Black Mirror

A British television show called Black Mirror has been creeping into my cultural sphere the past few months. First, it was recommended to me on Netflix, but those recommendations are generally disregarded because Brett and I share an account, so the recommendations run the gambit from Ken Burns' Baseball to Fantasia. Then, the show was recommended on Pop Culture Happy Hour, but by my least favorite contributor. Brett and I decided to watch it, however, and to watch at least two episodes because I had heard that the first episode is not the strongest.

Each episode of Black Mirror is a standalone story, with a new cast and new world building. The common theme is technology gone awry, usually not technology as it exists now, but technology as it could exist in the near future. The title refers to the screens--the black mirrors--that surround us.

We found that the show is very inconsistent. The good episodes are extraordinarily interesting, and the bad episodes are boring or, in one particular instance, so implausible that it takes you out of the moment. I would still recommend that you watch the entire series, however. If you only want to watch the good episodes, I would rank them in this order:

1) The Entire History of You - Not for what it says about technology, but what it says about human nature and relationships.

2) Be Right Back - We watched this immediately after watching the movie Her, and we were not the only people to question whether Spike Jonez took ideas from this episode.

3) White Bear - This episode did not capture my attention as quickly as the others, but the payoff at the end is good.

4) Fifteen Million Merits - The world building of this episode is completely unforgiving--you have to figure out what is going on on your own. I actually admire that, though.

5) The National Anthem - This is the episode where some of the plot points are so laughable that it really took me out of the moment.

6) The Waldo Moment - The worst episode, because it was completely boring.

Are you watching? Do you disagree with my list? Lastly, as my sister Julie responds whenever I shoot her a text about this show: