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Culture

Black Mirror’s ‘Shut Up and Dance’ Is a Horrifying Thriller

The third episode of the new season is one of the most disturbing of the series.

Sophie Gilbert

October 21, 2016 Enjoy unlimited access to The Atlantic for less than $1 per week. Thank you for reading The Atlantic. Sign in Subscribe for less than $1 per week Subscribe Now Netflix

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Sophie Gilbert and David Sims will be discussing the new season of Netflix’s Black Mirror, considering alternate episodes. The reviews contain spoilers; don’t read further than you’ve watched. See all of their coverage here.

David, I agree with you that the ending of “Playtest” fell flat. After so many twists (bullies! spiders! spider bullies! Terminator hookups!), the end didn’t evoke pathos so much as a sense of absurdity. In terms of focusing on the evils of technology, though, it seems to me that Black Mirror has always seen technology as something with the potential to enable and encourage human evil, rather than something that’s inherently evil by itself. It takes our worst instincts as people, as societies, and magnifies them.

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