BLACK MIRROR Season Five
Great Scott!
UK/US Netflix, streaming now Showrunners Charlie Brooker, Annabel Jones
Cast Anthony Mackie, Yahya AbdulMateen II, Andrew Scott, Miley Cyrus
It’s the epitome of first-world problems, but after two six-episode runs on Netflix, it feels underwhelming to be delivered an abbreviated fifth season of Black Mirror. Sure, Charlie Brooker and his team invested so much time on interactive drama “Bandersnatch” that something had to give. All the same, it’s disappointing – particularly since two of the three instalments are middling fare.
Kudos is due to “Striking Vipers” for its casual afrocentric casting and the way it posits a new frontier in sexuality: if two straight mates (Anthony Mackie, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) play an immersive Street Fighter-style game, then have M/F sex in their avatars… what is that?! Interesting question, but the story unfolds like a conventional infidelity drama. Plus there’s a logic gap: if a game came out where you could have sex online, that’d be huge news – and make partners suspicious.
Miley Cyrus is the main selling point of “Rachel, Jack And Ashley Too” (bonus points for the nod to Rita, Sue And Bob Too), playing a pop star whose entrapment and exploitation go next-level. Yet another Black Mirror about a human personality placed on a device (enough already), it’s mildly amusing, especially once a cutesy Miley-bot starts effing and jeffing, but overly baggy, with its two story strands taking an age to meet.
The standout is “Smithereens”, one of the rare Black Mirrors to feature zero future tech. Andrew Scott excels as a man who takes a social media company intern hostage, demanding to speak to its CEO. The framing devices director James Hawes employs cleverly underline his fractured state, and the chaotic unravelling of his plot feels plausible. Tackling the issue of our addiction to devices head on, rather than via metaphor, it’s nailbitingly tense and ultimately quite heartbreaking. Ian Berriman
Charlie Brooker has been asked to write for Doctor Who – and has an idea in mind. “I’ve just been too busy, annoyingly.”