Metalhead

Honestly, I'd recommend ignoring anyone giving this below a three or above an 8. I think most of the reviews are people exaggerating in one direction or the other. This episode does have a number of issues, and ultimately the entire premise doesn't work at a fundamental level (without going into spoiler details). But the episode is beautifully shot and expertly acted. It definitely takes a lot of inspiration from The Road, and does very well at setting mood and creating suspense. I don't really consider it a good or bad thing that it's not like the rest of the series. If the creators want to do something different once in a while, go big.

I don't feel like I wasted my time watching it, and it did a number of things well (big shout out to the lead). But I also think it's a weaker entry that could have been even shorter than it was. Spend the 40 minutes to watch it, think about it for a minute, and carry on with your day.

Negative reviews about "lack of exposition", "no dialogs" and "no context" prove that the viewers nowadays completely lost the imagination and need to be spoonfed with worldbuilding, just to understand what could possibly go wrong in a world where deadly metal robots were created as warehouse sentries.

Don't listen to the complainers here - this episode is worth watching. Like USS Callister it does feel different to most Black Mirror episodes, but that shouldn't be seen as a bad thing. The black and white cinematography is well suited to this episode which has a feeling reminiscent of The Road - both post-apocalyptic with no mention of what the 'apocalypse' was, both tightly focused on one or two characters. The episode isn't a neat package but again, this is Black Mirror we're talking about - expecting a clear lesson or meaning out of it is to misunderstand the point of the show. We don't know the details of what led to this apparently post-apocalyptic world, but that doesn't matter. That isn't the focus of the episode. Maxine Peake's almost solo performance as Bella is excellent, and what she was looking for or why is never really relevant. What is relevant is her fear and determination. We know nothing about her, but we feel the tension and desperation. While some episodes of Black Mirror feel like I only observe the characters, with Metalhead I was there with Bella in the desolate unknown countryside, invested in her plight.

Almost at the end of a lesser season of episodes from Black Mirror, Metalhead is probably one of the stronger episodes. The 40 minutes is stripped down to base elements. It is in black/white, only has a handful of characters, and is basically one extended chase sequence. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, a small group of survivors seek out a package in a warehouse, only to disturb a 'dog' - one of the robot drones that we assume has led to the slaughter of most of mankind. From here the drone hunts down the only character to make it far enough to be considered a chase. In essence it is The Terminator but without any plot or backstory to slow it down.

As such it delivers quite a thrilling and tight episode. Technology is in there, with examples of sleep functions, adaptable apps etc, but it is not really making a point on any of these so much as it is just grounding the episode in the recognizable. In the same way the warehouse could be taken to be an extension of the warehouses today where drone pickers are already starting to be used - but again it doesn't labor this point. The stripped down basic essence of it works well, and the special effects are effective - I assume a mix of physical work and CGI in some way. The ending is perhaps a bit corny but brings in a bit of humanity into what is otherwise a technological horror.

Not the best the series has to offer, but an strong episode in the season and effective at what it does.

This is one of the best Black Mirror episodes, along with Shut Up And Dance and The Entire History Of You. It's a tense 45 minutes with a bleak, nihilistic, ending. People complaining about it being about nothing going nowhere are missing the point, if humans put too much into making robots that can fight a war then they're asking for trouble and if a war is fought using them then this could be the sort of scenario the human race faces after such a war. The "dog" robot is eerily close to the systems being developed by the likes of Boston Dynamics and the Chinese Military, only just today the Chinese unveiled a dog robot that can defend itself and I only just watched this episode last night! Just view it as a straightforward sci-fi horror similar to The Terminator.