This is my episode by episode review for the second season of Black Mirror, all three episodes! If you haven't read my review for the first season you can read that here, and I'll be reviewing the third and fourth seasons too, as well as the Christmas special! This will include minor to major spoilers so if you haven't watched the second season of Black Mirror yet I recommend doing so before reading this, any way without further ado here's what I thought, enjoy!
Episode 1 ''Be Right Back''
This episode was brilliant, it's a heartbreaking story and it's very emotionally impactful, I loved Hayley Atwell's performance and I can definitely see something like this being a thing in the future, especially in regard to the first half of the episode. The idea of being able to create an accurate simulation of someone just by collecting all available data about them from their online activity is an interesting thought, it's tragic being able to get so close but never close enough.
The second half of the episode felt a little rushed, going from text to a phone call to a fucking cyborg stewing in your bath is a bit of a leap, it works in context to Martha's character arc but it just felt like it should have been eased into a little more, maybe fade out, next scene starts, text reads two years later and then introduce the idea! I also thought that for such futuristic technology the clone was making some stupid errors, maybe it was just a prototype though!
Hayley Atwell was excellent as Martha, she delivers an extremely emotional performance and I felt it in my bones, she was great, her delivery was perfect and her reactions were on point! I also thought Domhnall Gleeson was great as Ash as well, both as a human and as a robot, he does an excellent job at performing two different forms of vacancy given the living Ash was a bit of head down sort of guy, Martha probably got an upgrade if anything! 8/10.
Episode 2 ''White Bear''
The first time I watched this episode it was gripping, I had no idea what was going on, I was dying to find out and the conclusion was satisfying, however, watching it for the second time and going into without that mystery element takes away a lot of the impact and the first half especially is a little tedious. Knowing this is some sort of amusement park with actors really takes away any tension, the second half still holds up though, and it's still a horrible thought!
This would be a nightmare and the episode does a good job at showing how inhumane it is because despite this woman being a child murderer it's hard not to feel sorry for her! I love how they depict the torch waving pitchfork crowd as well, they're not too far off from what we're led to believe they are in the first half of the episode, mindless onlookers trapped behind their phones, they're pretty much the same even after the revelation half way through!
I don't agree with the death penalty and I definitely wouldn't agree with something like this, I don't care what the crime is, I don't trust people enough to think they should ever have the power to do something as disgusting as this, maybe on an individual more personal level but never as a crowd, the crowd's always wrong and human beings are savages, I think that's what the episode's trying to get across, is this morally acceptable, no, no it isn't! 7/10.
Episode 3 ''The Waldo Moment''
I'm not really sure how I feel about this episode and I felt the same way the first time I watched it, it's a little underwhelming I suppose, I feel like the conclusion was a bit of a leap as well. Don't get me wrong it's a decent episode I just didn't connect with it, I understand what they're trying to convey but I guess it just didn't land with me, the politicians are arseholes, Waldo's an arsehole, the voters are arseholes so who gives a fuck what happens or why!?
Get involved and vote for someone or a cartoon bear will bring about some sort of oppressive futuristic police state! I also didn't buy into the relationship between Jamie and Gwendolyn, first of all it just felt very abrupt and secondly why would she just start ignoring him without offering any explanation as to why, especially if she was planning on calling him after the election anyway! It's a decent ride but one without much of a payoff to it.
I liked Jamie and I like the idea of this severely depressed man having to play this idiotic character which ends up ruining his life but the execution wasn't quite as smooth as we've come to expect from Black Mirror. This is probably one of my least favourite Black Mirror episodes and it's still good! I just feel like they're reaching a bit with this one, we get it! Don't vote for an abrasive one dimensional cartoon otherwise it will take over the world and ruin it further. 6/10.
Summary
All in all this was another good but short season of Black Mirror but I definitely preferred the first season, Be Right Back's just as good as anything in season 1 but White Bear loses it's impact upon a second viewing and The Waldo Moment's a little underwhelming as a whole. I still enjoyed them all and I'll be back soon with a review for the Christmas special ''White Christmas'', as well as reviews for the third and fourth seasons too, until then!
What did you think of Black Mirror - Season 2?