It’s fairly normal to undergo crippling anxiety and sadness when a ‘great’ Instagram post doesn’t get the required number of likes. Same happens when our ‘friends’ ignore our best jokes on Facebook and Twitter. We’ve all been part of that endless quest for existential reassurance that we matter, we’ve all existed only to see ourselves reflected, and we’ve all lived in retreat from any sense of self.

Now imagine coming across a TV show that is not as popular as the other qualitatively inferior shows? You’d want to tell others about it, right? 

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We’ve been following Black Mirror since season 1 but during a conversation in the office fairly recently, we realised that not a lot of people know about it. Here are a few reasons why you should quit all your weekend plans and binge watch on Charlie Brooker’s amazing show.

1. While a lot of sci-fi shows out there, none of them try to portray technology like Black Mirror.

While a lot of individuals are quick to write think-pieces on how our over-dependence on technology will ultimately be the end of our existence, they’ve often failed to pain a vivid picture of the problems that we’ll face. Black Mirror is a dystopian dreamboat that is a thorough analysis of technology, our addiction to it, and where it could all lead us. It does a fantastic job at putting the possibilities in front of us.

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2. Even though Black Mirror is set in a dystopian future, the events are largely rooted in present-day reality.

One of the biggest things that works in Black Mirror’s favour is how real the events feel. It does an excellent job of taking today’s phenomena and putting it all under the microscope, as a means of irreverent humor. 

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3. Black Mirror has shown certain events that have become real later on. 

We’ve often found ourselves scared by the end of an episode of Black Mirror. But what’s even more unsettling is how often Brooker’s show has become a forecast for actual real-world events. The infamous ‘Cameron fucked a pig’ debacle was predicted in the pilot episode of the show. The pilot had a bizarre moment where the Prime Minister was forced to fuck a pig. A year later, David Cameron allegedly put his penis inside a dead pig.

Another episode, ‘The Waldo Moment’, is being seen as a warning about Donald Trump’s rise to power. In this episode, a cartoon character participates in elections as a joke which was meant to ridicule the entire democratic system and corrupt politicians.

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4. Black Mirror has a stellar cast of actors in it.

The brilliance of the stories in Black Mirror is only helped by the fact that some of the best actors in the industry are a part of it. Stars like Jon Hamm, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mackenzie Davis, Wyatt Russell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Alice Eve and Domhnall Gleeson.

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5. The show takes risks. It’s dark and creepy and often brutal. 

There are instances that may disgust you, and often would not be subjects explored on TV, but it always serves a purpose to the message of the episode. The fearlessness is not just for being ‘edgy’, it is extremely sincere when it comes to taking proper steps to embolden the audiences as well.

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6. It’s the finest dark comedy out there right now.

When you talk about dark humour, Fargo is the first show that comes to mind. But, to be honest, Black Mirror does it better. This show pokes fun at issues that we have come to find intrinsic to our lives, things that even a few years ago would have never made sense to us. It’s a twisted type of humor, but there are some instances where you can’t help but smirk at how silly his world has become. That’s the thing about dark humour, it makes you laugh at your own twisted approach to life.

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7. The social and political commentary is not biased or preachy.

There are a ton of shows that try their hands at social commentary only to do it with a ‘holier than thou’ approach. This is where Black Mirror gets it right. It shows the true colours of politicians, and even more so than that, the political ignorance demonstrated by society. It’s difficult to imagine this show ever reaching a cable network with its aggressively critical outlook on Western society. Exploring concepts such as our complacency and addiction to technology, at times the social commentary can make any of us feel uneasy.

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8. Black Mirror has a maximum of 6 episodes in a season and this makes it the perfect show to binge-watch over the weekend.

To binge-watch a show, you need determination and a set period of free time. We rarely get enough of free time these days and Black Mirror‘s belief of ‘less is more’ is extremely helpful. It has only three episodes in the first two seasons that range from 40 to 90 minutes. The third season only has 6 episodes. This makes it the perfect show for a weekend-binge.

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Now that you’re motivated enough, we hope you will merrily binge watch yourselves into a state of hopeless depression.