Black Mirror Season 5 was... okay?

With a new season of Black Mirror, comes a new season of hype. So to say season 5 had some hype would be an understatement, however when Netflix announced that this coming season would only have 3 episodes I was a little surprised. As season 4 had brought us 6 amazing episodes, one of which is my favorite Black Mirror episode ever (I'll let you guess). So coming into Season 5 I did have some high expectations regarding what type of technological tropes they would be covering this time. Here's my spoiler free breakdown of Black Mirror Season 5.

Season 5 starts with Striking Viper, in which we get an interesting look at what extreme VR gaming would look like. Per the title, the game Anthony Mackie and his friend plays is called Striking Viper X, which is a street fighter-esc game, only playable through Black Mirror's version of VR. This episode explores many touchy topics like fragile masculinity and what a healthy marriage looks like. While watching I was often shocked at what was happening, making me slightly rethink every time I've played a game with one of my friends.

Smithereens takes us into the mind of someone who has seen social media take everything from him. We see Chris, who is seemingly a nice Uber driver, take a dark turn in order to get his point across. This is honestly the most lackluster of the three episodes, and it has nothing to do with the acting, but rather the whole last act of the episode just doesn't really deliver. You feel connections with the characters, even those introduced later, but this doesn't really make up for the last 15 minutes. This episode is probably the worst out of the bunch.

Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too is the Miley Cyrus episode and honestly finishes strong. This episode has you follow Rachel, a girl who moved into a new town with her emo sister Jack, and doesn't have any friends. Her dad get's her an Ashley Too doll, which is what we see in the trailer. This episode has some of the best jokes and most likely the most interesting plot of all three episodes in season 5. The ending is satisfying and honestly teaches us to be who we are. Miley Cyrus honesty doesn't disappoint with her acting skills, she did start off that way with Hannah Montana, alas.

Season 5 brings us some interesting stories this time around, however they aren't as impactful and profound as previous seasons, but that doesn't mean this season isn't entertaining and thoughtful.

Overall score for Season 5: 6/10