I was very disappointed by Black Mirror Series 1 & 2, save for S1E3 - the only instalment NOT written by Charlie Brooker (instead penned by Jesse Armstrong of 'Peep Show' fame), 'The Entire History of You', which on its own is an excellent drama.

I went away from this series with one conclusion; Charlie Brooker cannot write drama well. His talents lie with casting an eye over the irritating aspects of media, succinctly cutting down the pretentiousness and rubbish churned out for our consumption with some accurate criticism and adolescent musings (see: Screenwipe, Newswipe etc.). That's what he's good at! Being funny and critical at the same time.

What he clearly isn't good at, and this is made all the more apparent by the 2nd series of Black Mirror, is fleshing out basic ideas for a drama into anything more than a GCSE Film Studies project with a budget. The characters aren't real, they're two-dimensional clichés. The constant references to social media and modern technology don't feel incidental, but desperate, like Charlie poking his head up from behind a prop screaming "Look how relevant this all is!" Twitter this, twitter that. The stories all feel like conversations down the pub after a few pints, "What if the prime minister had to shag a pig on live TV!" "Why would he do that?" "I dunno... terrorists?" Even with the suspension of disbelief, none of his writing delivers the impact or level of social commentary one would hope for.

'The Entire History of You' did what the other instalments didn't; characters that felt real, a relationship that felt real, underpinned but not obscured by plausible science-fiction. The 'what if' is answered with the expected pessimism present in all of the Black Mirror episodes, but it's still entertaining to watch the story unfold. I wish Jesse Armstrong had written all of Black Mirror, perhaps I would have had my expectations exceeded rather than trodden on.