Like previous seasons, season 5 of BLACK MIRROR continues to focus on the collision of human nature and technology, revealing how technology changes us less than makes more of what we already are. It augments and enables emotion, instinct, and failings rather than corrects them. Unfortunately, this season takes a far lighter approach to the typically dark material, resulting in the show losing most of its punch. It went from brilliant episodes like “Metalhead” and “Hated in The Nation,” which would make me think and haunt me for days, to easily forgettable fare.
Season 5 consisted of three episodes. In one, two friends find a strange kind of love that exists only online. In another, a man expresses the horror of how addictive social media can lead to death. In the last, technology turns a troubled singer into a product. The episodes are fun, interesting, and engaging, but compared to previous seasons, they feel hollowed out and pandering to a stereotyped American audience. Not as bad as GoT did with its disastrously weak final season, but yeah.
So I’m still a fan and I liked the new season, I just didn’t love it and hope it returns to its dark and disturbing roots.
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