Black Mirror is the perfect 2021 Christmas watch on Netflix

Each episode Black MirrorIt has its little dark world but there is still the light. is known for recurring symbols that link every storyline to an interconnected universe, from the “White Bear” symbol to Waldo the bear and “San Junipero”/St Juniper’s hospital. One could argue that there is another motif, which can be woven into the storyline. Black Mirror It’s Christmas.

Two seasons have been aired since the Christmas 2011 premiere of the program. One of these specials is BandersnatchThe interactive movie “Get It?” about a young game creator in 1984. adapting a “Choose Your Own Adventure”-style book. (The film’s five main endings give varying degrees of meta and, like a greedy kid hopped up on too many candy canes, I’m sure many viewers went back to uncover all of them.)

“White Christmas,” one of Black Mirror’s best episodes and its most popular, centers on three interconnected stories: the three ghosts of Christmas, if you will. Each story subverts hallmarks of the festive season — technology (the most common category of gift), “cookies” (digital clones of people stored in small, egg-shaped gadget not unlike smart devices, another popular gift), family breakdown and estrangement — to illuminate its dark side like holiday lights. It ends with one of the characters stuck in a snowglobe, forced to relive Christmas and the mistakes he’s made over and over again. For the one in seven people who hate Christmas, this is a fate worse than being trapped in an elevator with Mariah Carey’s Christmas hits playing.

You can even get the Black Mirror episodes that don’t explicitly reference the giving season have surprises like an advent calendar: A Christmas tree is visible in the background of an “Arkangle” scene putting a new spin on parent’s fears about what their children are exposed to. The events of “USS Callister” take place, yes, in an outer space game simulation, but the people trapped within it are from the same gaming company preparing to break from work for the Christmas holiday.

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But it’s more than just a backdrop. Black Mirror Uniquely placed to criticize what we are told is the best time of year, but often brings out our worst side. “Traditional” Christmas pop culture is riddled with toxic men not unlike those in “White Christmas” and “USS Callister,” and bad moms akin to Marie, who plants a surveillance chip in her daughter’s brain in “Arkangel.” Layer that in with the overarching theme of Black Mirror — to examine how technology has changed our lives, most often for the worst — and if our parents and grandparents complaining about the youths spending too much time on our devices is any indication, it’s impacted the giving season as well.

There is a possibility of a Christmas meltdown this year. This will happen because the supply chain has ruined our Christmas gift plans. It also means that many people are returning to Christmas. Tensions will rise as the pandemic continues. But people who work in retail, of non-Christian backgrounds, who don’t have family or aren’t on good terms with them or otherwise don’t celebrate the holiday (it me) have long known this.

Service and retail workers suffer abuse both from employers and customers. Mandates to use masks and vaccinations have added tension. Pressure to make up for last year’s “lost” Christmas equals pressure on the hip pocket, with Americans expect to spend more on Christmas gifts this year than in the 20 years prior, and more than half of shoppers going into debt with “buy now pay later” options easier than ever. It is clear that the holiday season brings out the inequalities of American life, with the binary of food insecurity and increased waste. And while conservatives push a “war on Christmas” agenda with any mention of the secular “holidays” rather than the birth of Christ (the exact date of which there is some consternation about), but the copious decorations and the patron saint of Christmas Mariah’s greatest hits from Thanksgiving onwards — and sometimes even earlier, despite the fact that Hanukkah started the Sunday after Thanksgiving this year! — indicate that Christmas is well and truly staying put.

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We are indeed living in the darkest timeline, and it’s all reflected back to us in the inky glass screens of the smart devices under the tree this Christmas from which Black Mirror Its name is drawn. Black MirrorWhen it is critical of things that affect most of us, technology and social-media use, as well as the devastation of relationships and our society, is when it shines. The holiday pressure serves the same purpose in our lives. Black MirrorThis can lead to tension, resentment, division and even increased tension. It’s no wonder that creator Charlie Brooker said he has no plans to make any new episodes for the foreseeable future. (Representatives from the show This article was not approved by the author. There are certainly more feel-bad holiday offerings this year than ever before — movies like Silent Night, a foreboding, domestic thriller about extended family coming together for the holidays; or HBO Max’sStation ElevenThe world is afflicted by a virus pandemic just before Christmas.

But if you’re craving a familiar flick to throw on after the presents have been unwrapped, dinner has been served and the leftovers put away for another day, you can always sub out another You Are the Only One at Home Rewatch an episode to see it again Black Mirror. After all, ’tis the season.