'Black Mirror''s Dating-App Episode "Hang the DJ" is a Perfectly Heartbreaking Portrayal of Modern Romance

SLUG: Everything Happens for a Reason HED: Black Mirror's Dating App Episode is a Perfect--and Heartbreaking--Portrayal of Modern Romance ALT HED: If You're Single, Black Mirror's Dating App Episode Will Break Your Heart DEK: In tackling the nightmarish world of dating apps, Black Mirror's "Hang the DJ" perfectly captures the desperation not only in trusting algorithms to find us a perfect love, but also in trying to date in this era at all. It's an understatement to say that romance took a beating this year. From the inauguration of a president who has confessed on tape to sexual predation, to the explosion of harassment and assault allegations that began this fall, women's confidence in men has reached unprecedented lows--which poses a not-insignificant issue among those who date them. Not that things were all that much better in 2016, or the year before that; Gamergate and the wave of campus assault reporting in recent years certainly didn't get many women in the mood, either. In fact, the past five or so years of dating men might best be described by involved parties as bleak.