Black Mirror

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.