A quick inspection of the major inspiration behind "Black Mirror" leads us to a critically acclaimed CBS anthology series that serves as the blueprint for speculative fiction on television. Yes, Charlie Brooker's "Black Mirror" generously borrows from Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone," where any similarities between the two stem from Brooker playing homage to the beloved CBS show. Even when these callbacks are not deliberate, the influence of "The Twilight Zone" is impossible to escape, as the series has shaped our collective understanding of stories that evoke the real and the surreal.

Moreover, Serling's show has always held up a mirror to root-level societal issues, with every episode playing out as a morality tale that condemns the hollowness of an increasingly capitalist landscape. "Black Mirror" has consciously mimicked this approach from a postmodern lens, with an increased focus on our complicated relationship with technological progress. As a result,...