LogFAQs > #883881687

4. The National Anthem

When you ask me what comes to mind when I think "pilot episode," I typically would say it would feature an introduction of characters and themes in a careful way, walking the narrow line of making sure it's intriguing enough while also not alienating too many new potential viewers right off the bat. Black Mirror says "fuck that." While I thought other episodes of Black Mirror were more fun, when it comes down to it, this might be the boldest condemnation of society that the show has to offer. The National Anthem IS Black Mirror.

I actually think part of the effectiveness of this episode lies in the madness that they chose it as the pilot. They filmed Fifteen Million Merits first, which is dark, scary, and brilliant all its own, but walks a more traditional line of dystopia. It's frankly more what I expected, and it would've been a great way to kick things off. Choosing instead to open your sci-fi dystopian anthology series with an episode that might as well take place tomorrow, revolving around nothing more complex than a 21st century response to an outrageous terror demand that the Prime Minister fuck a pig on live television, is such a brazen and ballsy choice that I still marvel at it as I write. Those first five minutes are straight-up iconic. I may have had the initial reaction of "that's more what I was going for!" after finishing Merits, but in hindsight, it truly was Anthem that set the table for the unique blend of horror, sadness, and pitch-black humor that would go on to define my experience with the series.

The interesting thing about the episode is that it really only has one central device that guides the entire hour -- the question of if the Prime Minister is actually going to fuck this pig (another reason this episode sort of had to come first, really; any later in the series and it would've been "of course he's really gonna fuck the pig, this is Black Mirror"). Not too much else is going on in the episode. Sure, there's the through-line of the skanky journalist trying to get the inside scoop, or the swirling storm of politicians, friends, and family that surrounds the Prime Minister, but all of it centers around that one question. It's a concept that only works because the premise is so utterly insane; the episode would be a fairly rote episode of 24 if the demand was to let a terrorist go and they were debating the ethics of that while trying to greenscreen the terrorist's face onto an actor. It has to be pig-fucking. I've seen the episode dismissed as raw shock value, but the whole premise goes out the window if it's not something this obscene and outlandish. There's no weight to it if there isn't the scene where his wife is reading YouTube comments about "licking bacon juice off his cock" hours before the event even transpires, realizing that he's already ruined no matter what he does. It is a necessity that the threat be so laughably gross.

Because, in the end, that's just it. By being a "LOLWTFBBQ!!!!" moment, it causes people to forget their empathy. While some would, plenty would not watch a live-streamed decapitation or bombing or similar terror threat. You know damn well that everyone is going to tune in to see if the PM actually fucks a pig on TV, though. It causes a hashtag feeding frenzy and drives at our basest instinct to be the first to make a funny joke about it or write a clever headline. Besides, the Prime Minister fucking a pig causes no international danger, so how dare he be selfish enough to not do this to save the Kate Middleton of the Black Mirrorverse? It turns one man's ninth circle of hell into a circus sideshow in a way that is disturbingly believable.
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-Shred