SUMMARY

1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 2

2. 15 MILLION MERITS ............................................................................... 3

3. NOSEDIVE .............................................................................................. 5

4. MEN AGAINST FIRE ............................................................................... 7

5. CONCLUSION ........................................................................................ 9

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 INTRODUCTION

Black Mirror is a British television anthology series created by Charlie

Brooker, that features speculative fiction with dark and satirical themes that
examine modern society, particularly with regard to the unpredictable
consequences of new technologies.

Regarding the series content and structure, Brooker noted, "each episode has
a different cast, a different setting, even a different reality. But they're all about
the way we live now and the way we might be living in 10 minutes' time if
we're clumsy." The series has received critical acclaim, and has seen an
increase in interest internationally (particularly in the US) after being added to
Netflix

The meaning of the expression Black Mirror can be understood with a double
meaning: the literal "black screen", the one you'll find on every wall, on every
desk, in the palm of every hand: the cold, shiny screen of a TV, a monitor, a
Smartphone. And the metaphorical dark reflection of society and how it can
become exacerbated by technology advancing faster than "social
development".

Black Mirror has the ability to work with the future, sometimes even surreal,
aspects that become extremely believable when sustained by the behavioural
issues of our society. We watch the episodes believing that our future may not
be so distant from what the series presents us.

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 FIFTEEN MILLION MERITS

"Fifteen Million Merits" is the second episode of the first season of "Black
Mirror". In this episode we first meet the young Bing, who lives in a colony
where his function basically is riding an exercise bike to provide electricity in
exchange for merits, which is the local currency, which can be used to skip
advertisements, buy food, new programs or updates for your avatar.

The main character Bing Madsen is a "privileged" boy: when his brother died,
he inherited his merits. So he just pedals to keep his mind busy. Bing feels
lonely and upset in there, without a goal in life, until the day he meets Abi. He is
attracted to her, but does not even try to speak with her until the moment he
hears Abi singing in the bathroom and gets impressed by her voice, so he tries
to overcome shyness and interacts with Abi.

Their friendship gets stronger when an opportunity comes up for Abi to apply for
a reality show that discovers new talents, which is a unique way to escape from
her routine. Bing motivates her to try to get into the show, to present her talent,
but she does not have enough merits to apply, so Bing offers almost all his
merits as a gift to her, since she has none at all.

She left the colony, but didnt come out as a singer as she thought, she ended
up as a porn actress. Bing, unhappy with Abis fate, decides to fight the whole
system. He gave his best on the exercise bike to get enough merits to buy
another ticket so he could face the jurymen of the show. After several weeks of
a miserable life, saving everything he could, he finally got the ticket.

Initially, Bing does a dance performance in the reality show until he pulls out a
piece of glass that he got when he broke one of the LCD screens of his room
after having a rage attack and threatened to kill himself if no one listened to
him. So, he tries to desperately speak against what he has been through his
entire life, where nothing is real; the system teaches them that happiness is
what you purchase.

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After his speech, the jurymen begin to use his speech to their favor. They distort
what Bing said, turning him into an example. Bing, who went there to protest,
didnt take too long to accept what was proposed to him, in exchange to being
able to leave the colony. Bing was manipulated by the jury who knew how to
use the right words to do so.

Bing, who used to fight against a manipulative system, found an opportunity to

get into the system and ended up as part of the whole thing. This shows that
everything that happens on TV is manufactured, although there are sincere
people wanting to transform entertainment into public utility or trying to bring
more criticalness to the media, it is these same people who unconsciously end
up helping to alienate the public more and more.

Although it seems totally unreal, the exaggeration presented is an allegory of

what we are already living. More and more the real world is gone and we focus
on the virtual.

In "Fifteen Million Merits" there is a strong criticism of the culture of reality

shows, entertainment and how we stop living our lives to live the life of others
that we only know through a television screen, computer or cell phone.

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 NOSEDIVE

Nosedive is the first episode of season three. The episode portrays a future
that, one might say, has begun, but in a less radical way. The main character,
Lacie, personifies the typical standard social networking user who seeks to
increase her relevance by showing the best of her day. She lives in a world
where it is possible to qualify anyone through their actions or their posts on the
internet.

The rating consists on grades from 0 to 5. Being well rated is the most important
requirement for being a successful person. Lacie has a rate of 4.2, but she
wants to reach 4.5, because is the only way to be able to rent a house in a
luxury condominium, in which only those who have rates above this number can
live.

Every time Lacie posts something in her social media, she gets anxious about
her rate. Compared to our reality, this could be seen as number of likes and
comments on Facebook or Instagram. Nowadays, who is not popular in the
social medias is not considered well-seen.

The human rating can also be compared to a quite common problem of the
middle class. Lacie does not have the financial condition or sufficient rating to
be part of a higher class and refuses to be part of a lower class.

She finds an opportunity to increase her rate when an old friend called Naomi
invites her to be her maid of honor. Lacie has to prepare a speech telling their
moments together, and she thinks that doing that her rate will grow above 4.5.
But everything goes wrong when she finally goes to the wedding. A series of
unfortunate events start to happen, and, due to this, her rate goes down more
and more, something that never happened in her life.

She struggles to get in time to the wedding, doing everything to reach her goal.
After missing her flight and having problems to renting car, a truck driver, who
has a rate about 1.5, offers Lacie a ride. At this moment of the story, Lacies
rate is below 3 and no one else helped her, so she accepted the ride. During

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the ride, they had an interesting conversation; the truck driver said that after her
husband's death she began to detach herself from the ratings and began to say
what she really thought. This character is detached from these ideas and being
herself in full consciousness, after the death of her husband, without friends,
without family, rejected by society she is really happy.

When she thought things couldnt be worse, Naomi, called and asked her not to
attend the wedding anymore because of the sudden fall on her ratings. Naomi
was worried about what the others guests would think about her maid of honor
being someone with such a low rate, but Lacie doesnt listen to Naomi and
continues her journey to the wedding. After another bunch of unfortunate things
and her rate having dropped below 1, she arrives at the wedding causing panic
and discomfort to the people at the wedding party. At this moment, Lacie had
completely lost her mind and after threatening everyone who tried to arrest her
with a knife, in a frustrated attempt to give her speech, her rate goes to zero
and she got in jail.

From the moment Lacie loses everything, she frees herself from the condition of
having to please everyone and fulfils a dream that we all have: speaking
anything without thinking about the consequences.

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 MEN AGAINST FIRE

Men Against Fire is the fifth episode of season 3. This episode refers to a
behavior that has always existed, but has gained more relevance in recent
times: racial hatred.

Soldiers of an army go out to kill a group of people that they call Cockroaches.
Everybody hates them because they are sick, savage, and a real threat to
society. Stripe, the main character, along with his squad goes to the home of a
man who is suspect of protecting these "monsters."

The general has a dialogue with this man about the crime that he is committing,
by helping to hide these people. Here, the spectator doesnt find out what is
really going on, because the big secret has not been revealed at this point:
cockroaches are normal people, but the soldiers see them in a completely
different way because of an implant that every soldier has.

Sometimes racial hatred is on the bounds of intolerance, but sometimes, just

like it happens in this episode, hatred is brought to the ultimate consequences:
the pursuit to extinguish the people that are hated.

In order to hate a race or group, technology is not necessary, and this is evident
when it is revealed that civilians who live in a village hate the cockroaches even
seeing them as normal people. What makes soldiers need a more intense and
realistic hatred (in this case, the implants) is the need to kill, which requires
more involvement.

This does not mean, however, that in the real world you need such advanced
technology to make it easier for the hunter to pull the trigger, there are many
ways to do that, the radio, the TV and the newspapers are enough to
encourage hatred towards someone or a race, and generate a desire to end it.

Eugenics with the 'inferior lineage' discourse that we know so well from Nazi
Germany is presented to us in a new outfit and setting, but the words and many
of the implications are essentially the same. The cockroaches of this futuristic
world of Men Against Fire are - unfortunately - comparable to the Jews of the

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1930s and '40s in Hitler's Germany and, why not, the Syrian refugees who are
now setting off an immigration crisis in Europe. Recurrent questions in our
history that will probably have the ground to return in a future whose
technological advance will imply new approaches to address them. It is
important to note that Black Mirror would not be what it is if it only criticized the
enemy, there is also a very strong criticism towards powerful Western countries
that in many ways stimulate excessive hatred so young people can join and
serve the interests of a government that is more concerned in finding a way of
destroying its enemy.

Confronted between continuing to act in a way he judges unjust - but will forget
and pleasure him at night - or live eternally imprisoned physically and mentally
with a weight of immeasurable consciousness, Stripe opts for the natural human
selfishness that has even a certain instinct for self-survival. Between suffering
with the truth and causing pain with lies he chooses the second option and what
we have is a very bitter final scene that makes us reflect on what our choices
would be. The implant gives him a comforting sight, an illusion, but this way he
is no longer aware that he sees lies and that is enough. Like Stripe, many
people prefer to forget that innocents are also dying, because seeing the truth
would be so much more painful or intensely inconvenient.

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 CONCLUSION

Therefore, we can infer that Black Mirror, different from what is expected; it's
not about technology and its dangers or about people fighting against the
system. The human being is doomed to look for distractions because he is
condemned to die and no one wants to think about it.

Black Mirror is about distractions. It is not pessimistic. It sees the human

interactions and the unworthy distractions that damage them. It does not shows
how technology can affect society, but it shows the worst in the humanity, and
how it can be evidenced by the development of technology

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Rio de Janeiro, December 19th, 2016.

Nathlia Camille da Silva Ferreira.

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