Every Season 1 Black Mirror Episode Ranked Worst To Best

A scathing critique of reality television and consumerism, Fifteen Million Merits may look the furthest away in setting of all the season one episodes but is actually the closest in what it is exploring. In a world where the public have to ride a bike in order to gain merits which they can spend on commodities, Bing tries to overthrow this oppressive system.

After falling in love with fellow worker Abi and buying her entry to X Factor based reality show, Hot Shot, he hopes to make her dreams come true. However, like many reality show winners Abi soon learns that there is no happy ever after and is forced to become a performer on one of the Hot Shot judge's porn channel, Wraithbabes.

For such a seemingly lighthearted premise, this may be one of the darkest episodes of Black Mirror as Abi is sold off to the world of pornography and the finale sees Bing holding a shard of glass to his throat ranting to a captive audience about the state of society and how they have contributed to it.

In regards to world building, acting (boasting a career changing performance by Daniel Kaluuya as Bing) and story, Fifteen Million Merits is an incredible piece of television. Its final message seems somewhat muddled, perhaps because Charlie Brooker admits he is reluctant to explicitly leave audiences with one. Is it a story about the dangers of selling out, a crime which Bing is guilty of as he repeats his impassioned rant every night for the viewers at home? The ambiguity and lack of closure may be unsatisfying but it is certainly thought provoking.