After being a dedicated fan of the Netflix series Black Mirror for a while now, I was delighted at the release of series 4 on Netflix in December.
If you don’t watch Black Mirror – which I strongly recommend you do – here is a brief description of what the series is about:
- It is a British science fiction anthology television series which analyses modern society and considers the consequences of new technologies.
- Episodes are usually set in the present or in the future, mostly with a dark or satirical tone but occasionally with a lighter one.
- Series 4 comprises six episodes which are completely unrelated so you can watch them in any order.
So… what did we think of series 4?
Overall my favourite episodes were:
US Callister
- Very similar to Star Trek, this is definitely the most humorous episode of the series with lots of puns and one-liners.
- It isn’t a typical love story – at the start of the episode, we pity Robert Daly, the main character, who is unhappy and is mocked by his colleagues, despite him having co-founded the company.
- The viewers soon begin to realise that as the captain of the US Callister, he abuses his power and treats the virtual clones on the ship merely as action figures.
- The plot twist is so intense and – spoiler alert – actually leads to a happy ending as his work colleagues manage to get their own back.
Black Museum
- One of the darker episodes of the series.
- Very gory and lots of blood involved.
- The episode is presented in three different stories told by the museum owner, Rolo Haynes, who shows visitor Nish around his exhibits which relate to Rolo’s cutting edge career in advancing the human brain.
- The story is overall very interesting and it is an amazing season finale.
My least favourite was MetalHead…
- It is filmed entirely in black and white.
- The main character, Bella, is trying to flee from robotic dogs after human society has been wiped out.
- It was very tense at times, but I felt that the storyline was often dull and the ending was not hopeful and had no message or significance.
I thought that series 4 was fantastic as it has very tense and dramatic story lines. However, I preferred series 3 because it contained more episodes that I enjoyed in comparison to series 4. Some episodes including Metalhead and Crocodile had abrupt endings which didn’t explain anything, infuriating me more than anything!
I would recommend series 4 because:
- It can easily be binge watched as it is only six episodes long: you could, without a doubt, finish the whole series in a day or weekend.
- It is great for people who you enjoy dark humour and can deal with the annoyance of being left on a cliff-hanger forever.
Edited by Tia Ralhan
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