Charlie Brooker, what happened to you? Gone are the days of hard-hitting, tense, emotional television and what we’re left with is mediocre, uninspiring stories not worth telling. Season Five of Black Mirror is now available on Netflix, comprising of three 50 to 60 minutes episodes. What used to be a show about the dangers of technology has now become a show about, well, not much really, apart from sometimes it’s set in the future.

The very title of show has now become obsolete, no longer holding a mirror to show how our lives have or could become worse as we become more hooked on technology. The writing has stopped being allegorical and satirical and has instead become stilted and dull. What used to leave you feeling emotionally drained has now become emotionally stunted.

The man behind shows such as Dead Set and Touch of Cloth used to bring biting, almost absurd humour to our screens. That’s not to say Brooker still doesn’t bring us the absurd. If you’re on any kind of social media, you’re bound to have seen the memorable quote ‘I fucked a polar bear and I still couldn’t get you out of my mind’. Both out of context and in the context of the episode Striking Viper, this is ridiculous, but the episode is played so seriously, it can’t be taken as a comedy.

Of course, the lighter episodes in previous series of Black Mirror were a welcome relief from the intense ones. San Junipero became iconic, warming the hearts of the viewers and giving us a storyline worth following. However, the newest series doesn’t give us a storyline you can really care about. For as talented as Andrew Scott is, after his episode Smithereens went from mystery to cop drama and focus shifted away from his character and his reason for kidnapping someone, it became too like The Bill worth paying much attention too. The motive for Andrew Scott’s character was intriguing enough without dragging in extra characters who didn’t display much personality.

The same goes for Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too. What started as an episode about a misfit young girl seeking comfort in the newest technology in the form of an AI doll shifted to a pop star trying to break free from her oppressive aunt. The episode crammed in so many elements that it went from A Star Is Born to a coming of age drama to Disney princess breaking free from an evil stepmother and back again. It was a fun caper but there wasn’t anything to learn from this. It left me questioning, ‘okay, and?’. What’s next? What do we as an audience learn from this? It was a fun story about two sisters and a pop star but there was no way this is traditional Black Mirror.

We live in dark times, sure, but what people enjoyed so much about Black Mirror was the darkness of it. It left us thinking about our relationship with technology and how we could become poisoned and possessed by this. Even the previous episodes which didn’t bring a warning, still shook us to the core, like Shut Up & Dance. This is why we watched this show. Now, the writers have strayed from this, almost like they have nothing to say on humanity. Now, they just want to tell stories that interest them, not the audience. Maybe the writers have accepted the fate of humanity and are just giving us fun little stories with happy endings. Maybe there’s not much left to say about technology. If you didn’t like the bleakness of Black Mirror, this is a series for you.

Creator: Charlie Brooker
Stars: Daniel Lapaine, Hannah John-Kamen, Michaela Coel
Lauren Jones
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