Hated in the Nation
Year: 2016
Directed by: James Hawes
Starring: Kelly Macdonald, Faye Marsay & Benedict Wong
Runtime: 89 minutes
Published: 18/05/23
Directed by: James Hawes
Starring: Kelly Macdonald, Faye Marsay & Benedict Wong
Runtime: 89 minutes
Published: 18/05/23
Social media is one of the greatest inventions of the twenty first century. With it we are able to communicate with the entire world at the touch of a button. But as with all great things social media can be a curse just as much as a blessing, most notably in online bullying, or trolling.
Because of the anonymity afforded with online discourse, even on the most public of forums like Twitter, people feel like they can get away with saying anything, and it can bring out a nasty side to otherwise nice people, or just allow people that are already nasty to be even worse. But what if the horrible things they said had consequences? What if hashtags decided who lived and who died?
When journalist Jo Powers (Elizabeth Berrington) dies of mysterious causes, DCI Karin Parke (Kelly Macdonald) and her new partner Blue Coulson (Faye Marsay) follow the trail to Granular, a tech company funded by the government who manufacture robotic bees that replace the soon to be extinct honey bee.
When more dead bodies begin to pile up with a similar cause of death, a pattern begins to be made between social media hate posts and the robotic bees.
I remember disliking Hated in the Nation when I watched it a number of years ago, and having re-watched it for this review I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
Coming in at just shy of ninety minutes long, it is tied with Bandersnatch for being the longest Black Mirror episode, and that’s arguably the episodes greatest flaw. Whilst it certainly uses the increased runtime to present a considerably more complex narrative, it can feel overdrawn and spread a bit thin at times.
Because of the anonymity afforded with online discourse, even on the most public of forums like Twitter, people feel like they can get away with saying anything, and it can bring out a nasty side to otherwise nice people, or just allow people that are already nasty to be even worse. But what if the horrible things they said had consequences? What if hashtags decided who lived and who died?
When journalist Jo Powers (Elizabeth Berrington) dies of mysterious causes, DCI Karin Parke (Kelly Macdonald) and her new partner Blue Coulson (Faye Marsay) follow the trail to Granular, a tech company funded by the government who manufacture robotic bees that replace the soon to be extinct honey bee.
When more dead bodies begin to pile up with a similar cause of death, a pattern begins to be made between social media hate posts and the robotic bees.
I remember disliking Hated in the Nation when I watched it a number of years ago, and having re-watched it for this review I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
Coming in at just shy of ninety minutes long, it is tied with Bandersnatch for being the longest Black Mirror episode, and that’s arguably the episodes greatest flaw. Whilst it certainly uses the increased runtime to present a considerably more complex narrative, it can feel overdrawn and spread a bit thin at times.
It’s tough to talk about what I like about the episode without discussing spoilers, so you’ve been warned.
The reveal that it is Granular’s robotic bees killing people is great and it blows the doors wide open for theories about how this could be happening. Being a police drama, most of these avenues are considered or explored before homing in on the real reason, and it doesn’t disappoint. A disgruntled former Granular employee who is sick of the way society thoughtlessly bully and wish people harm with online discourse. So he hacks the bees and makes them target the person who has attracted the most online hatred every day. Of course this isn’t the end of proceedings and Hated in the Nation has a couple of excellent twists hidden up its sleeve saved for the final act.
It reminds me a lot of the first Black Mirror episode, The National Anthem, in the way it explores someone’s manipulation of society, giving them exactly what they want and seeing them suffer because of it. But it also adds elements of Nosedive and White Bear in there with the inclusion of social media based ranking (the highest number of ‘DeathTo’ hashtag’s is that days victim) and the public knowing that participating in the act will cause harm for the sake of entertainment.
What Hated in the Nation crucially misses though is good performances from the cast. Kelly Macdonald is serviceable, but she’s just really dry, and maybe that’s the way the character was written and she couldn’t do much with the material, but it’s like eating dry Weetabix…and she’s the best it gets.
Benedict Wong shows up for a while and it’s laughable how bad he is, struggling with an English accent to boot.
Nobody is interesting, very few characters are anything more than police stereotypes, and they’re all kind of crappy people.
These below par performances are really what stops Hated in the Nation being among the best Black Mirror episodes. Even some of the worst episodes have half decent performances, so it’s a real shame to see this one miss the mark so much.
Hated in the Nation is a great premise that’s let down by being slightly too long, and having no memorable or noteworthy performances. This could have been one of the best Black Mirror episodes of all time, but sadly it languishes somewhere in the lower third when stacked up against the rest and is entirely forgettable because of it. If you’re after a sci-fi police procedural then Hated in the Nation will scratch that itch, but don’t expect anything more than surface level.
The reveal that it is Granular’s robotic bees killing people is great and it blows the doors wide open for theories about how this could be happening. Being a police drama, most of these avenues are considered or explored before homing in on the real reason, and it doesn’t disappoint. A disgruntled former Granular employee who is sick of the way society thoughtlessly bully and wish people harm with online discourse. So he hacks the bees and makes them target the person who has attracted the most online hatred every day. Of course this isn’t the end of proceedings and Hated in the Nation has a couple of excellent twists hidden up its sleeve saved for the final act.
It reminds me a lot of the first Black Mirror episode, The National Anthem, in the way it explores someone’s manipulation of society, giving them exactly what they want and seeing them suffer because of it. But it also adds elements of Nosedive and White Bear in there with the inclusion of social media based ranking (the highest number of ‘DeathTo’ hashtag’s is that days victim) and the public knowing that participating in the act will cause harm for the sake of entertainment.
What Hated in the Nation crucially misses though is good performances from the cast. Kelly Macdonald is serviceable, but she’s just really dry, and maybe that’s the way the character was written and she couldn’t do much with the material, but it’s like eating dry Weetabix…and she’s the best it gets.
Benedict Wong shows up for a while and it’s laughable how bad he is, struggling with an English accent to boot.
Nobody is interesting, very few characters are anything more than police stereotypes, and they’re all kind of crappy people.
These below par performances are really what stops Hated in the Nation being among the best Black Mirror episodes. Even some of the worst episodes have half decent performances, so it’s a real shame to see this one miss the mark so much.
Hated in the Nation is a great premise that’s let down by being slightly too long, and having no memorable or noteworthy performances. This could have been one of the best Black Mirror episodes of all time, but sadly it languishes somewhere in the lower third when stacked up against the rest and is entirely forgettable because of it. If you’re after a sci-fi police procedural then Hated in the Nation will scratch that itch, but don’t expect anything more than surface level.