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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
86
Mixed:
26
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews
Dec 8, 2017
Season 4 Review:
Stephen King described Black Mirror as “terrifying, funny, intelligent. It’s like the ‘Twilight Zone,’ only rated R.” That’s actually giving it short shrift. ... What makes the series special is how there is always one more twist that you didn’t expect in the same way there is always some implication--usually for ill--in a new invention that we didn’t think of. This new season will only add to the acclaim.
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IndieWireDec 8, 2017
Season 4 Review:
There are at least two episodes, “Arkangel” and “Crocodile,” which are very much identifiable as classic “Black Mirror” tales. But fortunately, creator Charlie Brooker has taken some big swings with other installments, and the result is proof that “Black Mirror,” as a series, has plenty of mileage left in it.
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Oct 17, 2016
Season 3 Review:
People call Black Mirror the 21st century's Twilight Zone. That's certainly high praise, but the show ultra-eerie third season lives up to that promise. [21/28 Oct 2016, p.95]
Sep 4, 2025
Season 7 Review:
Further pushing the envelope and creating scenarios where surprise guest stars flourish in combative dialogue, the series gives its loyal viewership a deeper look into established premises while entangling characters in dazzling situations. Themes of corruption, technology dependence and vulnerability take center stage in a season worth the wait.
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Jun 4, 2019
Season 5 Review:
One offering is clearly lesser than the other two and one of the rare broad misses that the series sometimes delivers. Ah, but the other two episodes this season are exceptional, a timely reminder that Brooker remains restlessly creative and still enormously interested in the genre, having moved it beyond "tech paranoia" to the aforementioned more nuanced exploration of how technology changes our emotional and intimate connections with loved ones, family and friends.
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TV Guide MagazineDec 21, 2017
Season 4 Review:
A fourth mind-blowing season of thrills and chills. [25 Dec 2017 - 7 Jan 2018, p.14]
Dec 11, 2017
Oct 21, 2016
Season 3 Review:
The real genius of Black Mirror lies in its dissection of humanity--how our emotions, compulsions and fears inform our use of technology. Season 3 masterfully carries on this tradition, skewering Internet vigilantism, invasion of privacy and the false personas we present on social media.
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Jun 4, 2019
Season 5 Review:
In offering dystopian visions that hew closer to reality than they have in past seasons, these episodes exceed the show’s promise of nightmarish hypotheticals. ... While none of these episodes are as nihilistic as the show’s grimmest installments to date, they remain imbued with snarky, topical satire and dogged cynicism.
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The GuardianApr 9, 2025
Season 7 Review:
This year’s feature-length finale, USS Callister: Into Infinity, is a straight continuation of season four’s fan favourite. But it’s the least interesting instalment from the new batch, because it can’t replicate the thrill, the hope, of starting without knowing whether this latest adventure will be a success. The other five offerings take that risk, and almost all get their reward.
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Radio TimesJun 15, 2023
Season 6 Review:
Black Mirror continues to be excellent, chilling and thought-provoking because of the writing behind it, not just the futuristic inventions it's employed throughout previous seasons. It also shows that taking a risk once in a while pays off – and season 6 is simply a testament of that fact.
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The GuardianJun 14, 2023
Season 6 Review:
It is, overall, a fine collection of new episodes. Whether any will stick in the mind and become as revered as Hated in the Nation or Be Right Back, or as loved as San Junipero, I doubt. That is not to say the newcomers are anything less than fun or thought-provoking (or not full of great performances from well-known players).
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The GuardianDec 4, 2019
Season 5 Review:
The three instalments vary in mood, genre and just about everything else (as anthologies are designed to do) but they share a new air of calm authority. There’s an unhurriedness to each, a greater willingness to linger and develop moments that might have passed as a single beat in other seasons that perhaps bespeaks an increasing confidence of Black Mirror’s creators in their product. If so, it’s been well-earned.
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TV Guide MagazineJun 6, 2019
Season 5 Review:
Two of the three stories making up Black Mirror's fifth season offers a more hopeful vision. Things get kinker and funkier in the "Striking Vipers" episodes... In the most purely enjoyable hour, "Rachel, Jack And Ashley Too," Miley Cyrus is a delight. [10 - 23 Jun 2019, p.9]
Mar 30, 2018
Season 4 Review:
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.
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Jan 17, 2018UPROXXJan 2, 2018
Season 4 Review:
It’s significantly better across the board [than season 3]. Brooker and company have a firmer handle on the proper architecture for each story (only one, “Crocodile,” really drags), and if the show is starting to repeat itself a bit (the last episode of this batch, “Black Museum,” is basically Black Mirror’s Greatest Hits), the execution tends to compensate for the spottiness or familiarity of the ideas.
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TV Guide MagazineOct 21, 2016
Season 3 Review:
No show of this sort scores only home runs, but mirror's batting average is very high. [24 Oct-6 Nov 2016, p.17]
Oct 20, 2016
Season 3 Review:
The series might be made up of disparate stories that seemingly have nothing to do with each other, but the more time you spend ruminating on Black Mirror and turning it over in your head, the more those stories start to seem like part of the same thing, a world we’re all marching toward, like it or not. The episodes work sans context; they’re better when consumed as different viewpoints on the same unnamable future.
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Oct 19, 2016
Season 3 Review:
Like "The Twilight Zone," Black Mirror cleverly creates these slightly skewed worlds with limited special effects and in a truncated amount of time, trusting the audience to catch up with stories that are often joined in progress. It's the sort of brainy science fiction to which many aspire and few consistently deliver.
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Oct 13, 2016
Season 3 Review:
The new episodes aren’t perfect. Brooker, who has joint or solo writing credit on every installment, is more successful at building devastating second acts than he is at earning his endings, and several episodes turn again and again to social media’s terrors, as if vigilante justice and mob mentality didn’t exist before hashtags.
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Apr 10, 2025
Season 7 Review:
Overall, Season 7 features more hits than misses, but none of the episodes feel like they’re really trying to push the boundaries of what’s possible within the realm of Black Mirror — a notable retreat from Season 6, where installments like “Joan Is Awful,” “Mazey Day,” and “Demon 79” were a lot bolder with their choices.
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Oct 18, 2016
Season 3 Review:
The increased episode count of season three allows Black Mirror to show off its full range of tricks, but it’s the episodes that make a play for resonance—“San Junipero,” “Nosedive,” and “Men Against Fire”--that stand out. ... But even with these advanced features, Black Mirror remains subject to the hit-or-miss vagaries of the anthology format.
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Screen RantAug 28, 2025
Season 7 Review:
An instinct to emotionally or morally provoke us has faded; even undeniably bleak storylines didn't leave me with that feeling I used to have to walk off. What remains is thoughtful, imaginative, and still inconsistent – but maybe most effective when it reaches for something new.
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Apr 10, 2025LooperApr 9, 2025
Season 7 Review:
This isn't necessarily the "Black Mirror" we've come to expect over the years, but if it's the only way to make and see these stories put on a screen, then so be it. However, I wouldn't blame hardcore, long-time fans for not being as lenient and appreciative of this slight thematical shift as I am.
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iJun 20, 2023
Season 6 Review:
There are familiar (maybe even obvious) themes here: data harvesting, terrifying small print, surveillance by Big Brother. Yet “Joan is Awful” doesn’t succumb to predictable tropes, retaining a winking sense of humour. [The score is the average of the reviews for the five episodes.]
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Jun 15, 2023
Season 6 Review:
Brooker remains an astute observer of the modern age, with a sharp ear for the current nexus of pop culture, politics and technology. But where “Black Mirror” once felt bracing and new, the latest season only occasionally rises to the level that would vault it to the top of one’s Streamberry – er, sorry, Netflix – watch list.
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Jun 15, 2023
Season 6 Review:
I’ve noted that this is an improvement, but the episodes vary quite widely in quality from worst (“Mazey Day”) to best (“Beyond the Sea,” probably, on the strength of Aaron Paul, Josh Hartnett, and especially Kate Mara’s performances). .... Brooker is trying new things with his art and with his characters, and even when they’re awful, we more clearly see the humans within the machine.
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Jun 5, 2019
Season 5 Review:
Sorry, Miley, but your Black Mirror is the weakest of the bunch. [C-]... The twist [in "Striking Vipers"]is genuinely shocking and opens up a number of intriguing storytelling avenues, and the acting is solid. ... But after the initial shock wears off, the episode just kind of plods along, and the ending feels too easy for such a complicated premise. [B] ... ["Smithereens"] is Scott’s episode from start to finish: a harrowing portrait of a man pushed firmly and irretrievably over the edge. [A-]
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Jun 5, 2019
Season 5 Review:
"Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too" is essentially a dystopian Disney Channel movie, or perhaps some "Very Special" episode of "Hannah Montana." ... "Striking Vipers" is better. ... The standout of the three, however, is "Smithereens." Like the most effective "Black Mirror" episodes, you're left on your own, following a story that offers no bearings, fewer clues. A gifted actor, Scott sells the episode in every scene, raging against an unseen enemy
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Jun 15, 2023
Season 6 Review:
Fans of the show’s tech-dystopia thought exercises might be disappointed to see the series cast them off altogether, and the shift in focus still yields as many misses as hits. But by breaking from those old constraints, Black Mirror sets itself up for a freer, wilder, more intriguing future.
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Jun 15, 2023
Season 6 Review:
Season 6 of Black Mirror has more misses than hits, but at least there are two winners among the five episodes. Demon 79 shows that Charlie Brooker’s experimentation outside of the traditional Black Mirror box can pay off, while Joan Is Awful delivers some funny meta-humor that mixes well with the show’s classic dark spin on science fiction.
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The IndependentJun 14, 2023
Season 6 Review:
Irreverent, scatological, and nightmarishly claustrophobic, “Joan is Awful” is an excellent instalment in Black Mirror’s catalogue of Orwellian farces. .... “Loch Henry” frequently shapes like it’s about to burst into full horror. Whether through restraint or lack of ambition, that generic metamorphosis never happens, and ultimately the episode becomes a little limp. .... “Beyond the Sea” has the key to a great Black Mirror chapter: slow-burning dread and myriad ways for things to go wrong. .... ["Mazey Day" is] Slender (it’s just 40 minutes long) and scattershot.
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RogerEbert.comJun 5, 2019
Jan 2, 2018
Season 4 Review:
There is, as ever, lots to chew over and choke on in the new episodes. But the show is less incisive than it was. ... As provocative and to the point as Black Mirror’s speculative technology is, it keeps the new episodes from exploring more flawed developments that might make for more interesting episodes.
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Dec 28, 2017
Season 4 Review:
"U.S.S. Callister" feels ambitious and boundless, a rarity for the series. On a season in which Black Mirror drifts yet further away from many viewers’ real sense of dystopia, this dispatch from deep space will remind you of science fiction’s power to cut to the very heart of modern concerns.
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Dec 21, 2017
Season 4 Review:
Too often, this season skews too heavily toward bleakness, is weak on character development, and strains so hard to shock that it ultimately frustrates more than transfixes. All six episodes, directed by filmmakers ranging from Jodie Foster to David Slade, are elevated by strong performances and incredibly detailed production design that makes the settings feel credible, even when the characters in those settings engage in behavior that isn’t.
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