What do you know today that you didn't know yesterday?

[Rev. Rye]

Too right. I spend as much, if not more, time searching than I do watching. We’re spoilt for choice.

When I was a lad, we had three channels to choose from; BBC1, BBC2, and, if the weather was right, RTE from the Republic. There was technically a fourth - Ulster Television, but Da wouldn’t allow it in the house.

Boru

Yep, for me it was the big four... BBC1, 2, ITV and the ever controversial, at the time anyway, Channel 4...then we felt spoilt for choice when Channel 5 came, full of daytime TV and crime dramas like CSI.

Anyway in the end just decided to jump straight into one without thinking too much about it... Black Mirror on Netflix; I get the feeling it's going to be something like XFiles or the Outer Limits, in the sense of self contained episodes of weird stuff, with different actors each episode. I may be wrong but if it is that, there's definitely something nice about having no expectations whatsoever and having a completely fresh story each time. The Outer Limits was really cool for that very reason.

As a longtime devotee of Black Mirror who’s probably written enough about it to fill a book, it’s probably more accurate to compare it to a tech-focused version of The Twilight Zone except without a host. And about the “fresh story every time” thing… it’s complicated.

If you’re looking for something more in the anthology vein, I’d recommend Inside No. 9. While it does have the same two actors appearing in most every episode (Steve Pemberton and Reese Shearsmith), it really does throw you for a loop with most every episode. That said, it’s harder to find, but you should easily be able to find it on DailyMotion.