Fifteen Million Merits

"Fifteen Million Merits" is the second episode of the first series of Black Mirror. It starred Daniel Kaluuya and Jessica Brown-Findlay and was written by series creator Charlie Brooker and his wife, the former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq (credited by her birth name 'Kanaq Huq'). It first aired on Channel 4 on 11 December 2011.

Synopsis

A satire on entertainment shows and our insatiable thirst for distraction set in a future dystopia, we are shown that most citizens make a living pedaling exercise bikes all day in order to generate power for their environment while earning a virtual currency called "merits". They dwell in small, single-person cells which afford little to no space for material possessions. However, the cell walls consist entirely of interactive display panels, so this society spends their disposable income on the consumption of entertainment and other digitized products. Throughout the day, mandatory advertisements are targeted at individuals. They cannot be dismissed or looked away from without incurring a fee. Those physically unfit to meet pedaling quotas are second-class citizens and are relegated to servile positions, working as cleaners around the machines (where they are objects of abuse), humiliated on obesity-themed game shows, and simulated as virtual targets to be gunned down in first-person shooter video games.

Bingham "Bing" Madsen (Daniel Kaluuya) has inherited a large number of merits from his dead brother, giving him a total of merits slightly exceeding fifteen million. Despite this windfall, his only real indulgence is the minor luxury of dismissing advertisements whenever they appear. In the unisex toilet he overhears Abi (Jessica Brown Findlay) singing. Smitten, he encourages her to enter into the X-Factor style game show Hot Shots, which offers a chance for people to get out of the slave-like world around them by winning a contract to entertain the masses on a streaming media channel. Bing persuades her and, feeling there is nothing "real" worth buying, spends fifteen million of his credits to purchase the ticket for her, which she reciprocates by making him an origami penguin out of a discarded food wrapper. The judges (Rupert Everett, Julia Davis, Ashley Thomas) and the crowd enjoy her performance, but the judges state there is no room for an "above-average singer" and instead offer her the chance to be a porn star on an erotica channel. After goading from the judges and the crowd, and drugged on a substance called "Cuppliance" (i.e. compliance in a cup), Abi reluctantly agrees.

Bing returns to his cell without Abi and without any merits. When an advert featuring a heavily-medicated Abi performing a sexual act appears on the screen, he can no longer afford to skip it and desperately tries to escape his cell (which cannot be exited during commercials), ramming the door until one of the screens shatters. He keeps a shard of the screen under his bed and commits himself to earning another 15,000,000 merits to enter the competition himself. He pedals every available minute and stoops to such tactics as eating abandoned food for months until he has enough to buy another ticket. He stands expressionless in the Hot Shots waiting room day after day until finally called to compete as—ostensibly—an "entertainer."

On stage he interrupts his performance, draws the shard of glass, and threatens to kill himself live on the show. He tearfully rants about how unfair the system is and how heartless people have become, and expresses his anger for how the judges took away, corrupted, and sold the only thing he found that he felt was real. The judges, instead of taking his words into consideration, are fascinated by his "performance" and offer him his own show, where he can rant about the system all he likes. Bing is stunned.

Later, Bing is shown issuing one of his streamed diatribes in his cell, performed with him holding the same glass shard at his throat while continuing to threaten/entice his audience with the possibility of suicide. Upon concluding his stream, his "cell" is revealed to be a two walled set in his new gleaming white penthouse. He puts the shard away in a case and pours himself a fresh orange juice. His current residence is far larger than his previous one, and even has room for some material possessions, including a penguin sculpture, which he looks upon regretfully. As the story comes to a close, he stands staring out at a vista of a vast, green forest stretching to the horizon. It is left for the viewer to interpret this as a window to the outside world, or simply another multi-screen façade.

Critical reception

The AV Club gave the episode an A, writing "But “Fifteen Million Merits” is a grander work in every way to "The National Anthem", a dazzling piece of science fiction that builds its world out slowly but perfectly over the course of an hour—and packs an emotional wallop along with the “15 minutes into the future” warning you already expect. “The National Anthem” was grey and grim, tough to watch, but “Fifteen Million Merits” is actually frightening to contemplate, and that’s how good dystopian sci-fi should feel."^[1] TV.com said "Brimming with gorgeous visuals, a moving score, and a fully realized future that might not be too far off, there's never a moment where "15 Million Merits" is anything less than gripping, scary, and thought-provoking. It may make you want to hang yourself, it may make you want to throw your computer out of the window, it may make you want to quit your job, it may make you ponder the meaning of life, but its goal is simply to make you aware of such things so that we may avoid such an awful future. "15 Million Merits" wants you to look in the mirror and do something about it. "^[2] DenOfGeek commented "The warmth of Bing and Abi’s brief romance, contrasted against the coldness of TV screens, jeering avatars and manipulative reality show judges, is among the most moving I’ve seen in for a while, and the main reason why Fifteen Million Merits is such a captivating piece of genre television."^[3] The Independent said "The tone was very different compared to last week and there was more of an emotional connection to the characters. Kaluuya and Brown Findlay were excellent as the central protagonists Bing and Abi. Therefore, the way in which they met their respective fates was sad because there was no sense of hope. Additionally, the aesthetic quality of the world of black mirrors was fantastic and looked plausible."^[4] The Telegraph gave it 4 out of 5 stars, writing "Sure, these were all familiar tropes, but they were explored with style, savvy and lashings of acerbic humour. "^[5] The Guardian said "This is more artful [than The National Anthem]. It's striking to look at and beautiful – the virtual reality, the interactiveness, all the screens. Well, beautiful in a stifling, suffocating way that has you gasping for an open window, a plant, an emotion, something real. None of it feels too far-fetched, though. It's not much of a leap from what we have already with videogames, our reliance on screens, everyone an avatar, social media, talent shows ..."^[6]

References

External links

• "Fifteen Million Merits" at the Internet Movie Database