Review - Black Mirror Episode One: The National Anthem

[Brendon Connelly]

Below is Jim Goodwin's review of Black Mirror's first episode, The National Anthem.

This all comes with the caveat that Brooker repeatedly begged and/or threatened the preview audience not to spoil the story. Seeing as it's just finished screening on Channel 4, I think we'll get away with it and I have removed all real spoilers.

The National Anthem, episode 1 of Charlie Brooker?s new 3-part anthology series Black Mirror, is superb. Bleakly hilarious and played totally straight by a high calibre cast, on one level it works as a pure ?what if?? examination of a man placed in an impossibly grotesque situation, and on another as a biting commentary on the social media age where anonymously vented opinions can not only fuel but also help form the actions of government.

Set in the present day, the story is that a beloved Royal called Princess Susannah (dubbed the ?Facebook Princess? for announcing her engagement via the site) has been kidnapped. There is only one ransom demand, and it involves the Prime Minister himself doing something so beyond the pale that at first he cannot countenance it.

However, video of the Princess in captivity has been leaked online and, as the clock ticks down, the PM finds the pressure building and the baying cyberspace mob growing exponentially.

Even worse, in an age of 24-hour rolling news where anyone with a mobile phone is a potential broadcaster, the government?s attempts to resolve the crisis are in danger of being undermined by the everyday tools of social networking.

Rory Kinnear is excellent as beleaguered PM Michael Callow, a flawed yet entirely sympathetic man quickly falling to pieces as he wrestles with both a hideous moral quandary and the vicissitudes of public opinion. Tom Goodman-Hill is perfectly cast as the morally malleable face of political spin. Lindsay Duncan and Anna Wilson-Jones also impress as a ruthless Prime Ministerial aide and the PM?s wife, respectively; the latter especially provides some grounded emotional connection amid the general atmosphere of jet-black dramedy.

The fascinating part of The National Anthem is the way it forces the viewers to examine not only their own reactions to the demand (would you do it? And would you expect your elected leader to do it?), but also their own culpability in the media frenzies that surround such events (does our own appetite for constant input drive the news media to dubious practices? And, if such a horrendous event were actually to happen, would you tune in and watch?).

The uncomfortable answers to these questions make The National Anthem absolute must-watch television.

Brooker?s fervent hope is that during broadcast people actually watch the show, rather than Tweet about it; however, this Black Mirror would seem to reflect the opposite outcome.

Off to 4OD with you.

[Fysh]

It was alright, but it was a bit weak in explaining why the public would insist on their most senior elected authority figure shagging a pig to save a royal. I get that it's meant to be "Imagine if Ken Bigley had been Princess Diana" but even so, it had a couple of significant flaws.

The techs who didn't mention the probability of a proxy being used for the upload needed a bit of a slap, as did the lab tech who took so long to cop that the severed finger was male, not female - but most of all I think the problem was that the narrative presented the kidnapper as a damn-near omniscient boogeyman with connections everywhere, but then reveals him to be a pissed-off modern artist type. How did he co-ordinate all of that? Who cares, the PM shagged a pig on TV for an hour!

I had been hoping for a better sting in the tail - eg a reveal that it was contrived by someone in the royal family to show an uppity PM who's boss...imagine the Queen Mum asking "Do you really think our loyal subjects would expect me to make love to a pig on camera if you had been kidnapped? I think not.")

[Skippa]

Roy Kinnear is excellent as beleaguered PM Michael Callow

That would've been an impressive bit of casting! Shurely Rory...

[longtimereader]

Not bad all in all but i was hopingg for a bit more of a twisty tale. Will be sure to watch the next two tho, Charlie Brooker is a particular favourite of mine.

[Brendon Connelly]

It was alright, but it was a bit weak in explaining why the public would insist on their most senior elected authority figure shagging a pig to save a royal. I get that it's meant to be "Imagine if Ken Bigley had been Princess Diana" but even so, it had a couple of significant flaws.

The techs who didn't mention the probability of a proxy being used for the upload needed a bit of a slap, as did the lab tech who took so long to cop that the severed finger was male, not female - but most of all I think the problem was that the narrative presented the kidnapper as a damn-near omniscient boogeyman with connections everywhere, but then reveals him to be a pissed-off modern artist type. How did he co-ordinate all of that? Who cares, the PM shagged a pig on TV for an hour!

I had been hoping for a better sting in the tail - eg a reveal that it was contrived by someone in the royal family to show an uppity PM who's boss...imagine the Queen Mum asking "Do you really think our loyal subjects would expect me to make love to a pig on camera if you had been kidnapped? I think not.")

I was expecting more or less the same twist myself.

[JOE SOAP]

I was expecting more or less the same twist myself.

That would be a terrible twist, at least the end was more human.

[Ian Coke]

It was alright, but it was a bit weak in explaining why the public would insist on their most senior elected authority figure shagging a pig to save a royal. I get that it's meant to be "Imagine if Ken Bigley had been Princess Diana" but even so, it had a couple of significant flaws.

The techs who didn't mention the probability of a proxy being used for the upload needed a bit of a slap, as did the lab tech who took so long to cop that the severed finger was male, not female - but most of all I think the problem was that the narrative presented the kidnapper as a damn-near omniscient boogeyman with connections everywhere, but then reveals him to be a pissed-off modern artist type. How did he co-ordinate all of that? Who cares, the PM shagged a pig on TV for an hour!

I had been hoping for a better sting in the tail - eg a reveal that it was contrived by someone in the royal family to show an uppity PM who's boss...imagine the Queen Mum asking "Do you really think our loyal subjects would expect me to make love to a pig on camera if you had been kidnapped? I think not.")

I quite enjoyed it, but you're right. The (great) concept felt a bit under-explored. I get that it's supposed to be like The Twilight Zone, raising questions about modern society, with no easy answers. But I'd have happily watched three hours of everyone involved getting properly stuck into the detail (what did the Princes think? What motivated the kidnapper?) as opposed to two other stand-alones in the Black Mirror series.

They might be good, but I wonder if they aren't basically going to be making the same point.

[Death's Head]

Nice to see Blinky Ben and Julius 'Baldy Bastard' Nicholson on screen together once more! Also, the PM's wife was lovely

[OmniAural]

I get what he was trying to do but if the episode was meant to be funny as a satire of some kind it didn't hit the mark.

I'm a big fan of Mr Brooker but seeing something that was essentially a dramatisation of one of his Newswipe rants on the screen fell flat. Partially because everyone did take it so seriously and was very po-faced about it.

Maybe it was down to my expectations (I loved Dead Set) and perhaps it could be he is finding his feet in terms of what he wants Black Mirror to be (goodness knows that not EVERY episode of The Twilight Zone was a classic).

It may be the blackest of comedies but for me it was more of a horror thing as it showed mob rule at its basest and how technology has given them a voice as well as the desperation of art trying to find something new to say in a culture where everything is acceptable except in public life. I get the message I just wish it had been more entertaining with it.

At least I know a bit more what to expect for next week though and perhaps I can enjoy it a bit more, especially if I watch the X-faxtor final just before it for a bit of added irony.