Black Mirror season 3: news and episode reviews

This article is a recap of Netflix’s Black Mirror episode “Hated in the Nation.” There are spoilers and discussion regarding the episode’s plot.

Why does “Hated in the Nation” work?

This article is a recap of Netflix’s Black Mirror episode “Men Against Fire.” There are spoilers and discussion regarding the episode’s plot.

Late in “Men Against Fire,” a military psychiatrist (Michael Kelly, who plays Doug Stamper in House of Cards) tells young soldier Stripe (Malachi Kirby) that most soldiers don’t actually shoot to kill. Instead, they fire above the heads of their enemies.

This article is a recap of Netflix’s Black Mirror episode “San Junipero.” There are spoilers and discussion regarding the episode’s plot.

When “San Junipero” ends, we sit in a daze for a moment.

This article is a recap of Netflix’s Black Mirror episode “Shut Up and Dance.” There are spoilers and discussion regarding the episode’s plot.

“Shut Up and Dance” isn’t too concerned with trying to surprise us.

This article is a recap of Netflix’s Black Mirror episode “Playtest.” There are spoilers and discussion regarding the episode’s plot.

At the heart of “Playtest,” the second episode of the third season of Netflix’s sci-fi horror series Black Mirror, is a grim tale — but in the sneakiest of ways.

This article is a recap of Netflix’s Black Mirror episode “Nosedive.” There are spoilers and discussion regarding the episode’s plot.

“Nosedive” would have you believe that it’s about what it might look like if Pinterest, Instagram, and Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle site Goop took over the world. Phones firmly in hand, everyone rates the interactions they have with one another and the photos they post on their profiles — no matter how banal — on a scale from one to five stars.

There are only seven episodes so far, but declaring that something “reminds me of an episode of Black Mirror” still tends to elicit knowing smiles and nods — a response that’s become even more common since Netflix began streaming the British series back in 2014.

Black Mirror first aired in 2011, on the UK’s Channel 4, with a promise that every episode would feature a new story and new characters, in the style of The Twilight Zone. The idea linking all of those stories is technology — every screen we gaze upon is the black mirror of the show’s title, looking back and dimly reflecting who we really are.

Ironically, the worst thing that could have happened to Black Mirror, the British sci-fi anthology series that’s now a Netflix original, was technical innovation.

Each season had a weird little build to it, even across three episodes that had nothing to do with each other. There was enough space between airings for viewers to digest and dissect each episode before moving on to the next one.

When most people talk about “fall TV,” they’re talking about the huge glut of new shows that networks — broadcast, cable, and streaming — put on the air between September and November. But fall also means the return of some of TV’s best — or at least most entertaining — shows.

This fall is a solid one for new shows, but it’s also positively stuffed with great returning series. Below are 21 we think are worth watching, organized by return date. Some are among TV’s best. Some are just shows we like keeping up with. All are worth celebrating as part of the annual ritual of adding to your streaming queue.

Much has been said about whether we’re reaching the age of “peak TV” — but when it leads to shows like Black Mirror getting renewed, those concerns go right out the window. Yep, it’s true: TV’s freakiest anthology is getting brand new episodes, courtesy of Netflix.

On Friday, the streaming giant announced it has ordered production on 12 new episodes of Black Mirror, Charlie Brooker’s brilliantly twisted sci-fi series. With just six episodes so far in its third season (plus a Christmas special starring Jon Hamm), the British show sucked in audiences with its tales of alternate realities that are different enough to be mind-bending but similar enough to be utterly terrifying (and sometimes eerily prescient: see “The National Anthem” and David Cameron’s #piggate).