Black Mirror, Beyond The Sea, Season six, Episode three | Review

Beyond the Sea, at its core holds all the key elements to a great Black Mirror chapter: slow-burning dread and a myriad of ways for everything to go wrong.

The story has distinct sweet and sad moments which is more than we’ve come to expect of Black Mirror, the episode starts light with dynamic characters and strong narrative ties. This of course, quickly changes and leaves the remaining story to be a truly heartbreaking watch. This episode is by far one of the strongest Black Mirror episodes ever, let alone this season. Set in an alternate 1960s, we see a remarkable attention to detail and story along with some incredible acting performances from both Aaron Paul and Josh Hartnett. Watching these two act toe-to-toe was magnificent, they are both have incredibly strong characters which strongly complimented one another.

Overall, this episode is a meditation on the human condition that could only have been told through science fiction. Showcasing the nature of humans and how we can easily fall into the role of villain, seeing what tragedy can do to humanity is terrifying in itself. Beyond the Sea is a more mature Black Mirror episode then ones we’ve seen in the past, with a strong concentration on storytelling over technology, the science fiction elements to this episode almost took a back seat and I really enjoyed the naturalist approach.

This episode is the best of the season, I think most will agree on that, all episodes have been strong up to now but Beyond the Sea simply outshines them all on every level. Memorability, tragedy, character, story, emotion, visuals, aesthetic and design. Every aspect turned this episode into something I will never forget and an ending I simply cannot un-see.