Black Mirror snuck onto Netflix yesterday, which is a pretty big deal. The critically-acclaimed British anthology series is half satire, half sci-fi, and total nightmare fuel. Each episode (and there are only three per season) stands alone and tackles the nefarious ways in which our personal lives have become irrevocably intertwined with technology.

The first episode, “The National Anthem,” features celebrated actor Rory Kinnear as a Prime Minister who must deal with a princess being kidnapped. Her ransom? The Prime Minister has to have sex with a pig on live television. Further episodes just get darker. Another takes place in a future where we kind of live like Sims, and the only chance for someone to break free of the doldrums of riding a stationary bike forever is to win a talent competition, and there’s an even more devastating one that wonders what would happen if we had an implant that could record all of our memories for playback for us.

It’s simple to look at Black Mirror as a cautionary tale for what our lives would look like if we took our dependence on technology too far. I’ve heard a lot of friends say that the point of the show is to show us how terrible technology is. However, I think what really makes Black Mirror so compelling is that we, as human beings, have always been bad. Technology just gives us the means to be worse.

Black Mirror also gives us a glimpse at the future of entertainment. Up-and-coming stars like Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton Abbey), Domhall Gleeson (Unbroken, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and The Fantastic Four‘s new Doctor Doom, Toby Kebbell, pop up on the show, and Robert Downey, Jr. wants to make one of the episodes, “The Entire History Of You,” into a full-length feature film.

So, watch Black Mirror! If nothing else, you’ll finally be hip to the cool show about technology that everyone is talking about on social media, and the show that many consider to be the modern day Twilight Zone. Wait. No, watch it because it’s really good. [Watch Black Mirror]

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[Photos: Everett Collection]