Black Mirror (Season 3)

The most disquieting aspects of Black Mirror have never been future-shock predictions about where we're going, but rather present-shock recognition about where we're at, as tends to be the case with the best examples of socially-aware science fiction.

Looking back at previous episodes of series creator Charlie Brooker's piercing satire about the crash-zone intersection of high-tech and human nature, some of the more upsetting moments have involved the use of technology to broadcast and amplify traits ranging from petty to loathsome. Brooker himself summed it up nicely in a recent Guardian interview where he called Black Mirror "the way we might be living in 10 minutes' time if we're clumsy".

So, yeah, watching Black Mirror has very, very rarely been what you could call fun. And the idea of having six new episodes available all at once on Netflix, where devotees of the show can mainline a huge hit of Brooker's vision in one binge, seems like a shortcut to emotional and psychological despair.

Interestingly enough, there's a lightness - even a slight but evident feeling of optimism - in the first couple of episodes of this new batch of Black Mirror, maybe due to the introduction of new collaborators in the scripting stage.

But fear not, pessimists, the show still has plenty for you as well.

Online dating, virtual reality and one's social-media profile go hand in hand with tried-and-true tropes like the war story, the police procedural and the haunted-house chiller in these six episodes of the new season (another six are due in 2017).

And while Shut Up and Dance is bleak in the best Brooker fashion and Playtest is scary as hell, it's the funnier and, dare we say, sweeter episodes that initially come off best.

The premiere episode, Nosedive, has Brooker co-scripting with Rashida Jones and Michael Schur a story where social-media standing has bled into the real world. Everything a person says or does gets up-voted or down-voted, affecting the way they're perceived and treated by everyone around them.

For Lacie (Bryce Dallas Howard, taking 'thirsty' to strange new places), curating the perfect persona is a full-time job...and one that she seems destined to screw up.

And San Junipero, which brings together the shy Yorkie (Mackenzie Davis) and the outgoing Kelly (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) in a neon-saturated California beach town straight outta 1986, is unexpectedly warm and touching, which in its own way is surprising in the best Black Mirror tradition.

Black Mirror is streaming on Netflix now.