Black Mirror. Copyright: Zeppotron
Black Mirror

Black Mirror

  • TV comedy drama
  • Channel 4 / Netflix

Dark sci-fi fantasy comedy dramas about our collective unease about the modern world. Created by Charlie Brooker.

  • JustWatch Streaming rank this week: 208

Press clippings Page 10

Black Mirror's White Bear named 'darkest yet' by fans

Black Mirror viewers heaped praise on last night's episode, calling "White Bear" the 'blackest' of all the programme's episodes so far.

Metro, 19th February 2013

Black Mirror: White Bear spoiler-filled review

Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror takes a nightmarish turn in its second episode. Here's Ryan's spoiler-filled review of White Bear...

Ryan Lambie, Den Of Geek, 19th February 2013

Black Mirror 'White Bear' (review)

The first 45 minutes of White Bear, the second episode of Charlie Brooker's trilogy of technology-fearing dystopias, played out like a low-budget, low-quality version of 28 Days Later. It's basically the worst thing he's ever written, which, you come to realise, is the whole point.

Sam Parker, The Huffington Post, 19th February 2013

Black Mirror - 'White Bear'

Last week's premiere "Be Right Back", while emotionally rich, didn't take its overused sci-fi concepts anywhere new. Black Mirror's second episode, "White Bear", was also a bit of a hodgepodge of ideas, although the narrative felt more gripping and propulsive. And the trump card resolution added some deliciously dark and satirical flavours that elevated the whole episode in retrospect.

Dan Owen, Dan's Media Digest, 19th February 2013

The second of Charlie Brooker's creepily believable trilogy of techno-future tales casts its chilly spell from the moment Lenora Crichlow (Being Human) opens her eyes as haunted, hunted Victoria.

Waking to the debris of what looks to have been a suicidal night before, Victoria can't remember anything about anything - why do TV screens keep playing white noise at her? And why does a strange cipher keep flashing into her mind?

As she steps outdoors, she finds herself in a world where looking at any kind of screen is the most dangerous thing you can do. And where onlookers would sooner point their phone at somebody who's running for their life than try to help...

Carol Carter and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, Metro, 18th February 2013

A traumatised young woman (Lenora Crichlow) wakes up with a headache and bandaged wrists. Pills are spilt on the floor. Her TV's showing static. She can't remember who she is. When she goes outside, people film her on their phones from nearby houses. Then it gets worse. A man in a balaclava gets out of a Rolls-Royce and starts hunting her with a shotgun. Things gets darker and nastier from there as we try to work out what Hunger Games sort of hell she has woken up in. It's a horribly well realised nightmare world that delivers the blackest of satires.

David Butcher, Radio Times, 18th February 2013

Nothing is quite what it seems in this latest Charlie Brooker drama. At the very least, it's a bravura feat of sustained rug pulling. At various points, you'll feel like you're watching a shoddy 28 Days Later knock-off, a heavy-handed treatise on our increasing capacity to observe and be controlled, an experiment in perspective and audience sympathy or something else entirely. Ambitious, even audacious, then.

Lenora Crichlow is superb as terrified, traumatised Victoria, a girl who awakes in distress to find she can remember nothing of her life. When she leaves the house, her day gets worse. Anyone who isn't physically attacking her is cheerfully filming her plight on their smartphones. But then salvation arrives. Or does it? Saying too much more would spoil the fun. But suffice to say, this is a black mirror indeed.

Phil Harrison, Time Out, 18th February 2013

The opening episode was relatively gentle, but make no mistake, Black Mirror is back on brutal, nasty form tonight. Being Human's Lenora Crichlow plays Victoria, who wakes up with a severe headache and no memory of who she is. When she staggers into the outside world, she meets an army of passive observers who film her on their phones while she's tracked by "hunters" in terrifying masks. Nothing is as it seems, but you've got to admire a TV show that seems so intent on putting you off looking at screens for good.

Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian, 18th February 2013

White Bear is another work of dark and twisted genius

It's another work of dark and twisted genius from Charlie Brooker.

Jane Simon, The Mirror, 18th February 2013

Ha, Black Mirror (Channel 4)! Like The Hunger Games plus The Truman Show plus The Gadget Show plus Jeremy Kyle plus Big Brother plus Dawn of the Dead plus Shaun of the Dead plus Groundhog Day plus a lot of morons with phones, all snorted into Charlie Brooker's head where it can fester and go off a bit and gather darkness ... before getting vomited out - projectile vomited - on to the screen.

I actually preferred the first one. It was more human, and felt more of an individual drama in its own right. This is more brutal and bleaker. Nastier. And still probably about the most imaginative television around right now. A big blinding flash of futuresplat.

Sam Wollaston, The Guardian, 18th February 2013

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