Black Mirror Isn’t as Dark as it Used to Be, and That’s Okay
By: Michael Boyle
Tags: Storytelling, Culture, Film, Television, Medium

About a year has passed since the fifth season of Black Mirror came out, and some of the fans have been a little disappointed. There were plenty of complaints, from the reduced episode count, to the re-use of already-explored technologies, but one critique that rings out above the rest is how lighthearted this season has been. There were very few stomach-churning twists, very little existential dread. Two of the three episodes ended on what most can agree were positive notes. The general understanding is that Black Mirror, the horror/sci-fi anthology series, has finally gone soft.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

[Caution: mild spoilers for multiple episodes below.]

The first thing I want to clarify is that yes, I get it: the darkness was a huge part of what made the show so great in the beginning. The show made its name off of disturbing, cynical episodes like White Christmas, Shut Up and Dance, and White Bear. But the bleakness has never been the core of the show, and as of season five, that core has still never been lost. (No, not even in the Miley episode.)

Black Mirror is, at its core, a show about the way technology enhances or exposes the aspects of humanity that were already there. That’s all. Every episode has the same basic formula: there’s some sort of technology that has obvious upsides, but humans — being humans — decide to use that technology in unexpected ways. These ways don’t have to be bad and they don’t have to be good; they just need to be compelling. And in that regard, season five stands up just as well as the rest of the show.

Credit: Netflix

Striking Vipers, for instance, takes the concept of hyper-realistic VR gaming, something that seems very much plausible in the near future, and uses it to explore such complicated human themes around sexuality, love, and infidelity. Not only that, but it does this in a way that has never been done before. What was the last movie you’ve ever seen with a love triangle like this? When was the last time a show made you grapple with the sort of questions this episode made you grapple with? Just like White Bear and Fifteen Million Merits, I could talk about the implications of Striking Vipers for hours on end.

Meanwhile, I can’t help but wonder if Ashley O’s arc in Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too was intended as a direct commentary on fans’ expectations for the show itself. Ashley wants to try out new music, but she’s been pigeonholed by her fans to a specific genre. When she finally gets to branch out and sing other stuff, some of her “biggest fans” (remember those girls who cried at the news that she was in a coma?) are appalled and storm out of the concert.

Credit: Netflix

Whenever I see people complain that the new season just doesn’t feel like Black Mirror, I’m reminded a little bit of those teenagers who cried over Ashley O’s coma, only to be appalled when she starts singing what she wants to sing. Black Mirror may have made a name for itself by taking stories in the darkest direction possible, but I doubt the writers want to keep going for that same type of tone over and over again. They want to throw in a little more optimism, tell different types of stories, but of course this alienates a lot of the fans who loved them for their darker moments. But that’s okay, because the writers are getting to tell the stories they want to tell. They aren’t catering their writing to appease their fans.

I remember when San Junipero came out — the first episode to give viewers any hope for the future — and talking to a handful of fans who wished the story had gone in a more typically Black Mirror direction. “I wish Kelly had chosen to die naturally,” one person had said, “and then the episode could’ve ended with Yorkie alone in the simulation, waiting forever for Kelly to come back.” Someone else had an even darker idea: that Kelly would want to pass over, but would die unexpectedly before she got the chance.

Yes, both of those endings would’ve been heartbreaking. They both would given the viewers that same sinking stomach feeling that so many of the best episodes produced. But what would be the point? What would a tragic ending for San Junipero say that hasn’t already been said in the ten episodes that preceded it? Fifteen Million Merits used its cynical ending to make a statement about how genuine rebellion can be repackaged into something that defeats its own message. White Bear used its cynical ending to make a statement about outrage culture and retributive justice. What profound statement would the writers be making by refusing Kelly and Yorky their happy ending?

A dark ending would not have worked for San Junipero. Worse: a dark ending would’ve been boring, predictable. It would’ve been lazily repeating that same pattern the audience had come to expect. So much of what made this episode great was the contrast with what came before it: after ten episodes in a row of everything going wrong, of watching our protagonists get all their humanity drained out of them, it can’t be understated just how powerful it was when things finally went well. For the show to finally say, “you know what? Maybe things won’t be so bad.”

Credit: Netflix

One of the best things about the recent lighter episodes of Black Mirror is how they’ve widened the range of where each story could go. By the time we got to season three, we’d been trained to expect the absolute worst. We went into every episode knowing we’d be subjecting ourselves to another hour’s worth of stress and pain. San Junipero taught us that wouldn’t always be the case, and now after finishing season five, it’s clear that the possibilities are endless in future episodes. The first episode of season six could end on a dark note, a happy note, or anywhere in between. Isn’t it more exciting to have no idea what to expect?

I think a lot of us need to deal with the idea that a story being bleak and cynical does not necessarily equal a story being deep. Nowadays, we have a tendency to think that happy endings are easier to write; that by nature they can’t be as memorable or as compelling as an ending that’s dark. We have a tendency to believe that negativity is synonymous with wisdom, and that being optimistic about anything is the same as being naive. This is such an unproductive, self-defeating attitude for people to have, and it’s part of why I’m not upset that Black Mirror seems to have pushed back on it, if even just a little.

Because in the year of 2020, when authoritarianism seems to be spreading across the globe, when the climate crisis is accelerating at a faster rate than ever, when there’s a massive pandemic and the economy is in shambles, how much value does cynicism really add?