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Shut Up and Dance... just... wow (spoilers)

posted 8 years ago by Meven_Stoffat
21 replies | jump to latest

I know this sounds blasphemous but this might be right up there with 15 Million Merits as my favourite episode. You have a handsome and initially charming protagonist who seems like your typical working class young man. Even jerks off to some porn. Gets rcored doing it and is thrust headfirst into a tense and anxiety ridden heist.

And then at the very end, the hackers win. We all think his jerkoff video has been posted but they took it a step further in the best and most disturbing possible way: he's a pedophile and was wanking to child porn!!! Jesus, I can't remember the last time I was that floored by a twist.

So in one aspect it works as a commentary on the whole Anonymous/Wikileaks thing, and in another it works as a deconstruction of the "expendable hero" type. My only gripe is that the police showing up at the end seemed a bit far fetched as it would take at least a day for the urine sample to match, but it also works if you consider the possibility his mother called the police for the child porn possession.

Great episode!

[–] alligatoruk 8 years ago

I agree I thought this episode was the darkest and most interesting of the new series. I've watched all but one of them and this one seemed most like the original 2 series and White Christmas in its tone. Some of the others have been less gritty maybe - I think maybe it's the Americanisation of them. I know the Nosedive is meant to be all glossy and San Junipero is a fantasy world but I personally prefer the more real life stories. Somehow this just works better when they're set in the UK (perhaps that's because it's where I'm from and can relate to the setting more?)

With Shut Up and Dance I did guess what the main guy's particular predilection was early on - not sure exactly why. Maybe a combination of showing him interacting with the child at the beginning and the fact that I don't think you'd rob a bank and kill another person just to cover up normal masturbation.

The really dark route it took was disturbing but fascinating to watch. Making the audience feel sorry for him and then turning that around with the reveal. And then then final irony that after all that it was for nothing anyway! Brilliant.

[–] ZoneFighter 8 years ago

I just watched the episode and I missed the clues. The end floored me. I thought he was victim until the end.