Black Mirror: Ranking Every Episode From Worst To Best

15. Fifteen Million Merits

black mirror 15 million merits
Channel 4

A skewering of reality TV shows such as X-Factor, Fifteen Million Merits takes place in a dystopian future where people must cycle to power their surroundings and earn credits. Bing (Daniel Kaluuya) meets Abi (Jessica Brown), and convinces her to make a bid for freedom via a talent show.

There's a lot of good stuff in this episode - we're past the point of any instalment being considered bad now - including the two central performances, with Kaluuya showing why he'd become such a force in a few years time. The trouble is that's the part that holds up best, with the rest of Brooker's critique of capitalism and talent shows feeling dated.

It's also an episode that simply exists to make a point. There's zero subtlety here, with Brooker instead hitting viewers over the head with a sledgehammer to drive his messaging home, and is much longer than it needs to be, but Bing and Abi just about hold things together.

[JH]

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Contributor
Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.

Contributor

Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.