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The festive special of Charlie Brooker's dystopian anthology series is, as you might expect, entirely lacking in goodwill, depicting the holiday season as a period of solitude and emptiness. Which makes it perfect viewing for January, a time when even the faintest memory of the Christmas gorging session is likely to have you reaching for the sick bucket. Jon Hamm and Rafe Spall are two singletons, sharing stories of gadget-enabled love and loss over a Christmas dinner. But something's not quite right with their situation...

I didn't have to starve for too long in search of equally gamey broth, in the reliable shape of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror: White Christmas. Mr Brooker takes few prisoners when it comes to those possessed of pygmy imaginations, which is meet and right for grown-up telly. So within 90 minutes we were introduced to the concept of "blocking" an individual as one would an ex-Facebook friend, but actually doing so in real life (thanks to everyone in the near future having chosen to implant so-called Z-Eyes, hooked up of course to the net: do keep up); the blockee appears only as a greyed-out shadow and may neither call nor approach.

Then to the concept of extracting an "egg" of consciousness, a kind of Mini-Me, purely to toil in a tiny, white, closed cyberjail at the tasks of keeping the real-life Me fed and watered and kept at the right temperature and with the toast done just so: basically, the concept of outsourcing a small twitch of one's own soul, the better to keep body and... body together. Already we'd addressed the issues of slavery, alienation, the speeding up of time (and thus, when there's absolutely nothing to do, the creation of pathological boredom), the inadvisability of taking anyone's advice on dating, and that was within about seven minutes, before we even got on to the concept of Jon Hamm and Rafe Spall stuck in Ice Station Zebra at Christmas, caning the port.

These actors, and this in its entirety, were phenomenal, but there were so many fine ideas, both uplifting and dystopian, that I can't quickly do them justice - other than to offer the obvious thought that it's not the technology: it's us. And to observe that Mr Brooker must be becoming mildly fed up at having his technological imaginings superseded every six months. Google, do be careful what you wish for: when the gods wish to punish us, first they answer our prayers.

I'm not sure how much of a reward the Christmas special of Black Mirror would actually be and I think you'd have to be a rather strange individual to want a rather dark present such as the one Charlie Brooker conjured up. Subtitled White Christmas; the feature-length special of Brooker's dystopian fantasy anthology saw Matt (Jon Hamm) and Sam (Rafe Spall) hauled up in a remote shack in the middle of nowhere. We are told early on that Matt and Sam have barely spoke to each other in the five years they've lived and worked together. As you would expect with Black Mirror, the Christmas element become slightly eerie and from the first time we hear it Wizard's 'I Wish It Could be Christmas Everyday' takes on an ominous tone. Hamm initially plays up to his smoothie persona in the first story in which we learn of Matt's hobby which involves helping losers-in-love get dates. However, as we discover, his most recent client didn't have the best of experiences after he gatecrashed a Christmas party and ended up a reluctant part of a suicide pact. Whilst this first third was suitably shocking the second segment of the programme; in which we saw Matt at work was rather confusing. Although it did go some way to explain the episode's final act I found it to be rather rushed and also felt that it ruined the significant talents of Oona Chaplin. The real emotional core of the episode was provided by Sam as we learnt of his turbulent relationship with girlfriend Beth (Janet Montgomery) which ended when she wanted to abort the baby she was carrying. This story brought with it one of the episode's central ideas; what if we were able to block somebody in real life like we can currently do on Twitter? The answer was incredibly memorable and also provided some really vivid images which stuck with me long after the episode had concluded.

Whilst White Christmas wasn't up there with Black Mirror's best, which I still feel is series two's White Bear, it certainly had its moments. Many of these were provided by Joe's story which I found to be the most profound thanks in no small part to the brilliant performance from Spall. I think that Spall's facial expressions were perfectly utilised as part of a story in which he had to convey emotion by saying very little. The look on his face when Joe was blocked by Beth was particularly powerful as was the expression when he discovered the truth about the daughter she'd given birth to. Black Mirror has always been based around vivid technological ideas and the legal blocking technique felt like a plausible narrative device. On the other hand I'm still not quite sure what the cookie implant story achieved other than giving us one final reveal. Whilst Spall provided the emotional depth that the episode required; Hamm appeared to be having a ball as the sleazy executive who'd overstepped the line in more ways than one. Hamm's performance as the cool Matt was great in the first voyeuristic tale which I thought went a little too far even by Black Mirror's standards. The Christmas theme of the episode wasn't overplayed but was used just enough and I thought Hamm's cooking of the Yuletide dinner was a nice touch. One thing I did find was that Brooker struggled to write a feature-length instalment and, although all the pieces fit together, the middle of the episode really dragged for me. However, I can't say that Brooker didn't provide a powerful piece of Christmas television and it's also fair to say that that no other festive special will have the same tone as Black Mirror. Ultimately I found White Christmas to be a unique special episode but I feel that the Black Mirror series works better in forty-minute episodes rather than in feature-length installments.

Review: Channel 4's Black Mirror: White Christmas

The performances were all very good, although I was surprised Jon Hamm almost reprised his Don Draper role from Mad Men. It felt like Charlie Brooker either needed a Draper-type for this suave role, and luckily managed to get the real deal, or Hamm was drawn to a part that wouldn't be much of a stretch but allow him to appear in a show he loves.

A triptych of tech-tinged tales, just in time for Christmas. Jon Hamm and Rafe Spallp] star as Matt and Potter, two men sharing a turkey dinner in the middle of nowhere, who start to divulge stories from their past: Matt's time as a relationship guru with a twist, Potter's encounter with a social media-style blocker, and a woman's (Oona Chaplin) unfortunate encounter with some invasive "smart! technology. Of course, this being Black Mirror, there are some unforeseen twists along the way.

Radio Times review

Charlie Brooker's digital dystopia delivers a festive mystery in anthology form, with three connected stories about dark things in a twisted near-future. Jon Hamm and Rafe Spall lead the cast as two men sharing a Christmas meal somewhere remote and snowy. Where are they? And who are they, really? As the companions exchange stories, we see Oona Chaplin as a woman bedevilled by "smart" gadgets, and Hamm himself offering unconventional romantic advice.

Plus, in the sort of flip between virtual and tangible worlds that's the trademark of the series, the question is asked: what would happen if you could "block" people and never see or hear from them again in real life, as you can on Twitter and Facebook?

Black Mirror interview

Black Mirror - Channel 4's mind-bending series of cautionary tales about our addiction to digital technology - is returning for a big-name Christmas special starring Rafe Spall, Oona Chaplin and Mad Men's Jon Hamm. Bryony Gordon asks them and the programme's creator Charlie Brooker what's in store.

Black Mirror: White Christmas review

Sentimentality offset with wicked wit. Charlie Brooker repeats Black Mirror trick, with feature-length festive special starring Rafe Spall and Mad Men's Jon Hamm.

Black Mirror Xmas Special: new plot details & pictures

The new episode of Charlie Brooker's satire stars Jon Hamm, Rafe Spall and Oona Chaplin and tells a chilling story about "blocking" people in real life - just as we do on Facebook and Twitter.