Bryce Dallas Howard had a "nervous breakdown" after watching the first episode of her new series Black Mirror.

The Help actress is currently the buzz of social media and TV blogs for her chilling turn in the first instalment of Netflix's new techno-paranoia drama, and although she is excited about the show now, her initial viewing turned out to be an unexpectedly emotional experience.

"I was away from my family, I was in New Zealand (filming Pete's Dragon), and missing them. And my husband was watching Black Mirror and he was like, 'Bryce, we have to share this, this is the most phenomenal, brilliant show,'" she explained on US talk show Conan on October 24.

Supplied Bryce Dallas Howard in Black Mirror.

"I was all by myself, and I watched it, and I had a nervous breakdown. I shouldn't say it's like a clinical nervous breakdown, but I just had a meltdown. That show just got me. It was just very emotional."

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At the time, Bryce decided to record her reaction to the programme and send the videos to her husband Seth Gabel, who had been watching the show at home in the US.

The 35-year-old shared the footage with host Conan O'Brien and in one clip, she can be seen crying and commenting, "I just took, like, a really bad nosedive." Ironically, her remark was an unintentional reference to the name of the episode, which was titled Nosedive.

In the episode, Bryce plays Lacey, an upwardly mobile woman who lives in a future world where every social interaction is ranked on a star scale - something the actress likens to living with the ubiquitous presence of social media and technology in modern society.

"The show is like a comment on what is going to happen 10 years from now, and then they make it so entertaining and gripping. It's brilliant and it's almost like a foreshadowing of what's to come," she explained.