The Star Trek homage, “USS Callister,” is a standout.
Is anyone optimistic about technology anymore?
So producer Charlie Brookers initial salvo of satirical techno-skepticism felt transgressive.
Credit: Jonathan Prime /Netflix
Remember, too, that so many of us in America first discoveredBlack Mirrordown the internets back alleys.
Nothing in that first season didnt come true.
The newBlack Mirrorseason continues the anthologys outward expansion.
There are three episodes helmed by feature film directors.
A fancy new start-up offers her parental relief.
A tiny chip embedded in the childs brain allows her to track her daughter everywhere.
And if the world ever gets disturbing?
This is one of this seasons two straightforward parables.
A young couple meet thanks to a dating app called Coach.
I get anxious whenBlack Mirrorgets the cutes, and no episode this season has more cutes.
Then again,1984was a love story, too.
Shot in black and white by director David Slade, its a near-realtime thriller.
Maxine Peake stars as a woman in a post-apocalyptic environment.
This decade hes become a TV journeyman with a real flair, setting the sumptuous pilot-episode tones ofAmerican GodsandHannibal.
Theres a particular flourish in Metalhead that feels right in line with his horror work.
Emmys, Shmemmys, someone call the Hugos!
This starship science-fiction tale isnt just a clever riff onStar Trek.
No episode this season sparkles with a greater combination of dramatic and deep-tough conceptual imagination.
USS Callister stars Jesse Plemons in what amounts to a brilliant dual role.
To say more would spoil the slippery cleverness with which Brooker and co-writer William Bridges tackle theirStar Trekvariant.
But I have to call out Cristin Milioti, who appears as a young employee at Dalys company.
This is a great part for Milioti, funny and freaked out.
Haynes finds an uncanny-valley majesty in the Callister visuals.
Theyre two women slowly approaching each other, like walls closing in.
Crocodile starts with a random act of violence and follows the unexpected consequences.
Inessential, but there is a funny doll.C-
