Humans don’t like to be very optimistic about the future. Sure, technology has given us some neat knick-knacks, but what really gets us going is fear – fear of big tech, big companies, big government. Black Mirror is a series about this ‘technophobia’, and it’s unlike anything else you’ve seen before.

The best comparison I can make Black Mirror to is some of those old golden-age-of-sci-fi short stories, like Harlan Ellison’s I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, mixed in with a little Twilight Zone. The question is simple: what happens when we take technology to the extreme? The structure of the series is straightforward: each episode takes place in the future. That’s it. There’s no underlying plot across episodes, no recurring characters, and each episode has a different director, a different premise, and a different idea of what the future might look like.

But some themes hold down the board in Black Mirror. Shame is a big one, and it plays into the characters’ fear of embarrassment amongst their families, peers, or larger public audience. There are often nameless and faceless entities that influence the plotlines – mysterious puppeteers that don’t ever make an on-screen appearance. And perhaps most intriguing and unsettling is a very common motif in Black Mirror: whatever horror humanity brings to the future, it will be our own fault. The mob-mentality and click-bait culture is often taken to the extreme in the show, and anybody who can’t fit in doesn’t do very well.

What makes Black Mirror an exciting show is its roulette-like presentation of each episode. In the age of long-form series like Narcos and Game of Thrones, Black Mirror offers a refreshing pick-up-and-play format. There’s no need to watch the episodes in order or even start from the beginning – and because of this, the series is very convenient. But there’s a trade-off: episodes vary wildly, and you’re not guaranteed to enjoy each one. Ironically, the series itself can almost be likened to the contemporary age of social-media-presentation: a blanket of accessibility with no substance beyond what each episode gives you.

To be fair, though, every story is written well enough to fulfill its premise and leave the viewer satisfied. The blanketed approach lights up your imagination with ideas of the crazy and the not-so-far-off future. There’s humor, horror, love and robots, monsters and hackers, A.I. and the afterlife – Black Mirror doesn’t disappoint as a show with something for everyone.