Black Mirror

In many ways, this is the most ambitious Black Mirror season that Brooker has crafted, with settings and stories that don't visually resemble anything that's come before.

The result is an eclectic collection—in both tone, genre and subject matter (as anthologies are wont to do)—and one which makes for a brilliant weekend bingefest.

While the new collection isn’t perfect – Black Mirror still has a tendency to get knocked off course by an overload of Hollywood presence – this is an assured return to form: a much tastier geek-noir pick’n’mix.

Unfortunately the fun kicks off with easily the weakest offering. Joan Is Awful is Black Mirror Lite. [The score is the average of the reviews for the five episodes.]

Despite the refreshed nature of the series, this season of Black Mirror feels like an older one, in all the best ways.

As scathing and sadistic as ever, Black Mirror’s return tweaks the formula just enough to keep things fresh — while remaining recognisably Brookerish.

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.

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).

This most technophobic of series feels a little more human than ever before.

“Beyond the Sea” shows that Black Mirror still has some great episodes left ahead.

Black Mirror’s new stories are more concerned with changing the show’s reputation as a speculative science-fiction series than with actually critiquing technology.

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.]

As with every anthology series, Black Mirror‘s episodes will vary in quality, but they’re always entertaining, and the first episode gives the new season a good start.

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.

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.

Focus on the rich storytelling of chapters like “Beyond the Sea” and “Demon 79” instead of the moral messaging of “Loch Henry” or “Mazey Day” and there’s reason to keep looking.

The results of this experiment are mixed. On the plus side, the new batch of episodes is a major improvement over season 5.

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.

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.

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.

All of the episodes are interesting in different ways, even if “Joan Is Awful” is the only one that feels fully baked. But the totality of them is enough to make a viewer wonder if Charlie Brooker is growing tired of the show and/or his partnership with Netflix.

The five-episode sixth season of Black Mirror (June 15, Netflix) offers the usual skewering of our grim era’s tech and media and politics, to intermittently engaging effect. But overall, Brooker’s arguments feel creaky, his observations arriving, in some cases, years late.

Sadly, Season 6 continues Season 5's trend of lower quality episodes that don't have the impact of Black Mirror's best, but there are a few that entertain.