Black Mirror

[D_Davis]

The first two episodes were just people being terrible to each other. Never got that vibe from Twilight Zone. I hear people call it a TZ for the modern era, so maybe that just means I don't jive with the modern era. That's fine.

It's Ballardian, but without the sense of wonder and fascination with humanity that Ballard had.

I'm going to watch a few more to see what else it has in store.

[Irish]

[Dead & Messed Up]

Twilight Zone did mix cruelty into its delicious soup sometimes, but I'm kinda with D, in that the overwhelming feeling I get is a deep humanism and love for people and the human spirit. Its occasional bleak circumstances didn't often match to people being equally cruel to each other, but to oppressive social groups challenging a sympathetic hero.

[Irish]

Twilight Zone had different goals depending on the episode. It ran the gamut from satire to horror to sci-fi to fantasy.

Black Mirror doesn't. It's straight sci-fi satire. It's angry and bitter, the way satire is intended to be. Almost all the episodes revolve around the effect of technology on people and social structures.

Admittedly, the focus is much more narrow than The Twilight Zone. But that doesn't make one worse than the other. There's plenty of genre and satire in Serling's show if we look around. Cf: The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, It's Good Life, The Living Doll, Time Enough to Last, Eye of the Beholder, etc.

Those episodes didn't exhibit a "deep love of the human spirit." They were social commentaries meant to jolt the audience out of their complacency. That's what good genre work does. That's what Black Mirror does.