In this episode of Black Mirrors it revolves a different type of world, similar to all of the other episodes. However, this episode is much more relatable than the ones we have watched in the past, due to it being about advertisements and how they are unavoidable in todays world. The show revolves a young man, Bing, he lives by himself in a small room surrounding by four walls of video screening, all of the characters live in rooms just like Bing. We watch Bing begin his morning routine, getting woken up by a cartoon rooster, shutting it off by waving his hands, almost as if it were motion censored. We watch Bing enter a room full of spin bikes with televisions in front of each spin bike, here we see more characters. Each character in the show has their own cartoon-like version, similar to sims in a way. In this society the citizens have to bike to earn "merits" and daily activities cost them merits. Once the day has ended we see Bing playing videos games and being interrupted by an advertisement, he choses to end it, however, it costs him some merits to ignore them. Throughout Bing's time in his bedroom advertisements constantly pop up and at times he chooses to watch for a little bit and the ignore them. One regular advertisement is for the reality show, "Hot Shot" similar to America's Got Talent, where contestants show their talent in hopes of moving on to the next round.
Through out the episode we watch Bing, paying close attention to women, Abby someone he seems to be interested in. Bing over hears Abby's voice in the bathroom one day and insists she tries out on the Hot Shot show. Bing later then buys her an entry ticket, nearly emptying out all of his merits. Once Abby gets to the performing part of the show, the judges are more quick to comment on her feminine looks, than her actual talent. The judges insist that Abby begins working with them within a pornography company, than going back to biking every day. After being persuaded, she ultimately chooses to pornography than returning to the bike. Bing returns home to his biking routine and still bombarded with advertisements and programs that they think he would like, including a video of Abby and her new job. This upsets Bing and he chooses to get a ticket on Hot Shot to preach to the audience how wrong it is what they're doing. Ultimately, the judges are intrigued by his passion, anger and his ways of attracting larger audiences, they ask him to make his own show, where he will speak twice a week and will no longer have to return to the bikes.
Watching Bing so easily agree with the judges was not surprising, but it was interesting to see how quickly he chose to leave when he was offered the chance. Bing was so fed up with his life style of biking and constant advertisements that he would do whatever to escape, just like Abby. This episode was intriguing because in todays world there are advertisements everywhere, and just like how Bing can give up merits to ignore the ad's, we can pay to ignore ad's. Many music apps, tv apps, and radio app allow you to pay a few once a month to no longer hear or see advertisements. Advertisements have such a big impact on us humans in today's society, many people are unaware the power these marketing agencies hold.
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