Another solid season. I’m so hit and miss at watching these.

Social media. Virtual reality writ real (they do that a lot this season). Extortion. Life after death (of a sorts). Bugs. Politics.

It has it all.

It’s fascinating to me how Black Mirror at once manages to explore such a wide variety of potential future technology–and at the same time have the same little VR dots on the head in episode after episode. 😄

Onward!

Episode by episode reviews (potential minor spoilers):

1. Nosedive

Wait, that’s not how social media works?

It’s chasing the ever elusive 5 star rating… writ everything. And how much that sucks. And maybe eventually learning a life lesson.

Or not.

Man the second hand embarrassment is bad in this one.

Good episode.

2. Playtest

A VR device that ties right into your nervous systems… used for making a horror experience.

What could possibly go wrong.

(Again. And again. And again.)

3. Shut Up and Dance

Extortion scams. Write an email saying ‘I know what you did and I’ll tell everyone unless you fess up’ and send it to everyone, knowing some will pay up.

Except this time, they actually did it.

Take that, and give a simple order. Go here. Meet this person. Commit more crimes.

It’s … distressingly possible, I suppose. Which a lot of Black Mirror is.

4. San Junipero

One part meet cute. (Sheltered) Girl meets (worldly) girl. They hit it off. One thing leads to another.

One part mystery. Why is (was) she so sheltered? Where’d she go? What’s with this Quagmire? What’s with the closeup of the moon…?

One part endings. One part beginnings.

I enjoyed this one.

5. Men Against Fire

Roaches.

Expecting bugs. Perhaps Starship Troopers.

I suppose that must have been the point…

6. Hated in the Nation

Robotic bees.

CSI.

Social media (a lot of that this season).

Death.

So much death.

And politics.

An intense one.