Black Mirror (2011) Review: Our Screens, Our Nightmares

Is Black Mirror worth watching?

Yes. Black Mirror is the defining television satire of the smartphone age, and its best episodes are as unsettling and inventive as anything in the genre. Charlie Brooker’s anthology works like a set of short, sharp nightmares about how technology magnifies human weakness, and several of them have entered everyday conversation. The reservation is consistency: across seven seasons the quality varies widely, and the later episodes sometimes trade bite for budget.

What is Black Mirror about?

Black Mirror is an anthology: every episode is a standalone story with its own cast, setting and rules. Most are set in a near future or a slightly altered present, where a single technology, such as a social rating system, an implant that records every memory or a service that simulates the dead, exposes something uncomfortable about the people using it. Some episodes are horror, some romance, some satire, some thriller, and a few are genuinely hopeful.

Black Mirror was created by Charlie Brooker. It is a British production in English that began on Channel 4 before moving to Netflix. This review covers seven seasons and 33 episodes; the series is ongoing, but because each story stands alone, there is no cliffhanger to worry about.

When the premise and the people align

Black Mirror is at its best when its technological idea serves a human story rather than replacing it. Episodes like Be Right Back, about a grieving woman and a digital replica of her partner, and San Junipero, a romance that unfolds across decades, show how the format can be moving as well as chilling. Others, like Nosedive, find sharp social comedy in the way people perform for approval online.

Brooker has a gift for premises that feel only half a step from reality, and the best episodes leave viewers looking at their own devices differently. The early British series, made on modest budgets, are especially lean and pointed; each has the tight construction of a short story.

Big stars and bigger budgets

The Netflix era brought higher production values and a wider range of stars, and some of those episodes, including the Star Trek-style satire USS Callister, are among the show’s most entertaining. The interactive film Bandersnatch pushed the format in an experimental direction, with mixed results.

The move also exposed the series’ weaknesses. Some later episodes feel stretched to feature length, and the twist endings have become predictable enough that viewers can sometimes see them coming. Several stories lean on the same message, that technology makes people worse, without adding much new to it. The more recent seasons have loosened the formula, with mixed success, and not every experiment works.

How to watch an anthology

Because every episode stands alone, the best approach is to be selective. Newcomers do not have to start with the very first episode, a deliberately grotesque political satire that many find a rough introduction. Be Right Back, San Junipero, Nosedive or Hang the DJ make better starting points, and viewers who like the tone can then go back to the beginning. Dipping in and out is part of the pleasure.

Who should watch Black Mirror?

It suits viewers who like speculative fiction, social satire and stories that leave them with something to argue about. Episodes range from under an hour to feature length, so it is easy to watch one at a time on Netflix. Content varies widely: some episodes include graphic violence, sexual content and disturbing themes, so it is best suited to adults and older teenagers who can handle bleak material.

If you enjoy it, try these next:

• Inside No. 9, another British anthology that delights in twists and sudden shifts from comedy to horror.
• Utopia, for a darker, more stylised British thriller about conspiracy and control.

The verdict

Black Mirror is uneven, and its later seasons do not always match the precision of its early work. Yet its best episodes are among the most memorable television of the century, and its warnings about technology, attention and approval feel more pertinent every year.

Rating: 4/5