I’ve usually ignored the series Black Mirror on Netflix, but was gratified by the Season 6 episode “Beyond the Sea”—not great but still respectable sci-fi. The Space Age comprised of 1969 (etc.) just might—multiple years from now—usher in the extraordinary technology in this little film, which is set in ’69, the year of the first moon landing. But all the scientific sophistication in the world will not make attempted wife-stealing and Manson-like murder disappear.

Carefully written by Charlie Brooker, ably directed by John Crowley, the episode is somehow convincing and forcefully dark. Such actors as Aaron Paul and Kate Mara genuinely deepen the drama.