My initial reaction to the season 4 finale of Black Mirror was that it was good - I can barely think of one episode that wasn't at least trying something intriguing or questioning our perceptions of the world thru our technology in some form... And yet I found this mean spirited piece of business with a hammy lead performance....
(One hour later) after pondering some more, so appreciate that this structure is similar to White Christmas but the nastiness lends itself more to something like CREEPSHOW: here are people who get twisted by the technology that they are given by this doctor-cum-carnival barker, but that doesn't excuse how far two out of three of these subjects abuse what they are given and end up going for the worst in humanity.
The last subject in this museum is a guy who rides the lightning and his consciousness in computer form has to relive it over and over. I might question how a computer entity can feel pain and become mentally fractured by it, but this is also a season that began with a video game programmer using the DNA of his coworkers to warp them in simulated space madness, so it is consistent.
I think the hamminess of this guy, how sweaty he gets, his general demeanor, is too much in the moment and yet of all the episodes this is one I want to watch again the most. It's sick in its humor (that one doctor and what he does with his pain receptor is the best part for me, I could have done with a whole episode about him, or seen him crop up in a Philip K Dick short novella or something) and it leaves on a note of that is not depressing. It's just... Trying so hard.