These are the 2 I was thinking of but couldn't remember the names.

I have the consensus forum ranking on my work computer, maybe I should actually post it now that this thread has some activity.

My top 3 are White Christmas, Entire History of You and White Bear.

Do people actually enjoy White Bear on repeat viewings? I get it’s kind of sick the first time. But knowing what happens neuters the whole thing

Merits is the class of the original series. And also probably for the second.

Everyone wants to see Lady Cybil on Wraith Babes. What a couple of stars. Beyond the Sea can take notes on what real actors can do with this kind of subject matter

I don't really see how, there's bits that are exciting but the twist is kinda sickening. The point is sorta lost on most that they too would be the sorts of people gleefully enjoying the punishment. I doubt there's even a 'I wouldn't be like that' thought in most of their heads.

Yes

Have to say I was incredibly let down by the new season. The central draw of Black Mirror has always been "amazing technological advances and their unforeseen downsides". Only episode 1 of the new season brought that. My episode by episode summary:

Ep 1: Interesting concept but they really buried what should have been the interesting part - the focus on how Hayek's likeness was misused overshadowed the real scary part, which was that "X is Awful" was so much more successful than "X is great", which would have been a great commentary on society. Have a Streamberry exec continue trying to make "X is great" a thing, while their bosses and society continually push them to accept the other way.

Ep 2: This could have been an episode of almost any TV show. Law & Order? CSI? Really long build for a sudden surprise that just wasn't that exciting.

Ep 3: Again - too much buildup for too little payoff. Kate Mara's character made zero sense in terms of her motivations and actions. What's the purpose of this 6 year mission and there's what, no contingencies of any sort? No communication with the surface (eg, when the first guy's family is under attack, he can't call NASA and be like "send the cops to my house"?). Literally just when the situation was going to get interesting, it ended.

Ep 4: Two completely different and unrelated stories somehow mashed together, neither of which have anything to do with technology or any kind of extension of future society? Absolutely terrible.

Ep 5: Did I somehow stumble into an episode of Stranger Things? What in gods name is this.

One of the most disappointing seasons of TV I've seen.

You may have missed the point of Black Mirror. The tech was always tangential - it was the way it enabled certain aspects of society, that are already present. The clue's in the name - Black Mirror. It is holding up a mirror to our sick society and using tech as a way to explore and magnify those sicknesses. That's when it's at its most compelling.

Have only watched up to Episode 4 but it is my least favourite Black Mirror episode of all time by a country mile. Sounds like episode 5 is more of the same.

Just a completely different show. If the producers wanted to delve into fantasy and supernatural (not that I ever think they should because they are clearly bad at it ) they should have done so as a break away show.

But that's the thing.

Episode one does exactly this: holds up the mirror to what people will do for money and what attracts people's attention, and how kind of sick it is. Episode is very much in the vein of Black Mirror.

Episode two doesn't hold up any mirror to anything. It's just some guy finding out his parents were rapists/murderers. How to improve it: eliminate the girlfriend aspect. Have the son find out the true nature of the crime. Show how struggles with the decision to cover it up or uses it to become famous. Essentially - the billionaire sub guy's stepson - does he use tragedy for clout?

Episode three doesn't hold up any mirror to anything. It's just showing that when some guy loses his family he goes kind of nuts. How to improve it: focus on the guy starting to go nuts, and how the people in charge of the mission deal with the ethical dilemma of "this guy needs help, but we also need the mission completed". Almost an examination of the current worker-employer relationship - how far do employers push you to your own detriment.

Episode four doesn't even begin to hold up a mirror. It starts off kind of promising with the examination of paparazzi culture, then just randomly veers off to she's a werewolf. How to improve it: focus on the celeb, but show the paparazzi losing interest as she gets older/less famous. Essentially, answer the statement true or false that the one guy makes: "these celebs would probably kill themselves if we stopped taking their picture". Examination of celebrity culture.

Episode five doesn't hold a mirror to anything other than some bizarrely exaggerated sense of the trolley problem. Adding the supernatural element and the racial/political element here just made it a confusing mess. How to improve it: use a regular freaking person trying to convince her to commit crimes "for the greater good". Show cultish behaviour and how a normal person can get their boundaries pushed until they're doing things that they'd never imagined.

If there were to be a general theme for this season, it's the relationship we all have with entertainment. The first episode is holding a mirror to the whole real life suffering of one as entertainment for another. The second one is going with that theme too but zooms in on specifically our collective taste for true crime tv. The third episode is holding a mirror to patriarchy: it is two men in space; they are both different male-as-head-of-household stereotypes; it points also to the cycle of violence, and the effects of loneliness, isolation, and grief.

Episode four is possibly the weakest of the season for me. It's only vaguely holding a mirror to paparazzi being pieces of **** people. The horror aspect was a bit lost on me. I'm sure there's something to be said about our relationship to celebrity culture and sensationalising. But it was a bit lost amongst the shift to a boring werewolf story that wasn't really trying to say anything new or particularly interesting. I was left a bit :meh / shrug:

Episode five was a fun way of putting a spotlight on the racism of today and how it compares with the racism of 40 years ago. It's not just a trolley problem scenario, it's also asking questions and making points about mental illness and culture clash.

I'm sure your ideas for how to improve each episode would go down well if you pass them onto Charlie Brooker (who I've sort of met. when I say sort of met, I walked past a cafe in which he was filming a bit. I had my dog with me. I picked my dog up when I saw him and waved my dogs paw at him. I don't know why, I just did. He smiled awkwardly and waved back despite being in the middle of filming something.) Just remember that just because you didn't pick up on something doesn't mean it wasn't there; just because you aren't necessarily the target audience for a message, doesn't mean that message isn't still relevant and/or interesting.

Demon 79 is a clear divergence and they showed that by making it a Red Mirror production.

Brooker wanted to do the same thing with episode 4, but found that it spoiled what was about to happen

Fair enough, but selling this season as "Black Mirror" feels bait and switchy to me. If Booker wants to go in a different direction and tell different kinds of stories, all power to him.

Just don't call it "Rocky 7" and have it be about a burned out businesswoman finding true love over Xmas then claim "well all Rocky movies are really about the underdog succeeding".

Grow up, dude

Creators have full ownership of the product and can and should do what they like. They can call it what they like. You are not being cheated or manipulated or anything else like that if they do 5 seasons of Black Mirror in a particular style and then the creators decide to take it off in a weency teency tiny little different direction, and call it Red Mirror just to make sure people get the message they're trying something a little different! Bait and switch! Hilarious.

you realize they hire the bet actors to tell a story, right? Not get every detail absolutely perfect so it fits the real world.

Sometimes they hire the best actors. And sometimes they hire a guy who people recognize for being in one popular show

Sometimes they hire actors that the director doesn't even want. Most visible example of this for me was Chris Evans, when all the acting he knew to do was incredibly wooden overacting, playing a key part in Sunshine (Danny Boyle / Alex Garland), and Danny had to make sure he got the best performance out of him while keeping his screentime to a bare minimum. Everyone else in that film was great but he just stunk up the screen every time he appeared.

They can certainly do what they like with it, and he did. As a consumer of their product I can also declare whether I like it or not, and I don't.

Should this forum and thread just be "there's a new season. You must like it." ?

While I disagree with your stance regarding Black Mirror needing to remain a show solely about technological advancements going wrong, I agree with pretty much all of your notes.

It was a poor season. I don't actually remember when BM last had a good season -- I feel like it's been 3-4 seasons of mostly duds with a great standalone ep here and there. This time around, all the episodes were meh.

Not a single episode comes close to matching the Robot dogs or 80's episodes of past series, by far the worst series in IMO. If you haven't watched the 80's episode you are missing out.

Of course you can declare whether you like it or not. That freedom is matched by my freedom to tell you where I think you're wrong and how your opinion doesn't matter. By disagreeing with you I am not impinging on your freedom.

Randoms arguing on the internet about the quality of a show that has clearly jumped the shark is probably gonna be a season 7 episode.

Showing a Nosedive like episode but related to entertainment content would actually be interesting. Show how audience tracking lets them make faster and faster change in the direction of the story (sort of a combination of Nosedive, 15 million merits, and Joan is awful).

This is far off consensus but also one of my favorite episodes. Really feels like this show was ahead of it's time and society has been heading in this direction.