A lot of episodes struck a chord in me, and lots of those ideas (in earlier versions) have already been put into practice, mostly in the western world and China. But the episode with the exercise bikes was the most symbolic one that made feel a little bit more hopeless. The sheer blandness of the surroundings in the episode made you feel like another cog in a perpetuating vapid system, as the protagonists tries to gain fictitious credits to buy their way out of the rat race/prison. It was very interesting.

As others have said. Keep watching it. Every episode shows how technology is slowly eating your life and controlling you. That sounds crazy but it really isnt.

Many of the things they show are slowly being introduced in society right now . Just wait until you hit the second season. PM me if you want. I can give you a run down on exactly how the world as a whole is actually doing some of the things you are watching.

It is disturbing.. But in a good way. It forces you to think about how you use technology and where you use it.

Basically.

1. If its "Free" you are the product.

2. If it only listens for a "trigger word" Its is ALWAYS listening (and its voice-rec brains are in the 'cloud' not on the device. Everything you say is getting sent to a remote server owned by some company).

3. Not all things should have an internet connection (locally or over the net). IoT has proven to be an epic failure and has deployed millions of insecure devices world wide that are being used to attack other systems. Not cool man!

Keep watching it. I found that every episode is connected in some way.

Black mirror gives me the same feeling the ending of 1984 did...I didn't get an optimistic feeling from Black mirror.

You have plenty more good episodes to come.