33
votes
Black Mirror S1E01 "The National Anthem" discussion thread
Black Mirror Season 1 Episode 1 - The National Anthem
Prime Minister Michael Callow faces a shocking dilemma when Princess Susannah, a much-loved member of the Royal Family, is kidnapped.
Warning: this thread contains spoilers about this episode! If you haven't seen it yet, please watch it and come back to this thread later.
You can talk about past episodes, but please don't discuss future episodes in this thread!
If you don't know what to say, here are some questions to get the discussion started:
- How does the title relate to the episode itself?
- Are there any similarities between real life events and the episode?
- Are there any references or easter eggs in the episode, such as references to past episodes?
It was a decent start to the series, and objectively a good hour of television, but it's completely overshadowed by later episodes of Black Mirror. Not bad at all, but bad-ish compared to the rest of the series.
The most notable thing about this episode is its almost prophetic tale of a PM engaging in sex acts with a pig.
Yep! That's the one :)
For me, I think this sums up Black Mirror. We're often so distracted by the spectacle to recognize the reality. Had even a single person not been watching the news, the PM could have avoided the entire thing.
I think this episode gets a bad rap because of the sex act.
What I found more interesting is the commentary on how instant polling can affect decision-making by elected officials. The huge shift in "what should I do?" by the PM is informed by aides telling him the results of internet polls, trending Twitter hashtags, etc.
Also prophetic, as the potential of "deepfake" videos becomes more well-known, are the instructions given about the filming of the video in order to prove it's real and not fake. That seems like it will become more and more common as there's an arms race between people faking videos and people seeking to prove their videos are authentic and not faked.
Agreed, the fact that social media was basically making the decision for whether he actually had to follow through or not was probably the most interesting aspect for me. A couple of other aspects that I found interesting:
There was a tweet a while back:
"I wish, one day, I have close to the massive-sized balls that Black Mirror's writing staff had to begin their entire series with an episode of a guy fucking a pig"
Enough people have discussed the off-putting nature of the plot (and understandably so), so I'd like to point out just how incredible Rory Kinnear's performance in this is. It often gets lost in the discussion of the episode just how emotive yet genuine he is throughout the runtime, from the assertive sigh of relief to the gut-wrenching disgust of defeat.
In addition, the cinematography sets a high standard for the rest of Black Mirror to follow, which it thankfully does. Close-ups of the PM create an intimacy (perhaps an unfortunate turn of phrase, given the plot) between him and the audience, but there are also strikingly desolate shots of various landscapes throughout Britain that really sell the all-encompassing nature of the act.
On a lighter note, oh boy, do people have a lot of time on their hands. Get out of bed, man, you've been there all day! The hospital workers must have been sitting there for hours before the PM went live, as well.
A lot of people think this episode isn’t really Black Mirror, or isn’t as impactful as other episodes, but I’d disagree. I think it’s doing a lot more than just being disturbing to get a reaction. I have a lot of different thoughts about this, so I’ll make a list that hopefully isn’t too scattered:
The crowd hivemind (there’s a better word for this but it’s on the tip of my tongue). Everyone is happy, cheering, and excited before the broadcast. Then, when it actually starts, everyone looks shocked and upset. Being in a crowd, everyone can get excited, until it actually starts and causes everyone to start thinking about what they’re really watching. It’s like the were excited because a guy was going to do something gross on TV, but when they realize that they’re watching a man have sex with a pig, they get taken out of the excitement of the crowd and realize how disgusted the feel. Nonetheless, ...
Everyone keeps watching. They all look disgusted when it starts, yet they still watch until the end. Even though in the interviews on TV people said they wouldn’t, the whole world stops to watch. This is what all the shots of empty streets were trying to show. Maybe it shows that people want to watch something messed up, and it being in a public and social setting makes them feel like it’s alright and socially acceptable?
People want to watch something messed up, and weren’t that concerned about the princes. I think the shot of the princess crossing the bridge in the middle of the empty city (while also signifying how the world stood still to watch this event) symbolizes that people didn’t care that much about the princess, letting her be released early and unnoticed. Maybe this was trying to say that we put too much attention on public figures?
“It was a statement”. This might be the most important line in the episode. I think it takes exactly the expected criticism of the episode (just gross for the sake of being disturbing, too simple, etc) and turns it around. This is also why I found the art critic calling it a piece of great artwork so intriguing. It’s as if the show is talking about itself: you have to look past the disturbing part and realize that it’s a commentary about society itself, not just a shocking TV show. This was the first episode of the series, so maybe that’s what they’re pushing for?
That rollercoaster of an ending. It seems like a happy ending: everyone is supportive of him, and he and his wife seem happy. Publicly, this is the appropriate response. But when the PM and his wife get home, we see his wife is offended/angry/shunning him. Maybe this is symbolizing other people and the Internet. At some point, some Youtube comments are shown saying stuff like “’lol our PM is going to fuck a pig”. While people act in a kind and supportive way in public, on the Internet where they can be anonymous, they at the opposite. Maybe this is showing the increasing disconnect between how your online actions can affect the real world.
All in all, not my favourite Black Mirror episode, but it has a strong message, and in my opinion, is one of the more realistic episodes in terms of “what would happen in the real world given this scenario”.
Aside from all that, the production quality (acting, cinematography, writing, etc) is all there from the first episode. To me, this is a pretty notorious part of Black Mirror, every episode feels very well made.
And, in fact, it's much more Black Mirror than the consistently overrated San Junipero.
Please reply to this comment with your rating of the episode, a number from 1 to 5, where 1 is the lowest and 5 is the highest. After we've watched all the episodes, I'll average these and get our collective rating for each episode!
Half-ratings (such as 2.5 or 3.5) are allowed.
I prefer if you reply with just a number, as this makes it easier to average later. Please put discussion in a separate comment thread, and collapse this comment to hide the ratings.
Maybe you should clarify if 1 is the worst or best rating.
Good call, just added that. Thanks!
Is this overall rating or rating in comparison to other episodes? (like 5 is best of the series, 1 is worst of the series)
Probably overall rating, since for some this might be the only episode they’ve watched, but honestly it’s up to you.
2
3
4
3
3
3
3
5
3.5
2
2
2.5
3.5
4
3.5
This episode isn't particularly representative of the rest of the series – if you're willing, I'd recommend you try a couple of the other episodes. I watched them too long ago to suggest any episodes you might enjoy more, but there's definitely significant variation in tone throughout the series.
OTOH, "It had a thing to say, and did it in the most straightforward and heavy handed way possible" is not a bad summary of most of the series, from what I remember; maybe it's just not for you.
One of my favorite aspects of Black Mirror is that no one can reach a consensus on what the 'best' episodes were. Every single one has gushing fans and rabid detractors. That's a sign a show out to explore myriad different aspects of the mingling of technology with our world is doing something very right.
Nothing in this episode couldn't happen today, there's no special technology required here.
I really like the way all of the protagonists are reactive throughout. They follow the kidnapper's leads but also place so much importance on social media's opinion before finally conceding defeat. There was a feeling of inevitability that the Prime Minister would end up fucking the pig and the voyeuristic nature of social media (particularly watching others suffer) was pretty accurate.
Generally the characters were decent and I thought the slow collapse of the Prime Minister was well done. The pig scene was so disgusting and raw.
Good episode overall.
This is my first time watching Black Mirror. All I can think of after watching this episode is how bad I felt for the prime minister. Even though all seems fine on the outside, his relation with his wife is ruined. I hope I will never be in a situation where my hand is forced by social media.
Out of curiosity, how much had you heard about Black Mirror prior to watching this episode, and what are your expectations for the rest of the show?
I watched a couple of plot summaries, so I know what the general feel of Black Mirror is. From the comments here, it seems that each episode is an independent story. It's got good reviews, so I have high expectations for it.
I'm expecting a sci-fi dystopian setting with very morbid and depressing plotlines. I was a bit surprised by the first episode because it doesn't involve much technology and isn't as dark as I thought it would be.
The first episode is an outlier in many respects, but the "tech level" is only slightly lower than you get in most Black Mirror stories. With a handful exceptions, most episodes warn about the dangers of technology we have available to us right now, and how our society 20-30 years down the line could be impacted by the continued development, reliance, and misuse of said technologies. The National Anthem just focused on how it could impact us today.
That said, if you're waiting for something with a darker tone, hold on to your ass. Black Mirror goes straight for the fucking jugular when it wants to make a point. The next episode on the schedule is significantly... meaner than this one, and I personally found E03 to be one of the biggest gut punches of the entire series.
Definitely one of the stranger episodes of
Yes, Minister.Yeah, my wife refused to watch the series with me after turning it off half-way through this episode. She assumed it would go graphic ala Game of Thrones, which she also refuses to watch.
My wife will watch some episodes (and enjoy them), but I have to pre-watch each of them first and decide if I think she'll like it or not. She doesn't like it if they're too depressing/bleak, so I have to be a filter for those episodes.
This episode definitely made me stop watching. I can't do entertainment that's just pain and suffering and sadness, and the dark humor didn't lighten it because it felt all too plausible. For me it was just a 45 minute close-up of ugly human and societal tendencies, thoroughly soaked in dread and anxiety.
If the other ones are even darker and more serious than that, holy crap. I'm so not the right audience.
They initially lost my wife with this episode, but the description from a friend is what drew me in. Later eps-- it only took a couple --were enough to get my wife back in front of the TV. I think it made sense strategically as the splash of this ep got a lot of press and water-cooler talk going. I likely wouldn't have heard about the show at all for another season or two otherwise.
I feel like a lot of that is due in part to Charlie Brooker's background in writing comedy. The show hadn't found its niche yet, so between this more darkly comedic episode, the next one having a much less hard approach to sci-fi, and the final episode of the series having a more standard tone when compared to the rest of the show, the writers were able to see what resonated with people.
One hundred percent agree. Was not a huge fan of this but I was glad I stuck it through because I think mostly every other episode in the series surpasses it. Honestly I don't even have much to say about this episode, it doesn't leave much to discuss. I can't wait for next episode!
This wasn’t my first episode, but I can understand why this would turn some people off from the series.
On the surface it looks like it’s just a gross shocking show, but on the other hand, it started with a realistic premise that happened in current times, there wasn’t any futuristic technology.
To those who cared, it showed that there was more to the show then shown on the surface. Probably not a great path to go though to captivate people.
The great production quality is there though, which is something that the series maintains throughout.