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Reflections From a Black Mirror: S1 E1 “The National Anthem” (Netflix)
Talk about starting off with a “bang,” the very first episode of Black Mirror ever forces a Prime Minister to “pork” a pig.
Bad puns aside…
British Prime Minister Michael Callow (Rory Kinnear) is woken from his slumber to find that the royal Princess Susannah has been kidnapped and that she has been held for a very particular kind of ransom. The kidnapper promises that the Princess, who is much loved in Britain, will be killed if the Prime Minister does not have sex with a pig on camera live at a designated time and to be broadcast across all British networks terrestrial and satellite.
The Prime Minister is also told that there will be repercussions if the government, military, or police interfere in any way. Despite this, the Prime Minister chooses to resist and orders the security forces to not release the information about the kidnapping and the ransom. Unfortunately for him, the video of the kidnapped and terrified princess including the instructions and conditions was released to YouTube and has since been copied and disseminated across the country and the world.
At first, the British news agencies all collude to not cover the story, but once CNN and Al Jazeera start broadcasting the story the British press joins in and the story starts to…
