News & Interviews for Black Mirror: Season 5

Critic Reviews for Black Mirror Season 5

All Critics (38) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (28) | Rotten (10)

Watching Black Mirror's three brand-new installments on Netflix makes it clear that the series, in our current TV universe, claims and holds the fantasy anthology series crown.

Jun 5, 2019 | Full Review…

David Bianculli

NPR

Top Critic

The concepts are simple, and yet showrunners Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones find evermore potent ways to drive down into humanity's darker instincts.

Jul 19, 2019 | Full Review…

Lauren Carroll Harris

Guardian

Top Critic

In the best and worst exploitation tradition, "Striking Vipers" warns you not to treat others as a game. Then it goes ahead and does exactly that.

Aug 22, 2019 | Full Review…

Noah Berlatsky

Escapist Magazine

Season 5 of Black Mirror is a more calm, focused look at the human stories of technological advancement and a thoughtful examination of our own complex relationships with each other.

Jul 29, 2019 | Full Review…

Fiona Flynn

entertainment.ie

Black Mirror's fifth season rang in a new era of confidence and dedication to exploring the world of genre when it comes to creating impactful pieces.

Jul 3, 2019 | Full Review…

Bree Duwyn

Film Inquiry

An anthology of this calibre can be forgiven its weaker moments and this season does enough to leave you wanting more.

Jun 27, 2019 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review…

Alison de Souza

The Straits Times (Singapore)

'Black Mirror' has lost its spark as season five leans on findings of the past. [Full Review in Spanish]

Jun 5, 2019 | Rating: 1/5 | Full Review…

Alberto Carlos

Espinof

Even with only three new episodes to watch, season 5 of Black Mirror delivers. All three episodes are worth watching - some more than once!

Jun 14, 2019 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Tessa Smith

Mama's Geeky

Overall, this season offers relatively lighter fare for what can typically be an extremely heady, dark watch. And outside of a few pieces of tech, these stories could very much play out in the real world today.

Jun 25, 2019 | Full Review…

Jac Kern

Cincinnati CityBeat

Black Mirror still feels right - precisely because it feels so wrong.

Jun 25, 2019 | Full Review…

Lauren Carroll Harris

ABC News (Australia)

It may not be on the level of classic Black Mirror... but it's still a fine place to look for digital-era self-reflection. Just don't expect this run of episodes to break your brain.

Jun 20, 2019 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Haleigh Foutch

Collider

The fifth season of Black Mirror isn't necessary bad -- each episode has a glimmer of something exciting -- but unfortunately that didn't quite go far enough.

Jun 25, 2019 | Full Review…

Tatat Bunnag

Bangkok Post

View All Critic Reviews (38)

Audience Reviews for Black Mirror: Season 5

• Feb 06, 2020

  A mixed bag this season but nevertheless Black Mirror once again delivers on its sci-fi and quality.
  

  Samuel M
• Jan 26, 2020

  Despite what many might say, season 5 of Black Mirror still lives up to its theme.
  Jackson G
• Jan 19, 2020

  Worst season, boring, slow, subliminal messaging, dropped the ball.
  Samantha H
• Jan 17, 2020

  A sadly much worse season than it should have been. I certainly had higher expectations for this new season but was only let down.
  Melanie K
• Jan 13, 2020

  This show really fell off a cliff this season...I dont know what happened. I mean to go from the emotional heights of San Junipero and the depths of White Christmas, to the comparatively barren wasteland that is Rachel, Jack and Ashley too, This show has given me serious whiplash. If you're going to watch the show, for gods sake start early (skip the first episode) and ignore the entire fifth season. You'll thank me. Im praying for better times on the next go around.
  

  Jason M
• Jan 11, 2020

  This is the exact season when a very good TV series became socially acceptable and vanilla. From good to trash in Just one season.
  

  Zoe D
• Dec 27, 2019

  My friends and I were thinking about the Fighting Game episode...and real talk, this opened a whole new debate on whether this is infidelity or just a pastime. Is it wrong to do this when we have a significant other? It was funny, we joked that we would totally do this too. If technology allowed us to feel the pleasures of the opposite sex, the world will never be the same. That's about it, every other episode was a bit preachy about tech being bad.
  

  Sen A
• Dec 27, 2019

  Falls short of the previous seasons; seems to have forgotten what it is as a show. Easy to watch, hard to enjoy.
  Cole F
• Dec 23, 2019

  really love black mirror but this wasted a chance to do art like always
  Erick O
• Dec 22, 2019

  I didn't like season 5. I have loved the previous seasons but this one wasn't as good as the previous seasons. 'Ashley too' was the worst episode. Up until now, in most of the episodes, whatever fucked-up things that were happening were happening directly or indirectly because of technology. (There are exceptions to this like 'The national anthem' but even in that we see how the kidnapper was using tech evaded the cops. Also how that guy posting about that star who was going to play the double for the prime minister ruined their plan to CGI the pig fucking and then the PM actually had to do it.) Coming to the Story of 'Ashley too', it was predictable. A manager using kid star for profit. What was the point of the doll? They didn't show any psychological ramifications or any bad effects of the doll. It was just used as a plot device for the girls to get to know what was happening with Ashley. I mean my point is the things that happened to Ashley would have happened anyway if it was 1970 or 2070 only she wouldn't have been rescued by some 15 yo. The part where they tried to extract songs from her brain is so forced and unnecessary. Why couldn't they just hire a songwriter and then use her voice (which they said they already had) to voice that song? I mean just think about it. Not a lot of different things would've happened if this was set in the past. Ashely would have still been used and abused. And if she would've gone into a coma then the manager would've had to find her replacement just sooner rather than later. The only thing that would've not happened was 'Ashely eternal'. The message was that Ashely could be suffering but this hologram of her could replace her and her manager is now earning money off of that. Which is kind of happening now anyway. Songs are on YouTube and can be viewed anytime. For example, Tupac is dead but his songs are still on YouTube his label must still be profiting from his songs. The whole part about them crashing the debut of Ashley eternal was also very dramatic and very showdown-ish. I just PERSONALLY FELT it was forced. Why did she even go there. I thought they were gonna have this big confrontation but she just flips her off??? I mean if u r gonna do this big thing car slamming crashing into party thing at least confront her. Personally I would've liked them to, in the end, have a conservation about the things that happened one on one. It would've felt much more real. Also the two sisters going into Ashley's home felt something out of a kids movie. 'Striking vipers' was an okay episode. I think it was one of the lighter episodes. So not the best but still good. 'Smithereens' was the best in this season. The entire episode was about everyone always on their phones and in the end everyone who watched the episode also checked their phones like the people were doing at the end of the episode to know whether he died or not. Which I think is fucking brilliant. One problem I had was how the police handled it. Now I don't know how cops are meant to handle these situations in Britain but I was a little bit annoyed about how they acted. Once they moved away from Gillhaney why didn't they immediately try to establish contact with him? I mean after his little outburst we see he acts pretty reasonable so we think he is not gonna shoot the intern but how do the cops know he is not just gonna fucking shoot him. Even after the negotiator comes he contacts Gillhaney like 5 mins later. Buy ig that cop thing can't really be taken as like a complaint against the show. So apart from that I think Smithereens was fucking brilliant. So In the end I think this just didn't hold up to my expectations.
  civiad i

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