Unlike most, the episode "Shut Up and Dance" is not futuristic, but is based on existing technologies and their current abuses.
An unknown person or group hacks computer cameras and catches people in compromising situations. Then uses these recordings to blackmail them. Several of these seemingly random victims have received obscure instructions on what, when, and where to do if they do not want their footage to leak to the public.
The blackmailers' demands to the victims seem quite harmless in relation to the consequences if they do not fulfill them, but we see that only based on their reactions, while we do not really know what exactly they were blackmailed with. They depart each to his task, driven by panic fear of the publication of the images, which may seem irrationally excessive to us.
The characters are ordinary people, totally inconspicuous and uninteresting, and the tasks themselves are quite banal and did not arouse my particular interest in the outcome, so I wondered why "Shut Up and Dance" has such a high rating on IMDb. A good idea of a perfect crime, where the actors are unknown and unrelated people, who don't even know what they're doing, so it's almost impossible to track them down, is spoiled by unimpressive characters and a pace that doesn't hold attention, but then these pieces of the puzzle begin to assemble into a broader picture and the tension begins to rise.
When I finally figured out what it was about and my disappointment with the episode subsided, there was a final plot twist, which showed me that I hadn't figured anything out and that the real picture of this puzzle was much darker than I could have imagined. When the ending credits started, my wife and I sat for a while, silently glancing at each other with wtf expressions on our faces. The episode left us completely speechless. In the end, nothing was as it seemed and a day later I still don't know what to think.
In technical terms, and even in acting, "Shut Up and Dance" is nothing spectacular, although Jerome Flynn, in one of the main roles, was a pleasant surprise to me. For the most part, the episode is not particularly atmospheric, and the tension is at a fairly low level for a thriller. But the impression that the final outcome left on me makes it perhaps the strongest episode so far. I can't recall the last time something has caused me this level of discomfort, which crawled into my bones and did not wane even later when the impressions settled.
8,5/10.
