Friday 21st October: I woke up and promised myself I’d watch two episodes, leaving the rest till the weekend. But of course, it was just one more until late evening and before I knew it, I’d binged the whole thing in a day. It seems that Black Mirror drains all my willpower and exposes my inner masochist better than anything else.
I have a newfound respect for Netflix. As the kings of serialised TV, they could have easily made one, continuous, six-episode story that bled one idea dry by the third episode (like Channel 4’s Humans). Instead, they gave Charlie Brooker a huge amount of creative freedom to express six new ideas in the show’s original format. While there’s some thematic crossover between the episodes, they all provide a unique experience thanks to the excellent and broad range of talent behind them. I’m delighted to say that Black Mirror has seen no lapse in quality in the two-year gap since White Christmas.
Here I review each episode in brief with no spoilers. I’m so excited to talk about them in further detail, but you’ll have to bear with me. While I already have lots written, I’d like to do them justice like my reviews for seasons one and two. I watched all those episodes several times before analysing them – that might be required for these new ones, too! At least, that’s my excuse for watching them again and again.
Nosedive
The season opens with a quintessentially Black Mirror premise. We’ve seen eyes that can record every moment of your life and eyes that can shut people out entirely. In Nosedive everyone has eyes that show the current rating out of five of anyone you look at. After every human encounter, you rate the other person out of five, and that affects their score. Bryce Dallas Howard stars as Lacie, a woman obsessed with improving and maintaining her rating.
It’s hard to get more Black Mirror than this. In my earlier reviews, I discussed at length the efficient worldbuilding that the show thrives on, and Nosedive is no exception. All the exposition is delivered visually, as is the desperate yet comedic tone. It’s also the first all-American episode, and the story is actually much better for it.
Some of the plotting becomes a little obvious and convenient, and the episode could have lost a few minutes here and there. But as a scathing satire on our attitude to social media that even touches a little on wealth inequality, it’s perfect. Like The Entire History of You, it takes a sci-fi piece of tech and carries it through to its logical conclusion, with an ending that’s memorable, chilling, yet surprisingly cathartic.
Playtest
Let me be honest, I’m still not sure what to make of this one. For me, it’s the weak link in the season, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it.
Wyatt Russell stars as Cooper, an American backpacking across the world until running out of cash in London. To make a quick buck, he takes a job as a virtual reality game tester, which leads him into a dark and surreal experience.
I was excited for this episode since it was announced that it would be directed by Dan Trachtenberg (who helmed 10 Cloverfield Lane). There are some brilliant moments of suspense, and Russell is great as the happy-go-lucky yet kind of obnoxious hero. While many Black Mirror episodes are horrific, Playtest is the first episode that fits into the horror genre. It even features a backpacker protagonist and a haunted house sequence. The episode cleverly plays with horror clichés while sustaining the tension.
I can’t really talk about why I didn’t like it as much as the others without spoiling it, but there’s still lots to enjoy, so go ahead and watch it and let me know what you think.
Shut Up and Dance
If you liked the thrills of season two’s White Bear, you’re going to love this one. Alex Lawther gives one of the best performances of the season as Kenny, a mild-mannered teenager who gets filmed masturbating. I don’t even want to tell you what comes next – the less you know, the better.
Big budgets and Hollywood actors are all well and good, but Shut Up and Dance is a welcome return to a quieter story. With only a handful of characters, it presents a tense rollercoaster – always moving with new developments every few scenes.
Featuring no sci-fi technology or societal attitudes that you won’t find today, Shut Up and Dance is one of the most uncomfortable experiences offered by Black Mirror. That’s because literally everything that happens could indeed be happening right now. There’s nothing to stop it. I was frightened from start to finish because all I could think was: This is all too real. It’s hard to effectively evoke that flavour of terror, but Shut Up and Dance succeeds to a steep and lasting degree.
San Junipero
This is another one I can’t talk about too much without spoiling. Set in the 1980s, San Junipero stars Mackenzie Davis as Yorkie, a shy geeky-looking girl who goes out to a club in the titular city. After she meets Kelly (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) a friendship, and a possible romance, starts to grow.
Mbatha-Raw is superb in this episode as a confident party girl with more to her than meets the eye. The tone of San Junipero is unlike any other episode. While there are usually sinister overtones from the get-go, San Junipero features a bright, nostalgic experience driven entirely by character. You might even forget what show you’re watching, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. After a few twists and revelations, it all adds up to something emotionally involving but in radically different ways than you’d usually expect from Black Mirror. It isn’t my favourite episode of the season, but it’s certainly the most unique – possibly the most unique episode of the entire show.
Man Against Fire
And we’re straight back into something a bit more typical. Stripe (Malachi Kirby) is a soldier in an unspecified conflict. His unit is kitted out with devices that function like a HUD, allowing them to see things like holograms, maps, building blueprints, and so on, through their eyes. It’s like Call of Duty brought to life.
Man Against Fire packs a hard punch and contains themes that are extremely relevant and accessible. I hope to God people actually listen to this one – it’s one of the most important ones out there given much of what’s going on today.
Sadly, the episode is less than the sum of its parts. With a sixty-minute runtime, it fails to use all that time efficiently, with many of the reveals coming in the form of talking and weak plotting. It dilutes some of the emotional impact and detracts from the episode’s staying power. Still, with its heavy-handed message, it’s an engaging story, and you’ll think long and hard about the ideas even after you’ve stopped thinking about the episode.
Hated in the Nation
When describing Black Mirror, it’s easy to chuck words around like clever or prescient. It’s all clever, that’s why we love it. But I think Hated in the Nation is ingenious.
Set in near-future London, Kelly MacDonald stars as Detective Karin Parke, who gets partnered with newbie Blue (Faye Marsay – whom I did not recognise as The Waif from Game of Thrones!). They are sent to investigate a journalist who’s come under fire for a controversial article, even receiving death threats over social media.
Earlier episodes went full horror, others seeped into the romance and sci-fi action genres, but this is a straight up police procedural. Murder, investigation, following clues, it’s all there, and though it’s the longest Black Mirror episode to date, there’s no lapse in the tension and sense of unease that carry you through to the finale.
What’s great is that these ideas – Twitter hate and death threats over social media – seem destined to be explored in Black Mirror. We were almost waiting for an episode about it. Yet it does them justice in a way more creative than I could have ever imagined. Not only that, but there’s a lot more going on in Hated in the Nation that I can’t believe it all fits together so perfectly. It could have so easily become muddled, but Brooker finds a way to have all these themes work in harmony. I can’t wait to talk about it in more detail!
Hated in the Nation is a triumph and already one of my favourite episodes to date. It’s a tense story filled with shocking revelations, eerie action, and characteristically haunting examinations on exactly where we’re headed.
Stay tuned for my spoiler-filled examination in the coming weeks!
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