Dark side of technology is brilliant satirised in 'Black Mirror'. Televisionappears to be having a grand time exploring the dark side of technological progress. The recently completed Mr Robot and the mega-buck, rebooted Westworld, now on MNet Edge, are cases in point, exploring the world of digital hacking and the revenge of the machines.Nothing, however, that those and other speculative drama shows offermatches the sheer unnerving brilliance of Netflix's dark satire on techno-paranoia, Black Mirror.When it first launched, as a Channel 4 production in the UK in 2011, it was punted as "a hybrid of The Twilight Zone and Tales of the Unexpected which taps into our contemporary unease about our modern world".Created by Charlie Brooker, Black Mirror - so-called after the screens of our smartphones, tablets, computers and TVs - is an anthology series; each episode, according to Brooker, "has a different cast, a different setting, even a different reality. But they're all about the way we live now - and the way we might be living in 10 minutes' time if we're clumsy."Its first two seasons became international hits, topping audience ratings in Australia, Israel, Sweden, Spain, Poland, Hungary and China. In the US, Netflix got wind of its critical acclaim, and decided it wanted in - throwing a lot of money at it in the process - and commissioned 12 more episodes, divided into two seasons. The first six of those episodes are now streaming, along with the earlier seasons.The good news is that Brooker's services were retained for the new, big budget series. The bad news is that there's a good chance you're going to close your social media accounts and bin your smartphone after the binge-watch.Take, for example, the complex and twisted scenario in the first episode, Nosedive. Here's a world where everyone is desperate for approval, which is done by impressing others with their social media presence, a bit like racking up the "likes" and "shares" on Facebook postings.In her bid to be "popular", and laying on the fake sincerity like those around her, a young office worker, Lacie (Bryce Dallas Howard), wants to up her ratings but, when she gets invited to be maid-of-honour at a friend's wedding, things go horribly wrong - and the tension slowly escalates.As viewing goes, it's quite uncomfortable, but nevertheless compulsive. The horror is really piled on in the genre-twisting Hated in the Nation, the final and feature-length episode, which features robot killer bees in a nasty pastiche of Twitter's hate-talk. It's clever and provocative.But, if it's real horror you want, try The Waldo Moment, an episode from the second season. In it, a potty-mouthed cartoon bear decides to run for political office. It starts as a joke, and then, aided and abetted by a jaded public and a cynical media, lurches into demagogy. Could it happen? Well, as one entertainment blog noted, it really is "but one step down from a permanently enraged pumpkin-man doing the same". No further comment needed...