(CNN) Rating "Black Mirror" against its own creative resume, the latest batch of a half-dozen installments -- which Netflix will drop right before New Year's -- offers more of a mixed bag than usual, with two or three standouts and the rest conceptually interesting but rather ho-hum affairs.

Like any anthology series, "Black Mirror" is only as good as the episode you're watching, although the batting average for writer-producer Charlie Brooker's "Twilight Zone"-like series -- which focuses on the impact of technology and always seems to be about 15 minutes in the future -- has been admirably high.

"Black Museum," an extra-long edition, is the best of the newcomers, feeling like quintessential "Black Mirror," as well as an homage to "Tales From the Crypt." In it, a woman stumbles upon a crime museum whose creepy curator offers a trio of cautionary tales about technology gone wrong. That includes a comatose woman having her consciousness implanted within her husband, ostensibly a way for them to be together that, not surprisingly, yields unintended consequences.

The other standout, "Hang the DJ," is a love story filtered through a twisted prism of online dating, as two people go through the process of being paired up by computer modules. It's the logical extension of where a world of Tinder and digitally mediated courtship might eventually lead.

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The two showiest episodes, meanwhile, both founder a bit in the execution: "Arkangel," directed by Jodie Foster and starring Rosemarie DeWitt, features a woman using a surveillance device to keep tabs on her young daughter, which, again, takes unexpected turns as the child grows up; and "USS Callister," an unabashed "Star Trek" spoof, only here, with a virtual-reality designer ("Breaking Bad's" Jesse Plemons) who escapes into a fantasy world of his own creation with a very colorful "Trek"-esque vibe.

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