The show Black Mirror represents an interesting slice of genre– it’s science fiction, because those technologies don’t exist in our current world, but they’re close enough to our reality that they seem plausible. I guess they call that speculative fiction, or dystopian fiction. It also depends on the episode.

San Junipero is a rom-com, Bandersnatch is Choose Your Own Adventure, and the first episode… that’s pure political thriller. Anthology shows like Black Mirror and its predecessor The Twilight Zone have been cornerstones of the science fiction genre for decades. The format allows for short-form experimentations in sci-fi, allowing ideas with only perhaps 30 minutes of mileage to be made and easily consumed. Where else would we get an idea of an AI toy that ruins a young pop star’s life? Black Mirror is as diverse as it is fascinating. Much like a certain meme list that happens to lie below…