Black Mirror S01E02

An under 2000 character Review on Anthologies. Number 2, Black Mirror S01E02 – Fifteen Million Merits – Directed By: Euros Lytn – Written By: Charlie Brooker & Konnie Huq – Release Date: 12/11/2011. Originally posted on 6/9/2020

Black Mirror is a UK retelling, of sorts, of the Twilight Zone. Most of the episodes have to do with humanity or the dark sides of humanity in relation to modern society, technological advancements and media/social media sensationalism aka what I call “POOP Culture.”

Fifteen Million Merits is a world where money is called Merits and is earned riding exercise bikes that help power the planet. Most of their viewing reality is through TV screens and devices playing Nonsensical Reality TV Show Type Mentality Programming.

The more you peddle the more you earn. One can inherit other people’s earnings when they die or it can be given/transferred to others freely. During their downtime the people live in prison-sized apartments with their senses on over blast by the programming. All food, drink, skipping of ads and purchasing of programming all get deducted from their merits.

Bing inherits a large sum of merits which he gives to a woman he makes friends with and finds attractive so she can be on a game show that is very much like American Idol. If she is selected she will not have to ride the exercise bike again for life. She is offered a spot but only if she elects to be on a more Adult oriented show/platform (XXX) because of her looks.

Bing is pretty much down to zero and when he realizes what is happening to her he gets angry at the system. He begins a trek to peddle his ass off to earn enough credits to be on the show for himself where he plans to kill himself on live TV to make a point. The show elects to hire him to do his own podcast on related subject matter doing it his way and he accepts.

Another creepy story of how, if you all are on your phones a lot, on social media a lot and play those silly game apps a lot, then you know how many crazy ads pop up and all kinds of glittery/flashy content come up on your phones to distract or brainwash or both. The fact you have to pay to skip the ads or just get a drink was something that was off-putting.