![]() The two captives enter into an uneasy sort of companionship founded on mutual distrust as they go about their work. The eventual reveal is plenty shocking, and yet the road to get there has far more to offer than its destination.Īs if at virtual gunpoint, Kenny is sent on a series of increasingly perilous errands by his faceless blackmailers, soon making the acquaintance of fellow victim Hector (Jerome Flynn). Who this “they” is and what they’ve got against our hapless masturbator constitute the driving mystery of the suspense-oriented hour. ![]() Nineteen-year-old Kenny (Alex Lawther), who assumes he just rid his computer of malware, decides to treat himself to a “seventh-inning stretch.” (Read: masturbation.) Moments later, to his abject horror, he receives a message from an unknown number, informing him via aggressive all-caps that they’ve recorded him in flagrante delicto and will leak the sensitive material if he doesn’t comply with their commands. But the pitch-black nihilism feels like empty sadism once it becomes apparent that nobody’s leaving this parade of misery and degradation having learned anything of worth.Īt first glance, “Shut Up and Dance” could be a cautionary tale about the importance of always putting a sticky note over your laptop camera. The dark revelations that close out both episodes reframe everything that’s led up to those final moments, and the satisfaction of watching it all snap into place certainly has its own merit. They’ve got the same strengths and the same flaws: mounting tension at an agreeably slow boil, which fizzles out on a late-game twist that doesn’t amount to much. Several Black Mirror episodes make for canny double features, so it’s helpful to think of “Shut Up and Dance” as a sister story to the earlier “White Bear.” Both thrust the audience into a hostile, enigmatic hunt and leave them, panting and frightened, to sort out what’s going on. Jerome Flynn as Hector, Alex Lawther as Kenny.
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