
Release Date: December 11, 2011
Despite being a TV show, each episode of Black Mirror is its own hour-long movie so I will be reviewing them as such.
In this world everyone rides stationary bikes, presumably to power everything, and they earn merit for it. Unfortunately, they must spend that merit for everything from toothpaste to food which makes many of them live hand to mouth. After saving $15M merit a guy pays for a friend to enter a talent show where winning means no more bike riding, but the talent show isn’t what they expected.
The world presented here is very interesting and one I found myself wanting to know much more about, but unfortunately there is very little detail about the world, but I guess that is part of the intrigue brought about by shows like this. I really liked the story and while the execution could have been better in parts, it was done well overall. The acting from Daniel Kaluuya (of Get Out fame) was exceptional and his monologue was very well written and performed. You don’t see full on monologues like that in movies much anymore. Jessica Brown Findlay as Abi was good, but not outstanding. The other actors were pretty bad and I don’t know if the judges were written badly our just acted badly, but they were all terrible.
Overall this was a very fun episode but had it not been for the main actor it would have been pretty rough. Since he was great and the other filmmaking parts were well done, I can’t help but wonder if those acting choices were intentional, but if they were I think they were a mistake.
Rating: 7 based on the story and Daniel’s performance
Rewatchability: Moderate