Black Mirror (TV Series) Beyond the Sea (2023) User Reviews

Exceptional Premise & Outstanding Performance but ..

[brumatrix-672-867668 · 7/10 · 19 June 2023]

This Black Mirror episode was very intriguing thanks to the creative premise and fantastic performances by Paul and Hartnett.

First I want to address the folks who believe there is no reason to send the humans to space instead of the replicas. Well, if the link breaks down and no connection is possible the whole mission is finished. Indeed the writers failed to stress out the importance of the mission!

It is one thing for the astronauts to lose contact to their families and another failing to continue the mission at all if the link to the avatar doesn't work any more. So again, it was crucial to stress out the importance of the mission in order to fill this plot hole.

The very same reason applies to the ending. Both astronauts seam to be aware of the importance of the mission, but the viewer not so much. Hence the reason, Hartnett's character pushes the chair for Paul's character to sit down and continue.

That been said, I did not like the end because thats a much bigger plot hole than everything else. Why would he kill the family of his partner just to make a point. It's an absolute rubbish exit only written to create a shock. Hartnett's character was a loving father and it's incomprehensible why he would do that. Sure it's tough to find a good ending to this situation but slaughtering the family of your co-astronaut is simply way over.

However, the atmosphere and especially the performances by the actors kept me engaged which makes the episode above average compared to some other uninspired episodes of Black Mirror.

Underwhelming, predictable and very weak.

[Top_Dawg_Critic · 6/10 · 20 June 2023]

The episode I was looking forward to the most based on casting - Aaron Paul and Kate Mara, sadly was a huge disappointment. It wasn't from the lack of amazing casting and performances, but from the underwhelming direction from John Crowley, who lacked any real urgency and was poorly and slowly paced, but also from the very pedestrian and predictable writing. There was barely any unexpected suspense, zero twists or revelations (with the exception of the first act's events), and this felt more like something a high school drama class would come up with. It started off setting up nicely, but then everything was basic writing 101, and as one reviewer stated, the huge plot hole that basically cancels out the entire narrative; why not keep the replicas in space, and the real humans on earth? It's not like the two-man crew needed to be active 24/7, heck they both simultaneously spend Mon-Fri on earth, and both run the ship on weekends, so what's the point? Clearly Brooker's creativity lapsed in this episode to make it one of the most predictable and pedestrian episodes of the entire series. Nevertheless, a generous 6/10 for the cinematography and Paul's outstanding and very convincing dual-character performance.

Doesn't earn it's ending

[Hollow_Man · 6/10 · 20 June 2023]

For all the time spent spooling out this story; they never actually did the character work necessary to make the ending seem natural, much less inevitable. If the ending is David putting a final cap on the argument that Cliff doesn't understand either what he has or what David is going through; then that is the debate that should have run through the story. It wasn't. What ran through the story was David wanting what Cliff had, not David wanting Cliff to understand his pain and Cliff's privilege. Throwing Cliff out the airlock and pretending to be him to take over his life? That would have been a natural progression of this story. But what actually happened just doesn't have the foundation to support it; and with the run time present it really should have.

No criticism of the actors here; they were great. It was the way the piece chose to spend it's time that let down the ending. The lack of wildness or danger to David, the lack of flashes between Cliff and David that signals the real issue brewing, most of all the lack of time to show how being cut off again effects David.

Could have been a perfect 10 if not for a plot hole.

[Coke24 · 9/10 · 17 June 2023]

This story was excellently told, and wonderfully acted. Aaron Paul better be on the awards rounds for this performance. I truly felt compassion for the characters and felt genuine angst and shock when the writers needed me to.

There's just one plot hole that stops me giving a 10. A plot hole that if addressed would mean there is no story to tell. We have these replicas that can do everything the human versions can do. They have their consciousness, can touch, feel, chop wood, kiss, sleep, and drive. What they cannot do is eat or drink, and one assume that they do not have a need to use the bathroom.

Why oh why then would NASA send the humans into space and leave the replicas on earth? Surely it would make better sense to send the replicas into space. Then they wouldn't need to pack food, or razors, or have toilet facilities etc. If there was a disaster they'd lose the replicas but the human life would be in tact on earth.

Of course if this were to happen, the cult wouldn't have killed the family, and he wouldn't be trapped in space.

All of that being said, I was able to suspend my disbelief on that front and assume they could give some instory reason for why it had to be the way it was, and only dock 1 point from my rating.

One of the darker episodes of the show

[apocris-33929 · 9/10 · 16 June 2023]

For starters, Aaron Paul does phenomenally here. He hasn't always taken the best roles since Breaking Bad, but he truly gave his all for this performance and it shows. I don't have much to say about this episode other than it's a fantastic technological concept that's executed pretty good. I do think it is a little predictable, I felt like I knew where things were headed after the first significant event. Even so, some stuff happens in this episode that gets pretty dark, even for Black Mirror's sake, and I enjoy getting that chill of disturbance when watching this show. It's one of the better episodes.

Represents the Best and Worst About Modern Black Mirror

[ryanpersaud-59415 · 6/10 · 23 June 2023]

Beyond the Sea has been, from my understanding, the most well-liked episode of Black Mirror Season 6 so far. I can totally see why, but to me, it's really not THAT much better than Loch Henry. (Honestly, it's a little worse and I'll get to why). It's another somewhat disappointing, but still enjoyable, episode in what's so far been a pretty disappointing, but sometimes enjoyable season.

The Good:

1. Aaron Paul. He's one of those actors who's nice to see, regardless of what he's in, you know? I think his performance here is pretty good, although I would've preferred him to take on a slightly more obvious change when going from Cliff to David, because aside from a slight gruffness in his voice, there's not much of a distinct performance.

2. The Cinematography. Where this episode REALLY excels is the cinematography. It isn't an expansive setting (really, there's the spacecraft, the house, and a brief time in a town), but there's something about the way this one is shot that feels like the prestige quality Black Mirror was formerly associated with.

3. The ending. All three episodes so far have done very well with the ending, the characteristic Black Mirror twist that - I think - convinces most of us (myself included) that the episode is better than it was. This one is no different and while I could understand where the story was going as soon as the major inciting incident occurs, I was taken aback by the incredible darkness of the ending.

4. Subtle storytelling. I like the tonal shift this episode takes, with things that you have to notice while watching to really click (even if the ideas themselves aren't particularly groundbreaking). For example, I liked the subtle clues about Lana's (Rooney Mara) dissatisfaction with Cliff's replica from little shots here and there. It didn't need to be spelled out directly for the audience.

The Bad:

1. The Pacing. I hated how this episode was paced. Look, I like slow burn storytelling when it makes sense. But the one thing I detest, possibly more than anything, is underwriting leading to a deliberately slow pace and a feeling that this story could've been told much quicker and much more effectively. Unfortunately, that's the biggest problem with this episode.

It's not that it should've been shorter, it's that if you're going to basically give us a movie length episode, JUSTIFY THIS. There are so many interesting things that weren't explored, that should've been. Discussions that could've happened, that didn't. I just find it baffling.

2. The Cult. I know this may be controversial, considering I think it ultimately makes sense in the grand scheme of things, but I felt David and his family's death-by-Charles Manson knockoff a little silly. It felt like a way to scream to the audience that THIS IS 1969 EVERYONE and a but over-the-top. I feel like a simple car accident would a) make more sense and b) make the events of the episode even more brutal and devastating.

3. Josh Harnett. Too little of him, imo. To have a guy like that come back for Black Mirror and to UNDER USE him like that is really disappointing.

Of course it has to be the humans in space and not the replicas

[jazzy611 · 9/10 · 6 July 2023]

It seemed so obvious to me, so I don't understand why most of the reviewers here seemed to have missed it. If the replica on earth 'dies', then the human can still complete the mission in space. It doesn't affect the mission. But if the human is on earth and something goes wrong (for example, the link between the human and replica is broken) that's the end of the mission. The replica doesn't work on its on. The human does.

Great performance by Aaron Paul, and good to see Josh Hartnett back again. I think I would have appreciated it more if it wasn't set in 1969. But overall it was pretty solid episode.

Disappointing ending

[ozzyopy · 6/10 · 16 June 2023]

I am a big fan of Black Mirror and was excited about the new season.

Unfortunately this episode really missed the mark. There was real potential for a great twist of an ending but instead I felt it really ended poorly and lazily.

We have the two astronauts in space with their 'replicas' down on earth living with their families. One of the families is murdered along with his replica. The victim astronaut still has 4 years left in space and with his mental health diminishing fast, the other astronaut let's him use his replica with his own family.

The ending would have been much better if the victim astronaut killed the other astronaut and continued to use the replica and trick his family instead of just killing the family.

Very good episode and many reviewers see a plot hole that does not exist

[gregstar · 8/10 · 20 June 2023]

This was a very good episode. I won't give it a 10 because 10 is perfect and this doesn't quite reach that. It deserves an 8.5. All three of the main actors were excellent. Some reviewers are complaining because it is "predictable". Admittedly, after Lana's solution to the issue after the "unimaginable tragedy" I saw the general place this was going. But I did not see the final results. And the writing and acting to get to that point were great. At all points in the process, what happened made sense.

I largely wrote this review to refute others who wrote bad reviews because of a "plot hole" that they do not realize does not exist. These reviewers were not paying attention and/or were not thinking.

(Now I become a little geeky. There are no real spoilers here. The specifics I give are either from early in the episode, or my own calculations of reality instead of things mentioned in the episode.)

These reviewers ask why they did not send Replicas to the space station, instead of sending humans, since the Replicas could do what the humans do. This is explained early on: When fans greet David's (Josh Hartnell's character's) Replica outside the movie theater, he says central to the mission is "the human experience, the survival of the human body, of life".

Remember, this is set early in space exploration. If the Netflix description is correct, 1969, the first time humans were, in the real world, on the moon. At one point in this episode, it was said that Cliff and David were to be in space for 6 years. This mission was to determine the effects on humans of being in space for years. This information would be needed as humans went further into space. (Many of the things the humans did when they were awake were not the purpose of the mission. What they did when awake was just so the mission could continue.)

Replicas need the connection to the human: what the Replica does is controlled by the human. If you think about, Replicas could not go significantly further into space while the humans remained on Earth. Assuming the communication between humans and their Replicas is at the speed of light (it cannot be any faster) humans on the space station in geostationary orbit could communicate with Replicas on Earth in a fraction of a second. So what we saw in this episode is possible. But what about when we want to explore Mars? Even when Mars is at its closest to Earth, it would take a few minutes to communicate that distance at the speed of light. Humans on Earth controlling Replicas could not get much done with that kind of delay. When NASA's probes are landed on Mars, the probe runs a preprogrammed process, and the engineers at NASA wait for several minutes until they find out if it worked.

If Black Mirror gets a 7th season, they need to hire a stricter editor

[Jeremy_Urquhart · 6/10 · 15 June 2023]

I think this has been my favourite episode of Black Mirror's sixth season so far, but I still have very mixed feelings on it, and like the first two episodes, I think it's bottom-tier for the show's standards. I'm just not having a very good time with the show this time around, and really don't know whether it's the writing that's taken a hit, or maybe I've just grown out of Black Mirror.

The premise for this episode is sound. There are two astronauts in deep space who can spend time with their families on Earth thanks to replica bodies they can inhabit. One man's replica is destroyed during a brutal and tragic crime on Earth, so then he sometimes borrows his fellow astronaut's. Complications arise when he (shock, horror) begins to fall for the other guy's wife back on Earth.

This episode is flat out too long. This really only has three main characters, and a pretty straightforward premise once you get the hang of how the replicas work. It does not need to be 80 minutes long. This should be like, 50 minutes tops. Think about how much crazy stuff is packed into the very first episode of the show (the infamous pig + PM episode). The pacing is relentless, and the situation is well-established alongside the characters. It's a devastating and powerful 45 minutes. These newer episodes can feel so bloated it's infuriating.

There's a solid episode in here somewhere, but it's too long. For the premise, some good scenes, and Aaron Paul's committed performance, I think this can still be cautiously recommended, but it's got some serious flaws (the ending is a little odd too, but I have to sit with it some more).

Darkest of the Season

[narayanababupaulsamyeswaran · 9/10 · 16 June 2023]

I was wondering how would they manage to bring the show back up after a short yet a bit disaster-full season back in 2019. Well, this episode was quite reassuring that Black Mirror is on the right path.

Aaron Paul did a brilliant job in this role playing 2 characters simultaneously and the plot is quite interesting as well. And this episode is possibly one of the darkest in the season, with Loch Henry coming in second. While Loch Henry strayed very far away from the likes of Black Mirror theme, this episode stayed in track with the essence and delivered quite well too.

A solid Black Mirror episode in my opinion.

Great acting and good episode, ruined by a b******t ending

[uccio · 6/10 · 27 June 2023]

The acting is great, especially by Aaron Paul.

The overall plot is interesting and could have been great, but I feel that the writers wanted a final twist so bad that they wrote this ending despite the fact that it's absolutely unsatisfying and makes no sense for David's character.

Very disappointing, something more predictable but more in line with what we had seen of David's character up until the ending would have been better.

Sometimes predictability is good, so long as it's not 100% obvious. But this really looks like they went out of their way *only* for the sake of making it end in a way that most wouldn't expect up until a minute before it happened.

And why would most not expect it?

Because it does not make much sense.

It's like having a "whodunnit" end with the culprit being a character that only comes up at the very end of the story: disappointing.

Not Charlie's Best Writing

[ArgonReviews · 4/10 · 17 June 2023]

There are elements of this episode that works -- Aaron Paul does a fantastic job doing a challenging part, and I thought Kate Mara did a great job too. But I feel like all of them are struggling to elevate a plot that just isn't quite there.

When Black Mirror works well, it leaves you talking or thinking about the episode for weeks or even years afterward. Sometimes it veers heavier into allegory, sometimes it results in interesting character studies. This episode frankly just doesn't work for either. The 'message' or meaning isn't there, and the plot's handling of David Ross's (Josh Hartnett's) plight completely jumps the shark. I'm willing to suspend disbelief for the science fiction elements of the episode (even if that too really pushes suspension of disbelief on multiple fronts -- honestly WHERE IS GROUND CONTROL?) but the human elements seem far less believable than the science fiction elements.

To be clear, Josh Hartnett's acting seemed fine -- but the script he was given was to play a frankly unbelievable character.

To Charlie's credit, there was a moment where I was like, "I don't get why Kate Mara's character isn't doing X thing" and then Kate Mara did exactly that thing about a minute afterward, but that still didn't resolve the bigger issues with the episode.

Shocked

[romulusvespucci · 8/10 · 15 June 2023]

Black Mirror Season 6's third episode, "Beyond the Sea," deserves a solid 9/10 rating in my book. Let me break it down for you!

First off, the direction in this episode is masterful. They excel at building tension and creating an eerie atmosphere that had me on the edge of my seat. Throughout the entire episode, there was a lingering feeling of impending doom that added to the overall suspense.

The ending is downright terrifying. I won't spoil it, but it left me with goosebumps. The situation they set up is incredibly messed up and will make you question everything. It's classic Black Mirror at its finest.

The acting is absolutely amazing, particularly Aaron Paul's performance. He brings a level of emotion and intensity to his character that is captivating. He deserves recognition for his outstanding work in this episode.

One thing that stood out to me was the constant sense that something bad was about to happen. Even in moments of apparent peace, there was an underlying uneasiness that added to the overall tension. The storytelling and narrative setup were top-notch.

Overall, "Beyond the Sea" is a knockout episode of Black Mirror. The direction is masterful, the ending is chilling, the acting is phenomenal (shoutout to Aaron Paul), and the constant anticipation of something going wrong keeps you on the edge of your seat. It's a must-watch for any Black Mirror fan. Don't miss out on this one!

Perfect space drama

[alklimakin · 10/10 · 15 June 2023]

This is definitely the best episode of this season and one of my favorites. Aaron Paul's acting is great, I really saw two different people in his body. I was waiting for a good space horror movie in the trailer, but damn it, it was a brilliant tragic story about two astronauts and the situation they got into was truly terrible. Someone may complain about a long, and perhaps a little boring narrative, but I consider it moderate and purposeful, which is why the ending hits even harder. John Crowley did a great job. I liked both space episodes in this series, they are significantly different, but they are still the cherries on the cake in this series. Bravo!

Finely acted, nice concept, but drawn out, and predictable and

[OnlyAtJMart · 6/10 · 17 June 2023]

Aaron Paul does double duty acting here. Shame he isn't in more things because he is a superb actor. The story, while good could have been edited down halfway. In addition to that, one thing doesn't make any sense. Why wouldn't they send replicants to space and keep the human counterparts on Earth? They can do everything, but don't need to eat, shower, use the bathroom etc. If there's a catastrophic disaster, no life would have been lost. Also, a cult being upset about remote astronauts as opposed to remote people living on Earth would have just seemed silly. They manufactured the drama and eeriness by switching the logical thing to do. It's like Armageddon when they teach drillers to go to space, instead of teaching astronauts to drill. In any real life situation, no one would make that decision so backwards. They did it for the sake of manufactured conflict. If they did the logical thing, there would have been no story.

No plot hole

[changhmhelen · 10/10 · 19 June 2023]

Would like to point out there is no plot hole in regard to why they are not sending up the replicas instead. It was explained in the first few minutes by David Ross survival of the human body is central to the mission. That's why they go back for physical every Friday, as opposed to only where there is an emergency / maintenance.

I thought this must be the case when someone pointed out the plot hole, and rewatched the film to confirm it. It also makes it genius to set it in alternate1969, since that historical context makes it believable for science to still be testing the survival of human body in space. Also why I gave it a 10, because so many elements of the story won't work in present day / future (e.g. Neglect of mental health, son being largely in the background, no social media / smartphone, wife's submission etc).

Hope this helps anyone who couldn't sleep due to this so called plot hole.

Brilliant acting, lazy writing. The payoff was cut short

[arismardanzai · 6/10 · 18 June 2023]

Brilliant acting! Absolutely top tier, the talent alone carried this whole episode. I cannot say the same about the writers. Acting aside, the concept was intriguing and thought provoking. The acting and idea kept me closely engaged throughout til the end, I was waiting anxiously for the climax, and it just never came. Extremely disappointing, just lazy writing. This episode could've been a 10, but the ending actually irritated me. I needed more! I invested my time and the payoff was cut short. It could've went in so many different directions, but I'm disappointed. Bravo to the actors, shame on the writers.

Almost as good as White Christmas

[andrewmarkos · 8/10 · 25 June 2023]

Sure, there are one or two plot holes. But after the Beny Hill meets Saturday Night Live slapstick audacity that was 'Joan is Awful', I can forgive a few minor plot holes. They do not detract from what is a suspenseful, gripping, believable, horrifying cautionary tale - truly Black Mirror back to its best.

Sure, why not just send the replicas to space. But the same could be said about lots of our favourite media (why not just send the eagles to Mordor).

I saw one guy complaining that it was ridiculous that there was no communication with ground control. Sure, there probably would have been. But did its absence really matter that much to the story? Would its inclusion really add all that much?

Overall, the acting was fantastic, the plot was gripping, and it was believable with a cautionary element to it. This is exactly what I want from Black Mirror, much better than the kitsch 'Joan is Awful' that somehow has a 7.5 rating.

Ending for Shock Value Alone

[HockeyFan13 · 7/10 · 18 July 2023]

The Episode was fantastic, until the end.

Getting past the inevitable question of why the hell if you could make robots that advanced and "avatar" them to a person would you send the human into space and not the replica?

Getting past that one, I get David is cracked. I get it. That being said the ending choice here was done for shock value alone. Great episode with a horrible ending. He says well I can't see her. Let me murder a woman and a child.

How does this make any sense? He's got years left with Cliff on the ship. The whole "he's not thinking straight" argument is ludicrous. People can try and justify it all they want. It just doesn't work.

Another issue is the predictability of the plotline once Cliff allows David to use his avatar. Oh she sees something in him blah blah. I was hoping for more originality.

Total Black Mirror

[humanoidgaming · 9/10 · 16 June 2023]

This will be a Black Mirror classic, I'm sure of it. Aaron Paul's acting is amazing, so much so, he should get an award for it. This is a slow burn but its satisfying without. The reason this isn't a 10/10 is because the story is somewhat predictable. After the first act, I had two predictions and one of which was correct. Nonetheless, I think this story/concept is done really well.

Technology is used the way it should be in Black Mirror, as a driving part which shows us human behavior in strange/unique situations. This episode is also very long, being at an hour and twenty minutes, making this the longest Black Mirror Episode (other than Bandersnatch but I don't think that counts). Its a slow moving story yet I'd say Aaron Paul's Acting and just how interesting the concept is, as well as you wanting to know how it ends, keeps you satisfied all the way.

I haven't finished Season 6 quite yet, but from what I can tell, this season is strong thus far. This episode is the best of the season far.

Great atmosphere and acting, but...

[jeroen-106 · 7/10 · 4 August 2023]

If, in this future, they are able to make replicants that feel, smell, see, hear and act like their real counterparts, why wouldn't they send the replicants into space instead and keep the real humans on the ground? That wouldn't trigger weird cults either. Nobody thought of this?

This weak premise makes it hard to swallow this story. Some things need to be thought through and covered for, even if it's just a SCI-FI show.

The acting is great. The direction is equally wonderful. The story is predictable but still good. I just hope that writers spend a little bit more time covering for core issues like these.

In summary: Disappointing.

[c-roberts-garth · 4/10 · 17 June 2023]

I'm going to ignore Aaron Paul in this review, as I think all the hype and high ratings are bias towards him.

World building: Confusing and lazy. Most viewers I imagine won't have even noticed or picked up on the weird half asses attempts at setting the story in an Alt 1969 universe with more advanced tech. I've watched the episode twice and barely even noticed it. To build a world like that, you would hope there was some relevance to the plot, so form of reason they chose this setting. It's like they thought it sounded cool, then forgot to give any form of exposition or insight into it. Also doesn't help that the episode is so long that you can't help but poke holes in the writing. I have asked multiple people if they noticed this was an alt 1969 and no-one had. If that's not bad world building, I don't know what is.

Disposable wives: This whole episode relies on the age old trope that is, the female characters are purely there to further the male characters progression and to be violently attacked. It's a boring trope and explains why the whole episode was so predictable within the first 15 minutes. Honestly, I would've expected Black Mirror to do the opposite and to be calling out tropes like this, to do what we are not expecting - But they literally went to the most basic option - A robot affair.

Ending: I feel whoever wrote this ending has little to no experience with extreme grief and didn't consult any psychologists in the making of this as it is extremely unlikely that someone who lost their whole family would then want to inflict it on someone else, let alone over an affair or more accurately - A minor crush. That is unless of course the person grieving exhibits psychopathic behaviour, which was not implied a single time during the episode. David was not once painted out to be psychotic in anyway, nor is there is very little motivation for revenge (also revenge for what lol?) of this magnitude. It is not plausible, and definitely not plausible that Cliff would just go back onto the ship after that and what, just sit with him?

Lazy writing: 1. A random anti robot 'hippy' cult - Firstly, the writers clearly have never met a real hippy lol, hippies do not believe they are better than anyone/thing and do not feel it is their place or right to oppress others so think they missed a beat there as would be pretty out of character for most hippies to do that. Also, this is never mentioned again, they turned themselves in straight away. I honestly don't know what the difference would have been if it had just been a normal home invasion/armed robbery, like that's more likely surely? Especially seeing as David's family is clearly rich.

2. Why don't they just put the replicas on the ship where they can't get murdered by strangers? Or at least add one line of dialog explaining why this wasn't possible.

3. No fail safe in place in the event of damaged replicas... doesn't sound like NASA or any high tech organisation. Again, a simply line of dialog/short scene of david or cliff or both looking through some kind of emergency procedures after the attack could have explained this, hell they could even lose them or something on screen. Anything to show that they didn't just invent these replicas and then have no back up in place.

4. The concept was really cool, and there was plenty of far more interesting directions to go in aside from a boring almost affair and randomly murdering your colleagues whole family.

5. The child, Henry, turned out to be a complete non character, a red herring I guess, but their mistake was making the red herring more interesting than the actual plot they went for. I would have been down for a child psycho twist or you know, any interesting twist whatsoever with any form of complexity (It's what we are all here for right?)

There's probably a lot more examples of lazy writing that I can't think of write now, honestly the whole things felt like they were resting on the laurels of Aaron Paul's popularity and Josh Harnett's return to the big screen.

4/10 as black mirror is better than this and I'm shocked that this is the highest rated episode of the season so far. Episode 1 and 2 we're significantly better!

One word... Terrifying

[realmohityadav · 9/10 · 15 June 2023]

I knew Black Mirror doesn't have happy endings and you could tell this very early in this episode, but the end was unbelievably terrifying and unimaginably sad. By the way, the length of the episode was quite long. This could easily be released as a stand alone movie. Went for Aaron Paul and he was just perfect. So, many emotions and perfect difference could be seen in his portrayal of two different characters. Well, this episode also had a little pacing issue but overall a very amazing episode and this was sure an experience. This episode shows us that how much dangerous a lonely man can be. 8.5/10 for this episode.

What Isolation Does To A Broken Soul

[damondmoxlee · 9/10 · 25 June 2023]

(Before reading this review, please watch 'Black Mirror: Beyond the Sea' on Netflix first.) Although I usually find Black Mirror content average, 'Beyond the Sea' gives us the best performance in the entire show, thanks to Josh Harnett and Aaron Paul. The show starts off slow, getting into the two leads' lives, and it is implied and later explained that the leads we are seeing on Earth are actually replicas of astronauts out on a mission in deep space. Ross's family is shown living in the city, and Cliff'sfamily are shown in a countryside All is peaceful until Ross's life takes a turn for the worst. After his cyborg replica and his entire family is slayed and burned by a cult (that believes replicas go against the intended way of life) on Earth, Ross (Josh Harnett) is left alone, isolated, and broken in a two-man spacecraft with Cliff (Aaron Paul) as he copes with the fact that he will never be able to return to the Earth's surface again for over four years. Because of this, Cliff and Lana have a talk on how to improve the current broken Ross, as if he ever takes his own life or does anything stupid, Cliff would not be able to operate the two-man ship on his own. They eventually agree upon the conditions that Ross would be able to use Cliff's replica once a week for an hour or two. All goes well and Ross draws paintings using the time in Cliff's replica until he finds himself falling for Lana. Eventually, he attempts to get with Lana but she rejects him and the next week, Ross finds Lana leaving and escaping from the house, leaving Ross all by himself. After Cliff re-enters, he promises Lana that the next visit would be Ross's last. He reassures her for her safety, and the next week comes along. As Ross enters, Cliff discovers a collection of erotic drawings of Lana in Ross's quarters. As he threatens and questions both Ross and Lana (of course Ross in the spacecraft and Lana using the replica), he has a fallout with Ross and insults him for having fantasies with his wife when Ross attempts to apologize. In a fit of rage, he lies to Cliff and tells him that a coolant is leaking, sends him out of the spacecraft and uses his tag to enter Cliff's replica. As Ross lets Cliff return back, Cliff catches on and quickly enters his replica, only to find blood on his hands, leading to his dead son and wife. The movie ends with Ross pushing a chair out for Cliff, and the two have now gone through even pain. Cliff cannot kill him due to the spacecraft being a two-man ship. Apart from the predictable ending and the unexplained importance of the mission itslef, the two leads and sides make the episode a very memorable one. Definitely don't check out if you don't enjoy themes of child abuse.