Black Mirror

:

Season 5
  • Network: Netflix
  • Series Premiere Date: Dec 4, 2011
Season #: 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
User Score
5.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 208 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 95 out of 208
  2. Mixed: 62 out of 208
  3. Negative: 51 out of 208
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User Reviews

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  1. viroodiem
    Jun 6, 2019
    3
    Netflix truly has been the death of this series. While refining its focus back to only 3 episodes in a season definitely helped, you cant stop a ship sinking that has a cracked hull.

    So little sci fi actually in this season. Episode 2 being basically a modern story devoid of sci fi just pointing out how social media is everywhere which we all already know. Sadly that was the most    Netflix truly has been the death of this series. While refining its focus back to only 3 episodes in a season definitely helped, you cant stop a ship sinking that has a cracked hull.

    So little sci fi actually in this season. Episode 2 being basically a modern story devoid of sci fi just pointing out how social media is everywhere which we all already know. Sadly that was the most engaging episode.

    The first episode is the tired trope of G.I.R.L. s in the context of a psudeo VR video game. Boring and done to death.

    The finale was little more than a showcase for the queen of the rat worshipers. Miley Cyrus. You can tell just how irrational the Disney fan base truly is here because despite how off the wall the woman has went since departing you need only look at the depth and nuance of these reviews to see that the highest ratings amount to "MILEEEEEY" or calling her Hannah Montana. These are people who came here for no other reason than to worship and praise Cyrus.

    The misplaced fandom aside, Cyrus is not a terrible actress. She isn't great either. She can handle all of one character and that is herself. The rest of the casts performances are what made this remotely watchable. The plot however wasn't. The sci fi evaluation of the episode amounts to examining old holo tech of hatsune Miku. Thing is we've already seen what this episode evaluates in real life. Its been going on for years now. So this episode fails to provide anything thought provoking with its premise.

    Sadly while the performances were the strongest element of this season the season was not even up to the par of last season, much less its days before Netflix came along and tried to throw money at fixing something that was not actually broken.

    Its such a shame. Hopefully Electric Dreams has a second season to fill the void this has left. Honestly even if you include Bandersnatch it still does not get it up to a 5 as Bandersnatch was highly overrated    … Expand
  2. GodhookTTV
    Jun 12, 2019
    0
    Not much to say about this season other than that it was a massive disappointment. There wasn't any episode that was thought provoking or unique like previous seasons and it appeared as if the show was looking for "woke" marketing and a new audience base. I can see a show looking to expand its audience base but doing so at the cost of losing its current fans and content is not the way toNot much to say about this season other than that it was a massive disappointment. There wasn't any episode that was thought provoking or unique like previous seasons and it appeared as if the show was looking for "woke" marketing and a new audience base. I can see a show looking to expand its audience base but doing so at the cost of losing its current fans and content is not the way to go. At the end of the day it's a forgettable season that has little value and will come as a major disappointment to any long time fan of the series.… Expand
  3. War_Tiger
    Jun 10, 2019
    3
    Easily the worst season of the series. Season 4 was pretty bad aside from U.S.S Calister. This season is just a new low however. Instead of giving thought provoking social or technological commentary; you are force fed pandering garbage.

    While the first episode had a somewhat amusing twist. It essentially reached its climax figuratively and literally within the first 20 minutes. The    Easily the worst season of the series. Season 4 was pretty bad aside from U.S.S Calister. This season is just a new low however. Instead of giving thought provoking social or technological commentary; you are force fed pandering garbage.

    While the first episode had a somewhat amusing twist. It essentially reached its climax figuratively and literally within the first 20 minutes. The next 40 had no development whatsoever. You are pretty much safe to watch up to that point and turn it off without missing anything. No message here, nothing to make you think. Amusing at best.

    Episode two was perhaps the worst, a glorified phone PSA. Perhaps a minor reflection on the power of SurveillanceBook. This has been going on for YEARS. It is nothing new to anyone. Oh wow you should keep your eyes on the road while driving?!?! An extremely slow episode with an achingly predictable arch.

    Episode three was about 5% tech and 95% teenage girl disney pandering nonsense. This could have been ripped from the show and been a direct to DVD disney movie and no one would ever know the difference despite the minor references to previous Black Mirror episodes. The song from 15 million merits, the memory grain commercial, etc.

    The only credit I can give it is that the production value is good, the acting in all three episodes was superb, especially the protagonist of the second one. I suppose this is what you get with tons of money and bad writing?

    I hope the show gets back on track and returns to a sci-fi modern day Twilight Zone. Here are some ideas, toy around with subjects like; propaganda, censorship, climate change, a future where there are completely divided internets between nations for thought and population control. How about an episode where everyone has a chip in their head and they have to watch their daily screen time of advertisements, and of course watch the latest episode of Pandergarbage on the worlds only channel/media platform? Otherwise they get thrown in jail and declared a threat to the state. Sponsored by Brawndo.

    3/10 only because of good acting.    … Expand
  4. TwiTu
    Dec 17, 2019
    0
    The other seasons were all very good. But this one went completely down the drain. I dont know what happened. The stories are very forgettable and nothing unique anymore. Its like a completely different series. What changed? The writers? Producers? Directors? PC doing its thing to art again? I dont know, and I am not interested enough to do the research.
    After the last episode I have    The other seasons were all very good. But this one went completely down the drain. I dont know what happened. The stories are very forgettable and nothing unique anymore. Its like a completely different series. What changed? The writers? Producers? Directors? PC doing its thing to art again? I dont know, and I am not interested enough to do the research.
    After the last episode I have PTSD, because it was basically just an episode of some teen Disney series. Miley Cyrus obviously felt at home in it, given her history. But I just had a "WTF???" over my head the entire time, and a few more question marks at the end, when it went to total childish crap.
    They tried to get a lot of SJW propaganda into the episodes, but failed miserably, especially on the Miley Cyrus episode, where she pretty much symbolizes how nowadays Greta Thunberg is exploited by her parents and other money hungry people.    … Expand
  5. Ashjade
    Jun 5, 2019
    1
    This season was so disappointing. I can't understand how anyone who has watched the previous seasons could actually think this was good. The only decent episode was the second one, but they could have done so much more with it.
  6. coffi
    Jun 9, 2019
    0
    Don't believe the fake positive reviews because this is the worst season of Black Mirror to date. I felt like I was enduring it not watching it. From the moment it started it felt underwhelming and boring and I couldn't wait for it to be over. Such a massive disappointment. Here's hoping it's a blip and the show gets back to it's usual standards next season.
  7. Vincent
    Jun 6, 2019
    0
    What was once an under-the-radar red siren of a television show (though I was always weary of the hype) has now become fully embedded into our modern monolithic technological nightmare. These episodes play out more like dystopian propoganda pieces than anything counter cultural or insightful. Rather than hold up a mirror to our pitfalls, the show now sets its sights on holding our handsWhat was once an under-the-radar red siren of a television show (though I was always weary of the hype) has now become fully embedded into our modern monolithic technological nightmare. These episodes play out more like dystopian propoganda pieces than anything counter cultural or insightful. Rather than hold up a mirror to our pitfalls, the show now sets its sights on holding our hands towards its own concocted technological horrors.… Expand
  8. Pedro_H_Gomes
    Jun 7, 2019
    3
    It’s the worst season so far. The Miley Cyrus’ episode is terrible. Looks like an awful teenager movie. The firt episode is OK, and the second one is just not interesting. Unfortunately, Black Mirror is just a shadow of what it used to be.
  9. ShiArch
    Jun 8, 2019
    0
    FAKE REVIEW ALERT :
    The show has been given 10/10 by following users as the very first five reviews to skew the rating : CBT, bestaoty, eayyy, lorennn and leapretty.

    The only other review these accounts ever gave was a song of Miley Cyrus called "She is coming". They all have exactly two reviews and have exactly same titles from the same artist and exactly same ratings.
  10. Leonando_souza
    Jun 5, 2019
    1
    This season os very dissapointing and sad... Netflix over this show and start to due sweet and predictible scenes... This is Very Sad
  11. portmanteau
    Jun 5, 2019
    3
    these feel like half ideas, that could have been half the runtime, None of them had any real bite, just hinged around a single one-trick premise, without the subtly , tension or complexity of previous installments. Episode one, was an interesting premise, but never really goes anywhere interesting with it, it takes something challenging and makes it humdrum. Episode 2 was, well, awful.these feel like half ideas, that could have been half the runtime, None of them had any real bite, just hinged around a single one-trick premise, without the subtly , tension or complexity of previous installments. Episode one, was an interesting premise, but never really goes anywhere interesting with it, it takes something challenging and makes it humdrum. Episode 2 was, well, awful. Could have been 20 mins, and the story just felt so so flat.
    The miley Episode was fun in parts, if only down to the stellar animation on the little robot Ashley. But it didn't feel like Black mirror, there's no real bleakness, it feels sanitised and hollow.    … Expand
  12. sekiro-hate
    Jun 8, 2019
    1
    Disaster. The las episode is like a parody of Black Mirror. You can believe how naive it is.
  13. Nobilis1984
    Jun 6, 2019
    2
    Black Mirror was far from that bad. Episode 1 of the 5th Season is not really great but the best. Episode 2 is for the ton and you can skip. Episode 3 has a leached theme. You have to worry about the series.
  14. HMF_47
    Jun 6, 2019
    1
    Worst Black Mirror season to date by a considerable margin. It has some potentially interesting concepts, but the writing is too lazy and unfocused to fully realize them thematically.
    Striking Vipers: It takes its extremely silly premise a few notches to seriously, and the drama doesn't lead the characters to anywhere interesting. The development basically stops halfway through the    Worst Black Mirror season to date by a considerable margin. It has some potentially interesting concepts, but the writing is too lazy and unfocused to fully realize them thematically.
    Striking Vipers: It takes its extremely silly premise a few notches to seriously, and the drama doesn't lead the characters to anywhere interesting. The development basically stops halfway through the episode, which makes it very underwhelming. It doesn't help that it moves at the pace of a snail on tranquilizers.
    Smithereens: Just a glorified "don't text and drive" PSA. Just somewhat watchable because it has Andrew Scott devouring the scenery. However, Scott is not remotely convincing as a 33 year old.
    Jack, Rachel, and Ashley Too: It's clumsily constructed, laughably contrived and with some very jarring tonal whiplashes. It's basically Black Mirror imitating a 90s kids movie with Macaulay Culkin or Mara Wilson, so it's super cutesy and quirky in one scene, and a few seconds later it reverts back to the show's trademark existential horror.    … Expand
  15. tdebug
    Jun 6, 2019
    0
    Switched off episode 1 after about 20 min, as I realized I was already forcing myself into watching this. Next time just put your advertisement of the stuff like this, somewhere else, alright? I don't want to pay to watch this.
  16. leaveit
    Jun 15, 2019
    0
    It's time to end it. Back before Netflix picked it up, I wrote a review for the first two seasons commenting that the production values were good - great cinematography, pacing, music, effects, everything, but that the writing strained the credulity. It was as though the most unbelievable part of the show was not technology but how the people in it acted: as though written by what I'llIt's time to end it. Back before Netflix picked it up, I wrote a review for the first two seasons commenting that the production values were good - great cinematography, pacing, music, effects, everything, but that the writing strained the credulity. It was as though the most unbelievable part of the show was not technology but how the people in it acted: as though written by what I'll charitably call a provocateur (i.e. an edgy infantile fool). The review was overall positive because there were only 6 episodes at the time; there was no time to retread any ground and the whole Twilight-Zone-pastiche thing was charming enough.

    It's now 3 seasons later, and this show has to END. The premises of the episodes beat you over the head, like Brooker expects you now to be an idiot instead of just being unfamiliar with sci-fi, as was the requirement for the first two seasons. This may well be the intent now that the show has moved to Netflix, a platform so saturated with skippable content to ignore while you get a blowie that it's getting to the point of self-parody. Every episode goes: You like Facebook? wHaT iF tHeRe WeRe EviL fAcEboOk? You like enjoying a basic standard of living where automated machines take care of manual labor at economic scale? wHaT iF tHe MaChInEs WeRe EviL? Never read a story with a malevolent AI or watched any of the 53 episodes we made about it? wHaT iF tHe AI wErE eViL??

    It's horribly tiresome and the lack of inspiration in the writing is basically the quality of a copy-pasta horror story now. Some Western people hear about a boffo new technology that is actually rather worthless or is obviously far too invasive, it takes off for no reason, it fails spectacularly in a way that it never would, and we come away wiser knowing that we should never add sentient artificial intelligence to our lawn sprinklers, upload our brain states to a Christmas ornament or ram computer hardware into our kids' heads because they watched the Sailor Moon sub one time. Trite; pseudo-intellectual; garish.

    Brooker once chafed at having to write video game articles at length for PC Zone, finding it difficult to write more than five pages on them due to what he saw as their simplicity and cynicism. The reality is that he is unable to look substantially deeper than surface-level at technology topics. The pathos he writes into his episodes is tailored by the untrained and uneducated for the untrained and uneducated - the kind of person that would fail out of a media studies program. The irony is that he now spends most of his time penning lengthy sophistries - incredibly stale and repetitive pastiches of much better shows, books, and, yes, video games. This is where his legacy has left off.

    Black Mirror is the stupidest Twilight Zone yet, managing to air for 5 seasons mainly because of the relative brevity of each season. If they were any longer, the show would last about as long as a Star Trek series where every episode were about someone getting trapped in the holodeck. Stop watching this show.    … Expand
  17. shoulderoforion
    Jun 5, 2019
    2
    Watching all the fake reviews roll in here at MetaCritic is truly depressing. Couldn't make it through the first episode, the second was good, the third was a teen chick flick, all in all a poorer showing for Black Mirror than any of the other seasons prior. Brookers lost the magic.
  18. branflakes4547
    Jun 5, 2019
    2
    The level of degradation of this show is astounding. The first two seasons are absolutely incredible. Season 4 was garbage. And season 5 is a new level of low brow. What used to be an enthralling mind bending thought provoking anthology has become mindless, aimless, and downright unintelligent. What used to be a hard science fiction show for intelligent people has become a show for dumbThe level of degradation of this show is astounding. The first two seasons are absolutely incredible. Season 4 was garbage. And season 5 is a new level of low brow. What used to be an enthralling mind bending thought provoking anthology has become mindless, aimless, and downright unintelligent. What used to be a hard science fiction show for intelligent people has become a show for dumb people to make themselves feel smart. It saddens me greatly to see such a remarkable show turn to such pandering trash… Expand
  19. SuperMax156
    Jun 9, 2019
    2
    All good things come to an end, and Black Mirror is no exception. Season 3 was really the high water mark for this show. Season 4 had 1 maybe 2 good episodes, but this season is very mediocre. The Miley Cyrus episode is pretty bad, couldn't get through the vipers episode because of the gross out sexuality. Probably the facebook commentary one was the best of a bad bunch.
  20. Fedaccia
    Jun 17, 2019
    0
    This is a vote for protest, cause they need to know that this is not the show we were used to love and watch
  21. emilieee
    Aug 4, 2019
    0
    One can summarize in one word: nothing. just nothing. Everything that made black mirror special in the previos seasons has gone: no critical review of technology, no social criticism , no surprising turns, no dark dystopian visions, just nothing. Even if you take every episode as for a mainstream movie it's nothing.
    Or is the deeper sense of season 5 a dark dystopian vision of black    One can summarize in one word: nothing. just nothing. Everything that made black mirror special in the previos seasons has gone: no critical review of technology, no social criticism , no surprising turns, no dark dystopian visions, just nothing. Even if you take every episode as for a mainstream movie it's nothing.
    Or is the deeper sense of season 5 a dark dystopian vision of black mirror itself?    … Expand
  22. Mement0
    Jun 7, 2019
    3
    Netflix is pathetic. All their shows writing feels cheap and low effort, they just throw production at things rather than hiring decent writers. Black Mirror is ruined.
  23. AthanasiosT
    Jun 16, 2019
    2
    I've only watched the 1st episode. If the rest change my mind, I'll give it another rating. I am disappointed by the lack of everything that defined Black Mirror so far. Every previous episode, left me thinking about it. This one had no essence, no spirit. The writing was mediocre and it is obvious in every minute.
  24. mickrussom
    Jul 5, 2019
    0
    No longer worthy of the name black mirror. these are rubbish episodes. light and flaky. went from Nosedive and Metalhead to this hot garbage.
  25. Yobyoni
    Nov 15, 2020
    3
    Overall, a bad season and without a doubt the worst season of the show. Striking Vipers is painfully average. Smithereens is the best of the 3, but is way too overdrawn and gets boring quickly. Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too is the worst of the entire show and I don't think many people would argue against that. It starts off good, but turns into something so mediocre and poorly written thatOverall, a bad season and without a doubt the worst season of the show. Striking Vipers is painfully average. Smithereens is the best of the 3, but is way too overdrawn and gets boring quickly. Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too is the worst of the entire show and I don't think many people would argue against that. It starts off good, but turns into something so mediocre and poorly written that it kind of frustrates me. What a let down.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

13
#13 Most Discussed TV Season of 2019

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
66

Generally favorable reviews - based on 13 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 13
  3. Negative: 2 out of 13
  1. The Guardian
    Reviewed by: Lucy Mangan
    Dec 4, 2019
    80
    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.
    Read full review
  2. TV Guide Magazine
    Reviewed by: Matt Roush
    Jun 6, 2019
    80
    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]
  3. Collider
    Reviewed by: Haleigh Foutch
    Jun 5, 2019
    60
    It may not be on the level of classic Black Mirror and the mirror may not show us as much as it used to, but it’s still a fine place to look for digital-era self-reflection. Just don’t expect this run of episodes to break your brain.
    Read full review
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