In a world where people's lives consist of riding exercise bikes to gain credits, Bing tries to help a woman get on to a singing competition show.In a world where people's lives consist of riding exercise bikes to gain credits, Bing tries to help a woman get on to a singing competition show.In a world where people's lives consist of riding exercise bikes to gain credits, Bing tries to help a woman get on to a singing competition show.
- Kai
- (as Colin Carmichael)
- Cleaner
- (uncredited)
Featured reviews
You know that feeling you get, that almost nausea, that exhilarating terror when you take the plunge over a roller-coaster loop, that feeling of stretching out a finger to barely touch something transcendental, that white blank feeling you get when you've hit ground zero and the truth is there, almost there...
No?
I've had that feeling before. I almost can't quite remember when, just that the enormity of feeling something like that couldn't possibly be contained in a memory.
This makes no sense, does it?
I don't know - but tell me you didn't feel something rare when you watched Bing nearly commit cultural, political and physical suicide on that stage. I've never seen anything that's managed to depress and stimulate me at once. I've never seen anything that raw and human. Not for a long time.
Watch it?
And transcribe the end speech. I would have that tattOOED.
Although a touch heavy handed in its message, its themes still ring painfully true. It looks with disdain upon our symbiotic relationship with reality television, and how anything of purity, authenticity, and honest beauty will inevitably become corrupted and filtered down to a 'lowest common denominator' level of entertainment to feed the willing masses.
Its simply a powerful yet utterly bleak hour of brilliant thought provoking television.
Bing is an innocent soul who falls in love, and wishes for his love to succeed. He spends 15 million credits to help his love to get a chance of a lifetime. Unbeknownst to him (and the rest of the world), contestants are drugged to do whatever the leaders tell them to do on a grimy sleazy talent show.
What happens next might shock, it might surprise, but it definitely will amaze you to see that this alternative universe isn't that far off from our world today... or what it could be tomorrow.
It's a magical episode, a study of exploitation, containerisation and a demand for fame abd fortune, there's also something of a love story running through it.
It's definitely a mirror image of life itself, the endless cycling represents the rat race that many people live their lives by, blindly running along the treadmill, eating, sleeping, repeating, but every now and then something good comes along, do you strive for it, or let it pass? That's the situation for Bing.
That scene where Abi faces The Judges, it's just brutal.
I just love the imagery, the emojis, the idea of those constant, forced adverts, and being penalised for not watching them, amazing ideas.
Definitely a pop at the likes of X Factor, Britain's got talent, and all of those other shows headed up by egotistical judges.
Daniel Kaluuya and Jessica Brown Findlay deliver truly astounding performances.
Made back at the time when this show was producing genuinely sensational, thought provoking episodes.
10/10.
"Black Mirror" Episodes Ranked by IMDb Users
"Black Mirror" Episodes Ranked by IMDb Users
Did you know
- TriviaCharlie Brooker stated the idea for this episode originated from his wife Konnie Huq (who co-wrote the episode and is credited under her birth name Kanak Huq) when she remarked that he'd be happy in a world where every wall was a screen.
- GoofsWhen Bing meets Abi in the cafeteria, Abi buys an apple. While standing and talking, Abi takes two bites out the apple. But when the sit at a table, Abi picks up the apple and it is untouched.
- Quotes
Bing: I haven't got a speech. I didn't plan words. I didn't even try to I just knew I had to get here, to stand here, and I wanted you to listen. To really listen, not just pull a face like you're listening, like you do the rest of the time. A face that you're feeling instead of processing. You pull a face, and poke it towards the stage, and we lah-di-dah, we sing and dance and tumble around. And all you see up here, it's not people, you don't see people up here, it's all fodder. And the faker the fodder, the more you love it, because fake fodder's the only thing that works any more. It's all that we can stomach. Actually, not quite all. Real pain, real viciousness, that, we can take. Yeah, stick a fat man up a pole. We laugh ourselves feral, because we've earned the right, we've done cell time and he's slacking, the scum, so ha-ha-ha at him! Because we're so out of our minds with desperation, we don't know any better. All we know is fake fodder and buying shit. That's how we speak to each other, how we express ourselves, is buying shit. What, I have a dream? The peak of our dreams is a new app for our Dopple, it doesn't exist! It's not even there! We buy shit that's not even there. Show us something real and free and beautiful. You couldn't. Yeah? It'd break us. We're too numb for it. I might as well choke. It's only so much wonder we can bear. When you find any wonder whatsoever, you dole it out in meagre portions. Only then until it's augmented, packaged, and pumped through 10,000 preassigned filters till it's nothing more than a meaningless series of lights, while we ride day in day out, going where? Powering what? All tiny cells and tiny screens and bigger cells and bigger screens and fuck you! Fuck you, that's what it boils down to. Fuck you for sitting there and slowly making things worse. Fuck you and your spotlight and your sanctimonious faces. Fuck you all for thinking the one thing I came close to never meant anything. For oozing around it and crushing it into a bone, into a joke. One more ugly joke in a kingdom of millions. Fuck you for happening. Fuck you for me, for us, for everyone. Fuck you!
- Crazy creditsMerce Ribot was wrongly credited as "'Big Shot' Registration Lady" (it should say 'Hot Shot').
- ConnectionsFeatured in WatchMojoUK: Top 10 Actors Who Have Appeared in Black Mirror (2018)
- SoundtracksAnyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)
Written by Irma Thomas
Performed by Irma Thomas
Also performed by Jessica Brown Findlay
Details
- Runtime
- 1h 2m(62 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 16:9 HD