Shut Up and Dance
Year: 2016
Directed by: James Watkins
Starring: Jerome Flynn & Alex Lawther
Runtime: 52 minutes
Published: 27/04/23
Directed by: James Watkins
Starring: Jerome Flynn & Alex Lawther
Runtime: 52 minutes
Published: 27/04/23
The internet is a terrible place, I don’t think that’s any secret. Anyone with enough technological knowhow can bypass ‘robust’ security measures and access personal information about you and do what they please with it. We all have something to hide, things we don’t want other people knowing, and usually our internet history is filled with such content. You often hear of people’s devices being hacked, personal information being held ransom, and people blackmailed into doing things to protect their secrets. So Black Mirror’s third episode of Season Three, Shut Up and Dance, takes this concept to the extreme and shows what could be possible in this kind of scenario.
Kenny (Alex Lawther) works at a family restaurant, is bullied by his co-workers, infantilised by his mother, and is generally socially awkward. When trying to fix his laptop, Kenny accidentally allows hackers into his computer who film him masturbating to pornography. Using this video as leverage against him, the hackers send commands to Kenny which he must comply with or suffer the video being sent out to everyone he knows.
Kenny (Alex Lawther) works at a family restaurant, is bullied by his co-workers, infantilised by his mother, and is generally socially awkward. When trying to fix his laptop, Kenny accidentally allows hackers into his computer who film him masturbating to pornography. Using this video as leverage against him, the hackers send commands to Kenny which he must comply with or suffer the video being sent out to everyone he knows.
Shut up and Dance is a return to the pre-Netflix era of Black Mirror with it being set entirely in the UK and having a dark tone that doesn’t stray too far from reality unlike the previous episode, Playtest. In a lot of ways, it’s reminiscent of the Series Two episode White Bear. I can’t really talk much more about the episode without spoiling it, so you have been warned.
Kenny is a character you grow to care for and relate to over the course of the episode, aided massively thanks to Lawther’s excellent performance. But similar to White Bear the curtain is removed to reveal that Kenny is in fact a bad person and the hackers are carrying out some form of vigilante justice on him. Although I will say that this similarity to White Bear does hurt the episode, the way in which it’s pulled off makes Kenny a considerably more sympathetic character because of his young age and immaturity. This isn’t an attempt at me justifying Kenny’s crimes, but once you learn what kind of person Kenny is you feel more inclined to want to help him rather than hurt him, which I think is the key difference between Shut Up and Dance and White Bear (wherein White Bear you either agree or disagree with the punishment of the main character, in Shut Up and Dance it’s either a desire to assist Kenny or write him off as lost cause).
Jerome Flynn is cast alongside Lawther for much of the episode as Hector, a middle-aged man who is also being targeted by the hackers. This network that begins to build of blackmail victims is what keeps a lot of the episode really intriguing, because as time goes on you start to piece together that they’re probably not particularly nice people.
Shut Up and Dance is another strong Black Mirror episode and how much you’ll like it really depends on what you thought about White Bear. Personally, I don’t care for it as much as White Bear, but I still enjoy what the episode brings to the table, and the discussion about vigilante ‘justice’ is really worthwhile. Plus, I love Lawther’s performance, and I would say it’s one of the best Black Mirror performances ever. So, whilst it can feel like it’s re-treading old ground, Shut Up and Dance does find ways to keep itself interesting.
Kenny is a character you grow to care for and relate to over the course of the episode, aided massively thanks to Lawther’s excellent performance. But similar to White Bear the curtain is removed to reveal that Kenny is in fact a bad person and the hackers are carrying out some form of vigilante justice on him. Although I will say that this similarity to White Bear does hurt the episode, the way in which it’s pulled off makes Kenny a considerably more sympathetic character because of his young age and immaturity. This isn’t an attempt at me justifying Kenny’s crimes, but once you learn what kind of person Kenny is you feel more inclined to want to help him rather than hurt him, which I think is the key difference between Shut Up and Dance and White Bear (wherein White Bear you either agree or disagree with the punishment of the main character, in Shut Up and Dance it’s either a desire to assist Kenny or write him off as lost cause).
Jerome Flynn is cast alongside Lawther for much of the episode as Hector, a middle-aged man who is also being targeted by the hackers. This network that begins to build of blackmail victims is what keeps a lot of the episode really intriguing, because as time goes on you start to piece together that they’re probably not particularly nice people.
Shut Up and Dance is another strong Black Mirror episode and how much you’ll like it really depends on what you thought about White Bear. Personally, I don’t care for it as much as White Bear, but I still enjoy what the episode brings to the table, and the discussion about vigilante ‘justice’ is really worthwhile. Plus, I love Lawther’s performance, and I would say it’s one of the best Black Mirror performances ever. So, whilst it can feel like it’s re-treading old ground, Shut Up and Dance does find ways to keep itself interesting.