Last night I watched the first episode of the new TV series Black Mirror, written by Charlie Brooker. I do love him, he always makes me laugh and think. This time I didn’t laugh.
This episode is about the prime minister being ask to perform a sexual act with a pig on camera, in order to save the life of the nation’s sweetheart princess who’s been kidnapped.
It’s worth watching, if only to examine how this programme makes you feel. I watched, I responded to the various awful ideas and behaviours introduced by this gruesome story by shouting and looking away a lot. When it finished I watched some more TV, and after that as I was getting ready for bed it became clear to me that Black Mirror is no ordinary TV show, and that I was far from finished churning over the emotions that it had raised.
I look forward to watching the next episode, although not certain I can take many more, it’s pretty full on!
Review of Black Mirror in the Telegraph
I felt exactly the same! I’ve done a complete review of the series, and would love it if you gave it a read! http://conordcfc.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/tv-review-black-mirror/
Yeah, it’s a really dark humour that prevails in the National Anthem episode of Black Mirror, although I guess each of them got pretty dark before the end. It was the seriousness that was given to the pig TV bit and the consequences of it that most shocked me. It was like taking a funny joke and making it real in a way that seemed to remove all of the comedy. I’m not sure who will want to watch it again on DVD (read more here http://www.tuppencemagazine.co.uk/black-mirror-dvd.html), but for anyone that hasn’t seen it, it’s definitely worth watching.