Finished watching the recent BBC television anthology show Black Mirror tonight. Scarecrow has the series on DVD, albeit only Region 2 PAL format for now (no USA release yet).

This is one dark show. It’s basically two series (so far), each one is three shows, none are connected to one another. Think of Twilight Zone meets the (somewhat subtle) horror aspects of The Matrix, with the forboding, ever-present sense of doom from The Prisoner and a bit of the bleak outlook from Max Headroom to top it off.

These shows make you think, but make no mistake – they are very, very dark. Not horror per se, but just very dark in tone and outlook. Hard to say if they are being cynical or simply realistic but certainly Rod Serling would be a fan, there’s no question.

I’m not going to talk about any of the plots, because to even read about them on Wikipedia would spoil some of the effect – just watch the show. But there are some things in each show that are hard to watch, be forewarned. I personally thought the first series was a bit better than the second, although the second episode of the second series is a complete mind-trip in the best 70s dystopian sense, updated for the 21st century. The other two episodes for the second series were a bit weaker IMHO, somewhat predictable. But all of them certainly make you think (or even worry)!

Black Mirror on IMDB

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