Episode #1.1

Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris got together to take aim at the rise of the new media, be it the internet or trendy lifestyle magazines filled with vacuous people all trying to be hip and full of the latest buzzwords.

In this first episode we are introduced to Nathan Barley (Nicholas Burns) prankster, club promoter and guerilla filmmaker who pushes his silly output on the web. He would probably be now a major YouTuber with millions of followers and tons of promotional deals. Barley is an idiot but he has an audience.

Journalist Dan Ashcroft (Julian Barratt) has hit a nerve with his column, the Rise Of The Idiots in Sugar Ape magazine. The trouble is the people he works with are idiots, they just do not know it.

Dan is jaded with the mediocrity surrounding him, he on the edge. He may not be an idiot but he is just dull. Clever but plain has an house painted in beige. When he gets an interview with a proper sunday magazine, it is made clear just how insipid he is. The magazine wants to be hip and Dan has no ideas.

The opening episode has a young Ben Whishaw as Barley's put upon and exasperated IT expert.

This is not the usual sitcom, with Chris Morris you get barbed humour, it is even layered. You are even left wondering if this is funny, should you be laughing at or with the characters. However Brooker and Morris did rather predict the era of the hipster Vloggers.