Black Mirror is among my favorite TV shows ever: it’s up there with The X-Files, The Simpsons, and a few others. I’ve just watched season 4 of Black Mirror on Netflix.
Upon first watch, this is the weakest of the first four seasons. The writing just isn’t up the standard set by much of the first three seasons.
On a positive note, I watched all six episodes, and I regard it as six hours (or so) well spent. Each episode was very well done, in terms of performances, and thus probably in terms of casting and directing.
Here’s my current ranking of the episodes.
- Best: Hang the DJ (episode 4). A clear winner. The best script of the season. I loved the chemistry between the leads.
- Black Museum (episode 6). I suspect that Douglas Hodge’s riveting performance carried me over some flaws.
- Arkangel (episode 2).
- Callister and Metalhead (episodes 1 and 5 respectively). Possibly the two most different-from-each-other episodes of the season, which makes it hard to say which I preferred.
- Crocodile (episode 3), a distant last, despite a good cast making the best of the script.
At most one of these episodes would make my “Best of Black Mirror” top ten. It’s not that the season was bad, it’s that it wasn’t Black Mirror great, or early X-Files great. Perhaps Black Mirror is one of those shows that should stop while it’s ahead, after a few (four?) seasons.
What did you think?