The reality in Black Mirror: 15 Million Merits felt so eerily "realistic" to me. I may be the only one, but I couldn't help but see similarities in the Black Mirror world and ours. And I think that's the art in it: portraying a setting so foreign and even scary to us, and yet it still feels real and tangible.
Looking past the dystopian/futuristic technological setting for the moment, the character of Bingham is an interesting choice through which the audience views this dystopia. From the beginning, we know that he sees his life as mundane, meaningless. He is not entertained by the constant inundation of images, in fact we see that he readily avoids it. Bingham's attitude towards this world is not verbally expressed until his crescendoed speech (which, by the way, was pretty powerful) but the audience knows he feels this way from the beginning. Because we see this world through his lens, his story, it augments our inclinations to be wary of this technological Eden.
The hyper-sexualization in this diegesis is pretty gross, but unfortunately not far off from our own reality where sex sells and pornography becomes increasingly violent, with younger participants and viewers. Also, the television programming in the Black Mirror is just complete brain cell-killing bogus crap that can also be seen on our televisions as well, just turn on E! Network.
The society in Black Mirror is also pretty pathetic, but again reminds me so much of how people use social media in this world. Constantly being glued to a phone or computer or TV parallels the intrusive and ever-present screen in Black Mirror.
In terms of the quasi-double reality (the person's life and their digital avatar/screen life) I think this is a direct commentary on this episode's relationship with the audience. Who do we identify with? Does this make us even more aware that we're watching a screen, or does it suck us in to the screen reality instead?
Although I admittedly partake in social media and mind-numbing digital entertainment, there are a lot of effects I don't think we are fully aware of yet, and Black Mirror explores that in a far-fetched reality that is actually all too real.
I found it interesting that you think the audience becomes wary of technology because we see through Bingham's eyes. I believe that the audience is already wary of technology, and Bingham's character is a relatable protagonist because the audience comes into the show with rooted fears of how technology will take over most of our lives. Also, I don't understand what you mean by the quasi-double reality with the avatar. I don't believe these avatars are supposed to be relatable to the audience in any way. There could be an argument through the red hair guy "pimping" out his avatar, but this scene isn't intended to address the audience (more show the constant cycle of media watching to earn points to buy more media).
ReplyDeleteI like the questions you asked about the digital parallel because I think those questions can be asked within the story as well. I think the point of the doubles is to not think about the life you are living in your body but this other life that has so much more, but does the constant appearance of it on a screen make that impossible? It makes me think about how in today's society we are supposed to forget about our phones and our internet but then the minute we step away from them we are completely cut off from most information (news streams, weather, media) and are then judged because we don't have that access. It's a double edged sword and I think that is also shown in this episode by Bing at the end with wanting to change something but then becoming part of that something.
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