Originally written May 1, 2018

I have so much appreciation that Black Mirror is still being made, because it’s one of the most unique and interesting shows out there right now. Referred to as a modern day version of The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror is a sci-fi anthology series that centers around the dangers of technology. I wasn’t sure how long this show would go on, but I think that when it became a Netflix show after season 2, it gave it more legs to survive on. Now here we are with a new 6 episode 4th season, and as of the time of this writing a 5th season has already been confirmed.

Considering every episode is its own story, I think the show can survive as long as they have new ideas to make episodes about. You don’t have to worry about things like deciding what to do with different characters or anything like that, since each episode is always a fresh start. The only downside to this for anthology shows has always been that your episode is always hit or miss. Some are just simply better than others, and so your overall season is only ever as good as its individual counterparts. For this reason, when it comes to reviewing seasons of Black Mirror, I find it best to just review each individual episode before talking about the season as a whole.

As I said, season 4 brings us 6 new episodes, so let’s look at each of them a bit in-depth. The first episode is called “USS Callister,” which is definitely one of the best episodes of this season. It opens in the style of an episode of Star Trek, which is kind of off-putting (not in a bad way) in comparison to how Black Mirror episodes usually look. However, this is intentional, because then we do get into a more modern look and you start to understand what’s going on. This is the hardest episode to explain the premise of, and it’s also one where it’s best to not ruin the surprises, so I don’t want to say too much. Basically, though, the episode is about  tech genius Robert Daly who has created a virtual world based on the Star Trek type shows that he’s grown up loving. In this world, he is the captain of his own crew. The catch? The people that are part of his crew are co-workers of his, who he’s secretly taken the real-life DNA of to upload copies of into the world. These virtual copies are actual copies of their real-life counterparts, and so they’re aware of their lives in the real world and are sentient to the fact that Daly is keeping them hostage as playthings inside his virtual world. Realizing that they’re trapped, the crew has accepted their fate. That is, until a new employee gets uploaded in and decides to do whatever it takes to escape. Aside from really standout performances (including that of Breaking Bad’s Jesse Plemons), this episode stands out to me just because of its sheer originality. In terms of being a Black Mirror episode, I don’t think its social commentary is as strong as other episodes, but it’s certainly an interesting technological idea and it goes in fascinating directions.

The second episode is “Arkangel,” which is a bit more in-tune with your typical Black Mirror episode, but unfortunately is one of the weaker episodes of the season. Basically, though, this episode really taps into the fear a parent has of losing their child, and the dangers that come from overprotecting your child. The concept provided is of a chip that is implanted into your child’s brain, which will allow the parents to track where their child is at. Okay, fair enough, but in classic Black Mirror fashion this idea is taken a little too far. This chip also allows parents to see through the eyes of their child, so they’ll know not only where their child is, but also what they’re seeing. If that isn’t bad enough, though, the program that uses this technology allows the parents to filter what their child gets to see. Marie, the mother who we’re following in this episode, filters out any violent imagery from her daughter’s eyes. So, for example, if someone starts to bleed, this girl will see blurred vision in the spot where there’s blood. As you can imagine, this has some terrible consequences for the development of a child, and so the episode plays with how the little girl functions as she grows up to be a teenager. The thing that I thought this episode did best with is to show how the idea of overprotective parenting can be highly exacerbated through technology that’s designed to “keep kids safe.” I think the episode is pretty good throughout most of it, even if it’s not as strong as a lot of the other Black Mirror episodes. Where I think the episode really falls apart is towards the end, though. At a certain point, things just take a left turn, and so I think it got kind of ridiculous after that point. It’s not a bad episode or anything, it’s just not at quite the same level of quality as the usual Black Mirror standard.

The third episode is called “Crocodile,” which is perhaps the single greatest example this season of how technology can make common feelings and behaviors of humans even worse. The technology in question here is the idea of being able to harvest memories from people. A sensor is put on a person’s head, and an investigator is asking people questions about something that happened. As images are popping into the person’s mind, the investigator is then able to see a visual representation of this on their screen. This technology is used to help solve crimes and things of that nature. However, the dark nature of humanity that’s explored here is the lengths that people will go to in order to keep something a secret. Our main character here is Mia, who was a passenger in a hit and run accident years ago. The driver in that accident had decided to dispose of the body, and so the two have lived with that secret for years. Now, this man approaches Mia years later and wants to clear his conscience by writing a letter to the family. Mia panics, not wanting this secret to come to light and ruin her successful career. In her panic, she kills her ex-partner to keep the secret safe. However, little does Mia know that an accident is happening right outside her hotel room, and so an investigator named Shazia is trying to harvest the memories of everyone nearby in order to figure out what happened. When Shazia sees Mia in the hotel room window, she approaches her in order to figure out if she’s seen anything. Mia realizes that if her memories are shown, Shazia will see that she just murdered someone. And so, the dark lengths that a person will go to in order to keep their secret is explored here. While this episode is the best at fulfilling what Black Mirror typically tries to be, it’s not a personal favorite of mine. It is a really good episode, but I felt like it took a while to get going. I also had a bit of trouble connecting with the characters. However, it’s the opposite effect of Arkangel where it actually gets better as it goes, and has a pretty shocking climax.

The fourth episode is “Hang the DJ,” which is my personal favorite of the season. It’s surprisingly not all that dark for a Black Mirror episode, but it is an interesting take on the technology that it’s making commentary on. The episode does a take on dating apps, particularly in the kind that decide your compatibility with someone else. In a lot of our current dating apps, the app will tell you how great of a match you are with other people depending on your shared interests and things like that. While the episode does have an interesting representation of that general idea, the majority of the episode revolves around an idea that, like many Black Mirror episodes, takes technology that we already have one step further. In this world, there’s a program that takes choice out of the equation entirely and tells you who to enter into relationships with. Not only this, but the program tells you when the relationship will end. This must be followed exactly if you hope to eventually find your perfect match. This has some interesting consequences, though, such as being forced to stay with someone you hate for a long period of time, or on the other side of things being forced to leave someone that you feel like you hit it off with. This latter situation happens between Frank and Amy, who form an instant connection, but are told that they only have less than a day together. The two begin to question the system’s logic, and where things develop from here are way too interesting to spoil. Even though it doesn’t show that dark side of human nature like other Black Mirror episodes, this one still managed to be my favorite even if only because of the interesting way in which it handled its subject matter. This was definitely the highlight of the season for me.

The fifth episode is “Metalhead,” which has easily been the most polarizing episode of this season. While I feel like there have been plenty of Black Mirror episodes that are different from the “normal” Black Mirror episode, few are as drastically different as Metalhead. For starters, it’s a black-and-white episode. I’m not sure what the thought was behind this decision, but it does fit the aesthetic of the episode pretty well. It’s a very fast-moving episode, and features almost no exposition. There’s really no explanation into how or why the things in the episode are happening, but all we know for sure is that this is set in an apocalyptic wasteland. After the only other characters in the episode are killed off in the first few minutes, the episode exclusively follows one character, a woman named Bella. Bella and her two friends enter into a warehouse, where they encounter a machine that resembles a robot dog. I assumed that these machines have something to do with the apocalypse that happens, but like I said nothing is really explained. Anyway, after this machine kills Bella’s two friends, it starts to chase after Bella. It’s only purpose seems to be hunt down and kill Bella, and it won’t stop until it’s fulfilled its task. So, the episode is primarily just a woman being chased by a killer machine. I actually did like the episode (even if it is one of my least favorites of the season), it’s just not really great as a Black Mirror episode. I appreciate taking a subtle approach, but I kind of feel like the point of Black Mirror is to make an in-your-face statement, and so that gets lost when you do an episode like this. While nothing is overtly said in this episode, my personal view is that this episode is cautioning against replacing warehouse workers with machines, given that they first encounter the machine in a warehouse. However, this point just isn’t really strongly made in the episode, and so more than anything it just feels like a short thriller. Considering how different it is from the norm, I can understand why someone could love it or hate it. I liked it for what it was, but I thought it was the wrong choice for this show.

The sixth and final episode for the season is “Black Museum.” I found this one to be really similar in style to the special episode “White Christmas” that came out between seasons 2 and 3. What I mean is, it’s two characters that are talking to each other in a secluded area. As they’re talking, memories are being shown, and these memories ultimately tie into the overall narrative. It’s hard to talk about the story of this one because so many ideas are thrown around in this one. One might argue there’s too many ideas, but I thought it worked. Essentially, though, it’s about the owner of a museum of artifacts that have some interesting stories behind them. The two big ones that are highlighted early on are a helmet that allows people to experience the pain/pleasure sensations that someone else is feeling, and a stuffed animal that contains the conscience of a mother who’s in a coma. I found these memory stories to be more interesting than the overall narrative that ran through the episode, although it all does of course tie together in an interesting way in the end. Like Arkangel, this episode has an ending that is a bit over-the-top, but I did at least think it was more effective and understandable in this one. Overall it is a pretty good episode, though.

Okay, so now that I’ve talked about each of the six episodes in-depth, I just want to briefly say my feelings on this “collection” of episodes as a whole. I do feel that overall this was one of the weaker seasons of Black Mirror, but it’s still pretty great. Here’s the thing…when I think of the absolute best episodes of Black Mirror, the only two that even potentially come to mind for me from this season are “USS Callister” and “Hang the DJ.” However, even those aren’t as good as some of the past best episodes of the series, such as “Be Right Back,” “White Christmas,” or “Hated in the Nation.” However, when I think of the worst episodes of the series, I still think of ones more like “The Waldo Moment” or “Men Against Fire,” not really anything in this season. So, there’s a pretty consistent quality throughout this season, but there’s really only two big standout episodes for me. So, all in all, this is a great addition to the series, but not of as high of a quality as some of the previous seasons.

4/5