The British anthology series Black Mirror returned last weekend for a third season on Netflix. Head writer and series creator Charlie Brooker has brought us six more fantastic episodes, and if you haven't already seen the first two seasons (and Christmas special) I highly recommend you drop everything and watch those IMMEDIATELY. If you have, then read on to see my thoughts on the new season...
Episode 1: Nosedive
Nosedive follows Lacie Pound (Bryce Dallas Howard), who lives in a world where people are judged based on their status on social media. Every time Lacie interacts with another person, they rate each other on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. People with a rating of 4.5 and above get certain privileges, like living in nicer communities and access to high priority seating on airplanes. Those with lower ratings are shunned by society.
At the start of the episode, Lacie has a rating of 4.2 and is trying desperately to raise her rating to 4.5 so she can move into an exclusive neighborhood. To do this, she must only surround herself with "quality people" and have almost zero negative interactions with other people. And when an old friend from high school asks Lacie to be her maid of honor, Lacie sees this as the perfect opportunity to get a higher rating and, hopefully, a better life.
I thought this episode was a great metaphor for how people are more concerned looking like they're having fun on social media, despite what their life may actually be like. This point comes across very well during her ongoing conflict with her brother (a gamer who has a rating of 3.7), an elderly female truck driver who offers a glimpse into what her life could be like in the future, and her eventual mental breakdown at her friend's wedding.
Rating: 9/10
Episode 2: Playtest
Playtest follows a young man named Cooper, who runs away from home one day (for reason not yet explained) to travel the world. Starting in Australia, he spends the next year traveling across Asia and Europe, all the while ignoring phone calls from his mother. He makes it to London, but needs more money to make it back to the States. He signs up for an experimental VR program to earn some cash, which ends up being more intense than he expected.
Cooper starts out with simple 3D games, but then must stay the night in a prototype haunted house style game, which becomes increasingly terrifying the longer it goes on. The special effects put on display in this episode look incredible, specifically when the game starts to tap into Cooper's fear of spiders. The ending might leave some viewers slightly disappointed because you can see it coming a mile away, but that still didn't affect my overall enjoyment of this episode.
Rating: 8/10
Episode 3: Shut Up and Dance
Shut up and dance begins with a quiet, nerdy bus boy named Kenny. After work one day, he does what any teenager with a laptop does while alone in his room to *ahem* relieve some stress. Immediately afterwards, Kenny gets an anonymous email containing a video of him masturbating. Whoever is on the other end of these emails threatens that if Kenny does not give him his cell phone number and obey all of their commands, they will release the video to all of his contacts.
Kenny is then sent to do a series of strange and unexplained tasks with no clear goal, and he eventually comes into contact with others who are being blackmailed by this same anonymous entity. As Kenny and others follow more and more dangerous and stressful tasks, you also start to learn more about the heinous things that these random people have done, including Kenny. This episode is fantastic because it plays with your perceptions of who to root for and who the real bad guy is in this situation. It leaves the audience and the characters in a position where you question whether they deserved what happened to them, or whether you should regret feeling bad for them in the first place.
Rating: 9/10
Episode 4: San Junipero
San Junipero is by far the best episode of this season. It follows two young women in the 1980's; Yorkie, a shy nerdy girl with big glasses and no fashion sense and Kelly, a gorgeous party girl who is the center of attention in every room she enters. They meet when Kelly is trying to ditch a guy in a nightclub, and the two girls start to form a relationship.
The twist of the episode is so great and moving that I don't wan to spoil it here, but what I can say is that each time the women visit San Junipero it seems to be a different time period (70's,80's,90's,2000's etc.).
The real reason this episode is so fantastic and moving is because it is the first Black Mirror episode that actually has a happy ending. Not that I don't enjoy the the nature of the show's usual dark and even depressing endings, it's part of the charm of the series. But this episode is different because having a happy ending for these two characters is something you genuinely don't see coming.
Rating: 10/10
Episode 5: Men Against Fire
It's a shame that the next two episodes have to follow that fantastic fourth episode, because it automatically makes them seem inferior by comparison. Men Against Fire is by no means a bad episode, it's well acted with great action scenes and awesome special effects. But it is also very predictable.
It starts in an army barracks with a soldier named Stripe. Stripe and his unit are stationed somewhere in eastern Europe in the not too distant future. There was a virus sometime ago that infected certain people around the world, who have become horribly deformed and animalistic. The soldiers call them"roaches" and are tasked with hunting down the last of the remaining infected. The problem is that, for some reason, the local people have been defending the roaches and keeping them hidden.
Stripe then finds out a terrible secret about the roaches that none of his superiors can allow to get out. The twist is pretty predictable, but where they go with the twist leads to some very entertaining scenes between Stripe and a not so trustworthy psychiatrist.
Rating: 8/10
Episode 6: Hated in the Nation
As with episode 5, Hated in the Nation suffers from following the fantastic fourth episode, San Junipero, and is ultimately the weakest entry in season 3. Which is why it's a shame that they chose to end the season with this episode.
Hated in the Nation starts with the murder of journalist. This journalist had recently written an article which had enraged the public and hundreds of people on twitter were calling for her to be killed. At first, the police think that it is just coincidence, but when a rapper is also murdered in the same way after public outcry for his death on twitter, they realize they have a serial killer on their hands.
This also is by no means a bad episode. The idea of a serial killer whose targets are those that people on twitter decide should die is fascinating, but somehow the execution just didn't stick the landing. Also the running time is about thirty minutes longer than the other episodes, which causes the episode to drag a bit.
Rating: 7/10
A weak ending episode aside, this was a fantastic season of Black Mirror and is a must watch for anyone with a Netflix subscription.
Disagree with my ratings? Think I'm full of shit and/or have no idea what I'm talking about? Sound off in the comment below!