X
- 2011
- TV-MA
- Channel 4
- 2011
- TV-MA
- Channel 4
- 2011
- TV-MA
- Channel 4
- 2011
- TV-MA
- Channel 4
Black Mirror
7 Seasons
Season 1 Premiere: Dec 4, 2011
74
8.0
Where to Watch
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 91 Critic Reviews
74
74% Positive
67 Reviews
67 Reviews
23% Mixed
21 Reviews
21 Reviews
3% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 91 Critic Reviews
74
74% Positive
67 Reviews
67 Reviews
23% Mixed
21 Reviews
21 Reviews
3% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
Each episode is a gem but — since you asked — my favorite is "USS Callister," which borders on genius.
Black Mirror is a treat for TV and a show that Netflix should pin to its front page with pride. It’s one of those dramas that you finish watching and head to your desk, determined to pen something half as good, or sit back and think: “Good lord, that’s clever.”
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 1,989 User Ratings
8.0
82% Positive
1639 Ratings
1639 Ratings
9% Mixed
170 Ratings
170 Ratings
9% Negative
180 Ratings
180 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 1,989 User Ratings
8.0
82% Positive
1639 Ratings
1639 Ratings
9% Mixed
170 Ratings
170 Ratings
9% Negative
180 Ratings
180 Ratings
When the moral arguments of Black Mirror grow strident, and overbearing klaxons ring about corporate surveillance states, an episode can weigh like a ponderous cyberpunk parable, and the effect is off-putting. Still, the series’s lively futurist premises and tight production design combine to supply shocks of recognition.
This most technophobic of series feels a little more human than ever before.
Black Mirror is most effective when it attempts to map old human behavior onto new technologies. It’s much less effective when it tries to map new technologies onto old stories.
Judging from the season’s scattershot execution, Brooker fares better charting new directions than he does falling into old habits.
Instead of manipulating our anxiety about technology—something Brooker often accomplished simply by activating viewers’ visceral disgust—the new episodes revel in the ridiculousness of our predicament, achieving a level of detachment that makes the show campy in the same way so many out-of-touch spectacles are campy.
There are interesting episodes, but there are also a lot of boring episodes. The series evokes mixed feelings, but it's not bad.
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Black Mirror, Season 5, 3 hour-long episodes.
Ep1, Striking Vipers (60 mins): Charlie Brooker's premise is that there's no sex like VR sex. Danny and Karl, a pair of straight black guys, experience sexual-confusion when they play a VR fight-game "Striking Vipers X", one whose avatar is a hot blond chick and the other a hot asian dude. After their first awkward VR kiss, there's very little fighting and a whole lot of R-rated soft porn - yes, you have to suspend a WHOLE LOT of your critical thinking to let this play out. Danny is married and boinking wife Theo for a kid but his torrid albeit confusing affair with Karl's avatar in "Striking Vipers X" is adversely affecting those efforts. She suspects something but he's committed to the lie till he can't, then just forget the ending because that is NOT how things would play out, but Black Mirror is more about stretching the possible than adhering to the likely. Episode is about twice as long than it needs to be. Rating: 7 of 10
Ep 2, Smithereens (70 mins): Charlie Brooker's cautionary tale of social media's responsibility in distracted driving. This episode delivers commentary on several elements of technology: the inherent insecurity of ride sharing, how social media founders have lost control over their creations, and how easy it can be to surmount rigid password privacy rules if you're connected. Episode is about 1/3 longer than it needs to be. Rating: 8 of 10, has a touching moment or two
Ep 3, Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too (67 mins): Miley Cyrus plays Ashley O, a famous pop singer victimized by an overlording adoptive aunt and her coterie. Rachel is a young femme fan of Ashley's and even more so when Ashley releases a tiny android version of herself called "Ashley Too" to help young girls build self-esteem and confidence. Once the full potential of the little droid is realized though, it unleashes the full, profanity-laden personality of Ashley O. There's another tech element to this but it's not worth describing since the whole episode is marred by three things: first, its target demo is tween girls and guess who doesn't watch "Black Mirror" at all? Yeh, tween girls. Second, Miley Cyrus as pop star plays more to her fantasy than ours, and her voicing the "Ashley Too" bot is so raw and without any voice-over talent, it just sounds like her talking/swearing in normal voice. And third, throughout the episode she sings a butchered pop version of "Head Like a Hole" (Nine Inch Nails, 1989) and it just grates your soul. Masculine Guy Rating: 3 of 10, Tween Girl Rating: 8 of 10
Overall rating for the season: 6 of 10, meh, blah
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By episode 2, it is clear that BM no longer focuses on dystopian tech futures. Instead, it focuses on politically correct casting (to the point of distraction) and vanilla mystery and supernatural themes. Yawn. We can find this sort of content from all over bland Hollywood already. Apparently, the predictions and exploration **** tech dystopia hits a little too close to the truth these days, especially since the COVID lockdowns. Netflix has unfortunately ruined the franchise. Such a shame the creator would rather take the paycheck than stand firm with integrity. Boring, vanilla. Safe for the establishment.
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I've watched anthology shows for the last 40 years, since I was a kid, and there's virtually nothing I don't like (including 2020's Amazing Stories).
I despised Black Mirror and suspect most of these reviews are Netflix employees trying to drum up more numbers for investors. The acting in this show is mediocre and the plotlines are basically Twilight Zone episodes with a modern setting (and without the charming quirks). Tastes change over the years, I get this, but I loved modern movies like Smile. Something about Black Mirror is disturbing, that's for sure, but it's unpleasantly disturbing and so poorly acted that it's impossible to enjoy even the decent storylines.
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Production Company:
- Zeppotron
- Channel 4 Television Corporation
- Babieka
- Banijay Entertainment
- Broke and Bones
- Gran Babieka
- House Of Tomorrow
Initial Release Date: Dec 4, 2011
Number of seasons: 7 Seasons
Rating: TV-MA
Awards
Online Film & Television Association
• 3 Wins & 20 Nominations
BAFTA Awards
• 1 Win & 17 Nominations
Primetime Emmy Awards
• 6 Wins & 12 Nominations
