Useful analysis of 15 Million Merits

No idea whose blog this is (it does not say, how hyperreal is that?) but there is an useful analysis of 15 Million Merits as a perfect postmodern critique of either our world or the society we might become if we allow communication technology to take over our lives much more than it has so far. Probably written by a Film Studies teacher/lecturer, this blog is worth exploring as it considers some of the theories we have discussed including the Male Gaze and Marxism.

 Beware, however, I would disagree with the writer that 15 Million Merits is itself a postmodern text. Granted, it uses Pastiche, particularly of shows like The X Factor, which Michael Real identifies as one of the qualities of a postmodern text. However, it does not conform to any other of the characteristics - check it against the five features that Strinati posits as characteristics of postmodern texts and not one really works.

What it does is present a dystopic vision of the world in which Baudrillard's criticism of hyperreality has become fully worked out. Narratively, the programme follows traditional, structuralist patterns containing a hero/protagonist, villains and a pop princess as well as a linear narrative sturcture, for example. Whilst Bing Madsen's speech is hailed by Judge Hope, what he is praising is, of course 'style over substance' (Strinati) or the 'medium rather than the message' (McLuhan) but that is the target of the satire. The incessant devaluation of everything to the level of soft porn is also a clear critique of shallow, postmodern media output (see the controversy over performances by Christina Aguilera and Rihanna on The X Factor here).

15 Million Merits does not promote postmodernism as a positive textual value but attacks it for its potential to devalue our sense of the real.

Summary of Baudrillard

Here is a useful summary of how Baudrillard is critical of the post-modern world in which simulacra - or copies without an original - have come to dominate us to the extent that we cannot accurately find reality anymore.

Postmodernism Theories, Theorists and Texts 2

The Postmodern mindset as shown by the character Egg in 'This Life' BBC 1996

'I only mean to say that theories don't work, do they?' 'So you do have a theory...'

Commissioning BBC TV Drama

Current strategy for commissioning new Drama on the BBC here.

Cost by genre of BBC Drama in 2012-13.

Organisations and Institutions for Magazines