04 May 2017 "Shut Up And Dance Review"

If I told you to rob a bank or reveal your greatest, most disquieting secret, which would you choose? What if it wasn’t just your secret at the risk of exposure? What if I held a gun to your head? In the world of “Shut Up And Dance,” it seems like almost anything is possible, and robbing a bank is only the beginning.

Black Mirror is a show much like The Twilight Zone—it is known for taking reality and distorting it in just the right way so as to perturb its watchers. And for the most part, Black Mirror’s episodes successfully unsettle with suggestion. But “Shut Up And Dance,” though seemingly imminent (in an age of technological reliance, who knows when we’re being watched?), couldn’t have felt further from reality. Kenny’s character seems likeable until he isn’t, and the plot seems realistic until it doesn’t.

Charlie Brooker, the English-born creator of Black Mirror, is known for his horror, satire and controversial TV elements. He has won several awards for television, comedy and press writing, but is most well known for his brutal criticism—it is no coincidence that several of the most recent episodes of Black Mirror align eerily well with the most recent U.S. election. “Shut Up And Dance”, the third episode of the third season, is Brooker’s second of only two Black Mirror episodes that are additionally eerie because they are meant to take place during the present day.

Just as I started to get comfortable with my understanding of the characters, the full extent of main character Kenny’s ignominious secret was revealed to me in all its repugnance. It certainly shocked me, and gives the episode its deserved placement within the series as a whole (it’s all super abhorrent and twisted,) but I’d say that this episode was low-end compared to the rest of the third season. The final reveal at the end certainly tied Kenny’s behavior together, but not enough to redeem the fifty-two minutes I squandered getting to know him.

“Shut Up And Dance” follows quiet, withdrawn Kenny (Alex Lawther) as he falls headfirst into an online ambush and fumbles desperately through a set of texted instructions sent by an anonymous hacker. He is quickly paired with a shady middle-aged man named Hector (Jerome Flynn), and the two desperately fraternize as the instruction messages flow in, each more and more preposterous. At one point, Hector and Kenny exchange the secrets that got them into the mess in the first place, Kenny’s embarrassment seeming juvenile when compared to Hector’s marriage-demolishing infidelity.

The two finally separate at a point that seems disjointed with what the plot has insofar suggested, and Kenny walks into what we are obviously supposed to assume (but not actually) is the end. We hear that heartbreaking chime signaling a text message, (Black Mirror has so routinely used phone sound effects as some sort of sound version of those flashing applause signs telling a studio audience when to feel emotion) and realize that Kenny has received another direction from the hacker.

It is at this point that one of my friends claims he picked up on the cringe worthy secret about Kenny. I have my doubts, but this could also be because I actively chose to believe in Kenny’s prepubescent innocence until the bitter end. But more than likely it is due to the poor circumspection exhibited by the writers and director (James Watkins, known especially for directing Eden Lake and The Woman in Black, both meh thrillers) in trying to slowly lead the audience to natural conclusion. And regardless, a few minutes later the full breadth of this episode dark twist reaches out from the screen and slaps me across the face, perhaps in an attempt to force me into some sort of general outrage. In fact, what actually happened to me was the sensation of some kind of coarse pity—I had already spent fifty minutes pegging the main characters as having made some simple mistakes and so to turn me against them at the last minute just seemed cheap.

Why would Kenny be willing to rob a bank just to avoid the spread of intimate footage of himself? Oh. That’s why. Gross. And roll credits.

The difference between the disturbing “National Anthem” episode and this one is that I didn’t really feel affected after watching Shut Up And Dance. Sure, I don’t want to watch either of them again, but at least when I describe Black Mirror to someone who’s never seen it, I make sure to alert them about the sex-with-a-pig episode.

If you already aren’t too keen on the series Black Mirror, I would advise you not to waste your time watching “Shut Up And Dance.” Give your mind the opportunity to really implode and watch “National Anthem.” At least then you’ll have a reason to avoid sleep.