Screens compromise you. Irreparably.
This is what we argue from the very beginning Black Mirror?s episode. We understand we have to deal with the Internet, and we don?t have a playbook to follow: No instructions to dig out from that tunnel.
One thing is clear when we approach to The National Anthem: There are no rules. We have to improvise to find out a solution.
The plot is known: Princess Susannah has been kidnapped and will get murdered unless Prime Minister accepts to appear on all British networks, terrestrial and satellite, while having a full unsimulated intercourse with a pig.
We are pushed into this paradoxical plot and we can?t believe to what?s happening on the tv screen: As Prime Minister Michael Callow (Rory Kinnear) we are like paralyzed by the monstrous request.
The intercourse with our digital lives
This is how Black Mirror moves on: Showrunner Charlie Brooker hits you with something unimaginable becoming reality. And then he compels you to face with this reality to solve an unexpected error in your digital lives. This is the fil rouge of all Black Mirror?s episodes: Showing your deep relationship with tech and the bugs you usually don?t care of.
In this case the bug is about people?s disaffection for politics and the unhealthy attraction for the show. We don?t want to dive into politics, we usually want to stay miles away of politics? stuff (unless when we need to complain). We only pay attention when politics becomes Showtime. In the Anthem?s case people face an intercourse with a pig (a very gross thing), and they can?t take their eyes off the screen and the upcoming show. So technology modifies their perceptions and Prime Minister Callow is no more a person, he becomes a 2D card.
They are all intent on watch how is going to be the situation that nobody notices Princess Susannah has been released before the time they had agreed with the kidnapper, which is but the Turner-Prize winning artist Carlton Bloom (who commits suicide after PM?s public exhibition).
And here it is what The National Anthem shows you off:
How tech robs your moral without you don?t even realize it.
And so you stand naked, morality gets canceled. As if the ?princess question? doesn?t matter anymore.
Social media has perpetrated their masterpiece of manipulation. The National Anthem was the first Black Mirror?s episode, but the statement was just clear: Be careful to your behavior. This is a new world.
