The 21st Century has given us some classic Sci-Fi TV shows. The first half of the 2000s was a boom period for a genre that had arguably peaked in the 1980s (at least on the big screen), with the likes of Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, and Doctor Who giving us some all-time great Sci-Fi series. That continued into the 2010s and then well into the streaming era, with shows like The Expanse and, more recently, Apple TV’s offerings such as Severance holding their own among the very best of the genre.
If Netflix is to have a say in all of this – and, as the biggest, most dominant TV studio of the past decade, it must – then it should be with Black Mirror. The streamer took over the show from Channel 4 after the first two seasons, giving it some U.S. polish and a bigger budget, but without losing the storytelling ingenuity of Charlie Brooker that had made it such a standout in the first place. Season 3 debuted on Netflix on October 21st, 2016, and still stands as one of Black Mirror‘s best seasons, with perhaps its greatest episode: “San Junipero.”
A great Sci-Fi TV episode needs either a high concept if it’s something standalone like this, or to elevate the concept of the overall series and do something unexpected with it. Ideally, there’ll be a satisfying twist or two thrown in there, but more important is that it balances the science-fiction of it all with grounded character work that allows the viewer to be emotionally invested. When I think of some of the best episodes from those other Sci-Fi TV shows mentioned earlier – say, Firefly‘s “Out of Gas,” Lost‘s “The Constant,” Doctor Who‘s “Blink,” or Battlestar‘s “Pegasus” to name but a few – they all do that in some way.
“San Junipero” is no exception, and it has the fundamentals of what makes a great Black Mirror episode, in particular: a technological concept that doesn’t feel too far away, and is used to drive human drama. In this case, that’s the ability to upload one’s consciousness to a machine and essentially live forever in a simulated reality, which is used as the setting for a romance between Yorkie (Mackenzie Davis) and Kelly (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). Their stunning performances are at the heart of the episode, but it stands apart from other installments of the show with its visuals, musical cues, and most of all, its ending.
The happy, uplifting ending to “San Junipero” is the rare time you could call Black Mirror beautiful, and it packs a punch 100x harder because it’s so atypical. At the same time, there’s still enough of a darker edge and questions surrounding the reality of living forever that it feels true to the show. It does what some of the best Sci-Fi stories do, which is take that foundation and push the boundaries of it in exciting and surprising ways, and that’s why, re-watching it nine years on, it still feels as fresh and brilliant as it did at the time.
“San Junipero” and other Black Mirror episodes are available to stream on Netflix.
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