TV Review: Black Mirror Season 5

Reflections on Black Mirror​'s Fifth Season

By Joanna Patzig

Courtesy of Netflix

Netflix’s hit series Black Mirror has always been tricky for me to navigate as a fan. Each episode explores technology and modern life in a new way, some of them veering closer to horror than others. For that reason, I’ve always preferred to watch them off of other peoples recommendations. But when Black Mirror released its fifth season I found myself drawn in before getting to the reviews. This time, I can recommend all of them.

Black Mirror is known for creating convincing speculative fiction that gives insight into our current technological trends in a suspenseful and chilling way. The first episode of the new season, “Striking Vipers” did this particularly well, in which two friends find their relationship tested by a VR video game. I won’t spoil it, but the superb acting from Anthony Mackie and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II articulated some really interesting questions about the boundaries of male friendship and identity in virtual spaces.

The second and third episodes in the season start to talk about pop culture and social media. In “Smithereens” Andrew Scott plays a bereaved man who resorts to creating a hostage situation in order to reach an international social media platform. In the end, it becomes more prescriptive than most Black Mirror episodes, pointing specifically to the trauma that phone addiction can cause. For me, the overt morality and lack of sci-fi interest made the episode feel more flat than others, but it was engaging and suspenseful to watch.

Finally, “Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too” brought a big cameo from Miley Cyrus that fans will love. This episode had the classic ‘awkward high schooler becomes a hero’ thing going on for it, and a good amount of angst from Cyrus’s frustrated pop-star character. The third episode was uncharacteristically goofy and funny, mostly due to Cyrus’s persona and the cute little robot that embodied it for a lot of the episode. Ultimately, the third episode did make me re-examine some trends in the music industry like the use of holograms. Plus, Cyrus covers a bunch of Nine Inch Nails songs which is fun to watch.

Some critics are pointing out that the few recent episodes of Black Mirror came out with seem to revisit themes of earlier episodes a little to closely. It’s true that the fifth season didn’t shock me as much as some of the others, but if anything it’s more watchable and just as stimulating. The fifth season is on Netflix now and it’s only three episodes long if you're looking for a contemporary Twilight Zone experience with interesting takes from a variety of writers and directors.
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