#BLACK MIRROR WIKI SHUT UP AND DANCE SERIES#

In a truly vicious flourish, HectorвЂ™s ringtone - the noise alerting him that his life is falling to pieces - is a clownвЂ™s bicycle horn. The cell phone becomes an effective tool of terror, the pixelated readouts of text-message notifications taking on more menace with every passing scene. (And one with an expiration date of, like, 2010!) As the punchline to a joke, itвЂ™s one hell of a twisted gag, and it inspires more indigestion than laughter.Д«efore that, however, Brooker and Bridges milk the impersonal menace of technological designs for all theyвЂ™re worth. TheyвЂ™ve impelled us to bear witness to some pretty abominable sights, and all weвЂ™re left to show for it is a meme. When the episode concludes with the trollface meme sent out like the sinister Order 66 from Star Wars, it feels a lot like writers Charlie Brooker and William Bridges are just messing with us.

The scenes anchored by Kenny and Hector are tense and occasionally funny - an encounter with a PTA mom provides a bit of much-needed levity - and most crucially, they keep the viewers off-balance and unprepared for the episodeвЂ™s endgame.ДЄnd though to spoil the ending would be to rob it of all its power, thereвЂ™s plenty of room to say that it doesnвЂ™t follow through on what precedes it in any meaningful way. (This dynamic has shades of вЂњWhite Christmas,вЂќ which also found two men stuck in the same unfortunate circumstance, trying to figure out how they ended up there.) Their cooperation only lasts as long as the depraved assignments demand of them, and so their partnership is defined by the uncommon combination of mutual despair and muted enmity. The two captives enter into an uneasy sort of companionship founded on mutual distrust as they go about their work.

#BLACK MIRROR WIKI SHUT UP AND DANCE SERIES#

The eventual reveal is plenty shocking, and yet the road to get there has far more to offer than its destination.ДЄs if at virtual gunpoint, Kenny is sent on a series of increasingly perilous errands by his faceless blackmailers, soon making the acquaintance of fellow victim Hector (Jerome Flynn). Who this вЂњtheyвЂќ is and what theyвЂ™ve got against our hapless masturbator constitute the driving mystery of the suspense-oriented hour. Nineteen-year-old Kenny (Alex Lawther), who assumes he just rid his computer of malware, decides to treat himself to a вЂњseventh-inning stretch.вЂќ (Read: masturbation.) Moments later, to his abject horror, he receives a message from an unknown number, informing him via aggressive all-caps that theyвЂ™ve recorded him in flagrante delicto and will leak the sensitive material if he doesnвЂ™t comply with their commands. But the pitch-black nihilism feels like empty sadism once it becomes apparent that nobodyвЂ™s leaving this parade of misery and degradation having learned anything of worth.ДЄt first glance, вЂњShut Up and DanceвЂќ could be a cautionary tale about the importance of always putting a sticky note over your laptop camera. The dark revelations that close out both episodes reframe everything thatвЂ™s led up to those final moments, and the satisfaction of watching it all snap into place certainly has its own merit. TheyвЂ™ve got the same strengths and the same flaws: mounting tension at an agreeably slow boil, which fizzles out on a late-game twist that doesnвЂ™t amount to much. Several Black Mirror episodes make for canny double features, so itвЂ™s helpful to think of вЂњShut Up and DanceвЂќ as a sister story to the earlier вЂњWhite Bear.вЂќ Both thrust the audience into a hostile, enigmatic hunt and leave them, panting and frightened, to sort out whatвЂ™s going on. Jerome Flynn as Hector, Alex Lawther as Kenny.

Black mirror wiki shut up and dance