Season 5 of Black Mirror is now streaming on Netflix, bringing three episodes that tackle different themes and star some top-level actors yet still feel oddly generic. WIRED Black Mirror fans Matt Reynolds and Victoria Turk reflect on a season that isn't up there with Charlie Brooker's best.
Matt Reynolds: So that's it. In three episodes, Black Mirror has taken us through a not-quite-a-romantic-drama, an episode of The Bill and a tween movie from the early 2000s. What did you make of it all?
Victoria Turk: Hmm... I'm going to say lukewarm. There weren't any real stinkers in this season, but I am somewhat disappointed. My favourite Black Mirror episodes are the ones that really surprise – that come totally out of the blue and slap you round the face. Things you really weren't expecting to see, that play with different genres and styles and push them to the limit. Think 'USS Callister', 'Nosedive', 'Metalhead'. The three episodes in this season were all set in the UK or US and felt... too normal. They didn't take risks.
I don't know what I wanted – an episode set underground? In space? In a society where humans have been annihilated and guinea pigs rule the world? Just something totally surprising. Even the 'teen movie' episode, 'Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too' didn't seem to play with the genre as much as it could have – it felt a bit half-hearted, like it was just borrowing some teen movie tropes rather than acknowledging the genre in a clever, knowing way.
MR: Yeah, I'm with you there. Each episode had a glimmer of something exciting that didn't quite go far enough for me. Take the season opener, 'Striking Vipers', for example. The idea that we've given humans the ability to have mind-blowing VR sex is super-interesting, and you can imagine that completely recalibrating how relationships work in the real world. but the episode never really gets into those implications. Instead of it up-ending lives, the technology is – quite literally – put into a little box and we're left with all the questions you'd normally have at the end of a Black Mirror episode neatly answered.
That was something of a trend in this season. Every episode ended with a fairly happy ending – with the possible exception of 'Smithereens' but at least Andrew Scott got his closure, so it's a happy ending of sorts. I don't have the same sense of lingering unease that I usually have after the end of a Black Mirror season. Do you think this was a deliberate decision?
VT: I'm not sure. Maybe the creators were a bit wary of being too Black Mirror, now that the series has kind of become a trope in itself? I was missing that too – I wasn't really left with any big questions after any of the episodes, everything was quite neatly tied up. All of the episodes in this season focused on specific characters and didn't really place them in a larger world. We see the technology in each episode – VR sex, social media, robots with cloned human minds – but only as far as the protagonists interact with them; there's no broader social context.
In 'Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too', I was really intrigued by the idea of being able to copy and implant someone's brain into a toy robot. How would this be used and abused? What happens when a generation of girls get the same toy and are given the same makeover tips, same dance moves, same role models? But this broader social and cultural question isn't even touched on. I was half-expecting a big twist at the end (what if the evil aunt was being secretly controlled by someone too?) but no, the girls save the day and the aunt's malicious plan is scuppered. End of story; that's a wrap. We're not left pondering on the big questions about humans and AI, digital life after death, robot confidants, etc. Miley Cyrus was great though.
MR: She was great. And I think that episode had the potential to be a lot of fun – the oblivious-dad-cum-eccentric-inventor character played by Marc Menchaca was great, I wanted to see more of his bizarre mouse electrocuting contraptions. But instead of digging into the technology and its implications, the episode turned into a surface-level meditation on the superficiality of the pop industry, which I think we've all heard done before countless times.
I think my main problem is that Black Mirror is at its best when it really goes all-in on the world its created. Season three's Nosedive is a such an immersive world, where you can see that everything has changed because of this one piece of technology – in this case an omnipresent rating system. Each of these episodes alluded to a world-changing technology and then seemed to really draw back from getting into its implications. But Black Mirror has always been a little hit-and-miss, and each season has only a couple of standout episodes. Do you think the fact that there were only three episodes this time meant that the season always had pretty tough odds stacked against it?
VT: The first two seasons only had three episodes each too, and they still managed to surprise. 'The National Anthem' and 'Fifteen Million Merits' felt like they showed us really elaborate, thought-through worlds, posing those Black Mirror 'what if' questions: What if politicians were so beholden to public opinion they'd do anything if the populace demanded it? What if your only escape from the (literal) treadmill of life was reality TV? Those kind of big speculative-future scenarios were missing here. It's almost like the show is taking fewer risks now than it did before. It just doesn't feel so... clever.
Am I being harsh? Black Mirror is so good in general that my expectations are high. You're always going to judge new episodes by the best of the previous seasons.
MR: It's fair to say that the previous seasons had a few duds too – I'm thinking of season three's 'Men Against Fire' here. For me, Black Mirror has always been a mixed bag, it goes for a lot of bold ideas and different genres, and sometimes they come together in a way that really works. Season five hasn't really given us any of those gems, I wonder if Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones were tempted to play things a little safe, knowing that they they didn't have a full six episodes to stretch out in after the time it took to put together the choose-your-own-adventure style epic Bandersnatch.
Or maybe it's us that's changed? The world certainly feels like a much bleaker place, even compared to two years ago, and it's hard to get away from the headlines about some technology or other that's having a disastrous impact on the world. Rather than adding to that, perhaps these episodes are better thought of as little technological diversions that work as standalone stories without raising these big questions.
VT: Perhaps – although I think they are less memorable for it. What do you think is next? What would be your dream Black Mirror episode – what hasn't the series tackled yet that you think would be perfect for it?
MR: I'd like to see the show go to completely new locations. "Black Mirror does America" felt fresh when it was 'Nosedive', but now I feel like we're getting diminishing returns every time we go back to a noticeably English or American setting. I loved season four's 'Crocodile', which was filmed in the wide-open backdrop of the Icelandic countryside. The great thing about an anthology series is that the show can just rock up anywhere, I'd like to see it exploit that freedom a little more with, I don't know... An underwater episode?
VT: I really like the idea of a space episode, maybe addressing commercial space travel or asteroid mining with some kind of Elon Musk-type character. Also: Black Mirror: The Musical. And a Game of Thrones style fantasy episode. Charlie and Annabel, you know where I am.
MR: Well that's next season sorted, then. Looking forward to it!
If you're looking for more dystopia, check out our guide to the best Black Mirror episodes
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
