Don't get me wrong: if season 4 had been Black Mirror's first, I would have called it one of the greatest science fiction shows ever. It's very very good. With the exception of "Crocodile" (a hot mess, with nothing to redeem it, and should, like "National Anthem", simply be skipped), the remaining episodes live with the best of The Twilight Zone and Outer Limits.
And yet...
The first three seasons of Black Mirror had a theme: some tech — usually something we think we might like now — made the world a horrible place, and some ordinary person was crushed by this technology. Only Season 1's "National Anthem" (terrible) and Season 2's "The Waldo Moment" (funny, but not horrifying) depart from this trope.
Season 4 completely abandons that theme for more conventional science fiction plots. Instead of a technological dystopia, three episodes, "USS Callister", "Arkangel", and "Black Museum", feature some one-off technology with unfortunate consequences for its early adopters. "Metalhead" is a post-apocalyptic chase thriller, but with little if any commentary on the present. "Hang the DJ" is a cute romantic comedy in an unusual setting, despite brushing the enslavement and murder of 2000 sentient beings under the carpet.
I don't know that Charlie Booker could have sustained the first three seasons' dystopian trope. Although still excellent overall, season 4 feels like a retreat into conventional science fiction.
Black Mirror is dead. Long live Black Mirror!
Monday, January 01, 2018
1 comment:
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I am almost done with the third series, and yeah, the change was noticeable. By the end of the second series, though, I was concerned that Booker was not just only creating a dystopia, but drawing different aspects of the SAME dystopia.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, all the stories took place in the same world he was creating, although at slightly different times.
I was concerned he was painting himself into a corner.
He's avoided that, although at some cost.
"US Callister" was one of the best episodes ever. A couple of the other were pretty insubstantial.