For those of you who have read what I just said about this being Black Mirror’s time, not The Twilight Zone’s anymore*, this latest season helped prove my point, as every episode this season was a knockout!
My first explanation is that Black Mirror’s showrunners, hearing that there was a new Twilight Zone on the way, quickly rounded up the best available talent, including writers, directors, and actors. Regarding the last one, it’s not often you see a Black Mirror episode with a famous American actor but this season had one each time. In order, Anthony Mackie, Topher Grace, and Miley Cyrus. In the process, Black Mirror helped cement its place as the preeminent sci-fi anthology of our era.
My second explanation is that is that, given how much a flip of the coin early seasons were (half the time I loved the episodes and the other half I couldn’t even finish them) Black Mirror chose to cut the fat and only make half as many episodes this time around, thus leaving room just for the good ones.
After writing that second explanation, I feel the need to mention that season four was better than previous seasons. The episodes were 2/3 terrific, with one pretty good one and only one clunker.
This post is about season 5 though. We’ve established Black Mirror is better than The Twilight Zone at this point; how did I specifically feel about the episodes?
“Striking Vipers” – Mackie plays a husband, father and gamer, not necessarily in that order. Especially once the VR game he and his homeboy start playing together leads to them having gay sex.
Kind of. I mean, in the game one has a male avatar and the other a female avatar so that means it’s straight, right?
Well anyway, regardless of whether or not it’s gay, it’s definitely not wrong because it’s not adultery.
Actually, is it? Video game sex doesn’t count, does it?
The episode actually discusses these very thought-provoking questions without claiming to know the right answer or ever being pedantic. The characters are all very 3D (weak pun intended) as they navigate these tricky waters and they seem dynamically in control of their own destiny.
This is a very timely episode, as in recent years the community we knew as LGBT for so long is now apparently the LGBTQIA+ community. I have no idea what some of those letters even stand for but as sexual identities become more complex I’m wondering if what we saw in this episode falls under one of the letters. Or at least under the plus.
I particularly appreciated how seriously this subject matter was treated. This goes to show that, as huge and real as technology has become in our lives, stories about its potential impact work best without gimmicky music, introductions, or twist endings.
“Smithereens” – I was actually a little pensive about this one, only because my viewing buddy neighbor had heard one episode of this season was much better than the other two and we loved “Striking Vipers”.
We were glad to be proven wrong. This is a fantastic, tense thriller. Although there isn’t that much plot to it – a guy resorts to kidnapping an intern of a social media website to get to speak with the CEO and others fail in their attempts to calm him down – the direction, writing and performances (including Grace as the CEO) are incredible. The message it gives about our modern obsession with social media is hackneyed (I guessed the ending a mile away) yet delivered with such conviction by everyone involved that the episode still soars.
“Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too” – Black Mirror batted 1.000 (that reads “one thousand” for you non-baseball fans) for the season! Although this was my viewing buddy Ryan’s least favorite of the three episodes, and I guess mine too, I still loved it.
A shy girl gets a doll that, thanks to the wonders of artificial intelligence, makes it so that a clone of pop star Ashley (Cyrus) essentially lives with you. Ryan wanted the whole episode to be a character study exploring the how the Ashley doll comes to replace the role of the owner’s sister in her life and whether AI, as it reaches the “uncanny valley”, can ever truly replace human contact. I suppose that would have been similar to “Striking Vipers” or an episode called “Miniature” of the original, good Twilight Zone. Instead this episode turns into a thriller involving Ashley’s abusive aunt/guardian.
I understand the sentiment but nonetheless it was a great thriller and I really dug the episode overall.
Striking Vipers – 98, Smithereens – 97, Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too – 81
Up Next: You know the routine.
Bottom Line: I am FAR more excited for Black Mirror’s next season than The Twilight Zone’s. One franchise might not have even peaked yet and the other peaked during the Kennedy presidency.
*This is actually reminding me of the TZ episode “Walking Distance” that was shown at that Fathom Events celebration. “Maybe it’s just one era to a customer. Black Mirror, that sci-fi anthology we know, the one that belongs here, this is its era, just like it was The Twilight Zone’s at one point. Don’t make it share it.”
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