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Hang The DJ is the fourth episode of Black Mirror Series 4 and takes place in an alternate society where, as demonstrated by Frank (Joe Cole) and Amy (Georgina Campbell), you go on dates not only in the hope of meeting ‘the one’, but as confirmed by a new app/device which even orders your food for you, you’re forced to spend time with incompatible people until such time that the device informs you that your ‘pairing day’ has finally come round.
Plus, it’s a device in similar style to those used by all those millennials who seem to enjoy talking to Siri, Alexa, Google Home and all those stupid things, while normal people press buttons and type words; Remember that?
An interesting situation with these dates is that straight away, you can discover your relationship’s ‘expiry date’ with that person. It’s similar to how if you could find out when your death date was, you’d be straight onto it, although you’d be a bit miffed if it was next week. However, since we don’t have any of these functions in this universe, checking the expiry at the start of a date is like waiting for everything to fail.
I like how it finds a date for you, and often, fairly quickly; but it does seem odd to move in together quickly, though, even if you hate them, and it’s for longer than you’d like. However, as the participants soon learn, technology can really screw things up in unexpected ways.
The ending does, in part, feel like some stupid ’80s aftershave advert, though, and the title doesn’t make any sense, other than we all know it comes from one of the many classic songs from The Smiths, Panic.
Then again, neither did Crocodile, so to borrow a trait from another Manchester band, it’s a bit like the titles of New Order singles – sometimes they featured them in the lyrics, while for others, they were of completely irrelevant.
Black Mirror: Hang The DJ is available on Netflix now. The series isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but you can buy a DVD boxset of Series 1 & 2 and the 2014 Special.
Score: 8/10
Running time: 51 minutes
Widescreen ratio: 2.20:1
Director: Timothy Van Patten
Producers: Annabel Jones and Nick Pitt
Writer: Charlie Brooker
Music: Sigur Rós and Alex Somers
Cast:
Amy: Georgina Campbell
Frank: Joe Cole
Coach: Gina Bramhill (voice)
Lenny: George Blagden
Nicola: Gwyneth Keyworth
Edna: Jessie Cave
Mike: Luke Manning
Norman: Tim Pritchett
Butch: Alex Tamaro
Silverfox: Che Watson
David: Bruce Chong
Patty: Anna Dobrucki
Woman on escalator: Yvonne Strahovski (uncredited)
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.