Without ruining an episode of television for you, I felt compelled to write a review of Black Mirror season 6 episode ‘Beyond the Sea’. Zero spoilers. We’re all familiar with Netflix’s Black Mirror. So, we’ll skip the preamble. If you’re new to earth? It’s the Twilight Zone. Technology. Dystopian. Usually, a twist ending. Black Mirror is a quality show. I’m looking forward to rest of season 6.

Last night I jumped into an episode titled ‘Beyond the Sea’. Great cast, really strong premise for a show. Two Astronauts are on a multi-year mission in deep space. However, thanks to technology they can have a life on earth. By transmitting their conscience mind into the body of a lookalike robot back on good old terra-firma. Yes, their real bodies on back on the ship, but they still get to hang with all the peeps they love. In a robot body. Now for the Black Mirror twist: What of something goes wrong back on earth with the robot body? You’d be stuck in outer space! Seemingly powerless! That’s where the writers should have stopped. That is a solid story idea. But they just kept twisting.

For some reason the episode is set in 1969. It adds nothing to the story. It’s an expensive flex by the writers. Literally a waste of money. The basic plot of the story is enough. It’s more than enough. Stop adding twist and turns. You’re now twisting the story into something that doesn’t resemble human behavior. The twists are self-indulgent and take me out of the story. Halfway through the story I stopped caring. That’s no bueno.

Now for the good news. Aaron Paul was outstanding. Dude had a big challenge laid out for him and he crushed it. Nice work, Mr. Paul. Really strong.

Black Mirror is in a tough spot. When your show is known for twists, the tendency is going to be to add surprise after surprise! More twists are better! Wrong. Good story telling it better. Someone pitched a great episode about astronauts in space, and their lives back on earth. That episode was then twisted to near death. It’s a shame, but it happens. And it for sure happened to ‘Beyond the Sea’.