L4r00n cont'd. Charlie Brooker explains this a lot better... "My attention span was never great, but modern technology has halved it, and halved it again, and again and again, down to an atomic level, and now there's nothing discernible left." guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2­010/sep/13/charlie-brooker-goo­gle-instant

[derdriui]

@L4r00n Because it's not ironic.

The idea isn't that television is terrible. The idea is that drivel that we use to distract us is terrible. For example, the fact that reading Sweet Valley and Enid Blynton is more likely to fry intelligent perceptions than give them is no reason not to read Wuthering Heights, or anything else by the Bronte sisters; the fact that something out of a certain group is shite doesn't mean all of it is. The program was showing us, our phones, our youtube vids etc.

[Babs44sun]

This was simply amazing!