I didn't hate any of these, but it's definitely my least favorite season so far. I do kind of wish the Red Mirror thing was actually a separate show. "Mazey Day" and "Demon 79" playing with horror tropes instead of science/speculative fiction sets them apart regardless of quality. The more humorous tone of "Demon 79" was pretty refreshing though. "Beyond the Sea" feels like Brooker on autopilot. I think that still makes for a pretty good episode, but it could probably have been cut down to an hour. While, "Joan Is Awful" and "Loch Henry" were my two favorite episodes of the season, something about the meta-critique of Netflix in a Netflix show feels hollow to me. Maybe Brooker could have done a subversive jab at streaming TV when this was on BBC, but this just felt more like Netflix saying "we don't care, you're paying us to watch this anyway lol." Or maybe that was the point.
Finished this today - it was okay, a little better than 5 imo but the magic definitely feels gone at this point. I’ll keep watching as long as Brooker keeps making them, but I wouldn’t be upset if he wrapped it up.
The final twist in Beyond the Sea is completely unearned and ridiculous. The dude seemed like a nice guy despite his grief and confusion for 99% of the episode and then he just becomes a violent killer? TF.
Felt pretty earned and explained to me, "seeming" like a nice guy literally means nothing, you can say that about so many abusers, murderers or plain ol assholes
there was so much blood so it was clearly an extremely violent murder and we got no indication this was a violent man--especially toward women (and one he supposedly had feelings for, even). he even returns to the ship seemingly unfazed by his actions. I was doing mental gymnastics trying to figure out how the character himself could justify that by his own motives. in the end it just felt like a really lazy attempt at shock value IMO.
Having his whole family murdered and then the last chance he had of human contact/life on earth for the foreseeable future taken away from him is definitely enough to explain the snap for me.
Did not enjoy Mazey Day or Demon 79. Some corny ass episodes there. I think the first two of the season, Joan and Loch Henry, were the only ones I thought were genuinely worthwhile. Beyond the Sea was alright.
Joan had terrible execution imo and came off corny. Mazey was also really bad. I enjoyed the rest with Loch being my favorite
I watched the first two and started Beyond but just totally lost interest in finishing this season lol
The show has dropped in quality the past couple seasons and doing a sequel to one of the hits might not be a good sign. I’ll still be watching and hoping they return to form