Unfortunately, the premise of the show is also one of its downfalls. Tonally, the show is excellent and the music does a fantastic job of highlighting the dark nature of the show. However, the stories, particularly in the first series, fall too much into the realm of gimmicks. It felt too much like the episodes were relying on their satire premise rather than actually telling good stories.
The second series does a better job of rectifying this, with the first episode of the second series, "Be Right Back," being perhaps the best of the anthology. However, the second two episodes aren't quite as impactful, with "White Bear" being perhaps the worst of the anthology.
There are so many great, lofty ideas in the show, but the anthology nature combined with mixed runtimes and episodic nature hurts them. Few of the episodes actually feel complete. A number of them feel like they could have been fleshed out more, either as a mini-series or feature (ex. "White Bear" and "The Waldo Moment.").
Despite the above, I actually do recommend the show primarily for its dark tone and music. It's good, if not very good on the whole, but select episodes may be hit or miss. I'm definitely curious about the Christmas special.
Ranked episodes below, best to worst:
Be Right Back (very good)
The Entire History of You (very good)
The Waldo Moment (good)
The National Anthem (good)
Fifteen Million Merits (meh)
White Bear (meh)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2085059/?ref_=tt_ov_inf
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