Watched the final two episodes of Black Mirror Season 6.
Beyond the Sea (S6E3): Well-done slow burn episode, but it's difficult to determine where it was heading. I guess it is an episode full of themes but it feels like Brooker wasn't sure of what the ending should have been. More cohesion needed thematically. But maybe the point was for a lot of threads to linger. Also, considering where this COULD have gone:
Mazey Day (S6E4): Compared to Beyond the Sea, MD pretty much is the simplest of all the episodes of Season 6 -- except you don't know where it's going exactly until the "oh shit" moment, whereupon I just started laughing and couldn't stop. This isn't a bad thing, it was a hell of an ending. And I guess the main point is already what everyone thought regardless about the paparazzi (with elements of "Nightcrawler" in there), although when you think about it, it becomes even more and more miserable of a snapshot of life in general. I'm not really sure of the reasons for the hate of this episode, it was actually really enjoyable despite the bizarre twist.
---
So there you have it, my thoughts on Season 6.
I have been surprised at the dislike some reviewers expressed for episodes this season. All of them had
wonderful production values, good acting, and the writing was actually pretty coherent versus clumsy like can happen on many anthology shows; Brooker tends to be a solid writer in terms of the delivery of the story, and what is actually quibbled on is the story being told.
I suspect the main problem is that the season is fairly "off-brand" for Black Mirror, which had a pretty tight focus on the horrors inflicted on our culture by modern technology. Brooker did not stay in that lane for much of Season 6, I would call this season a pretty clear veer into regular Twilight Zone / American Horror Story / VHS territory. The time periods also vary widely, with episodes clearly anchored in decades like the 60's, 70's, and 90's, along with modern times. So it's off-brand, but that doesn't mean the stories weren't worth viewing or that they were "bad." I think the only dissatisfaction I experienced (again) was with Beyond the Sea, which kind of just trails off (although I really enjoy the chair kick).
The thing is, the later seasons of Black Mirror had more hits and misses. If this is what Brooker needed to revitalize himself and get the juices flowing again, and this venue worked for him, then who cares? They're still speculative fiction stories and they are really well-done overall. I'm actually a lot happier with this season than I've been since White Christmas dropped, tbh. As a season, I also enjoyed it more than Peele's TZ reboot seasons or other speculative fiction seasons I've perused on streaming like Tales from the Loop, for example.