For all of our hemming and hawing, it hasn’t pierced mainstream culture that gaming is a dominant form of entertainment, and the most profitable art form of the century. But when it comes to mainstream attention, you’re far more likely to see reporting on box offices for movies or musicians on red carpets for award shows.

Now, I’m not saying that music or acting are literally less popular than video games, because around the world it costs zero dollars to hear somebody sing their heart out or silently perform a slapstick vaudeville act. Games have been in the public consciousness since the ’70s, so it’s ridiculous to expect Shigeru Miyamoto to be more famous than Tom Cruise or Taylor Swift.

But the age of video games inspiring other art, being at the center of pop culture, is dawning. Movie studios and theaters, in their withering financial state, are turning away from comic book adaptations and are adapting every hit game imaginable. Kids growing up now are more likely to be in love with “Sonic the Hedgehog” than the kids who were raised in the early ’90s. And good luck to everybody’s work schedule and relationships when “Grand Theft Auto VI” comes out.

Recently, I caught up with the latest season of “Black Mirror” on Netflix, and it’s quite the bump up in quality from previous seasons. And what struck me the most is that Charlie Brooker, former gaming journalist extraordinaire, has outdone himself when it comes to portraying the business of gaming, the relationship we have to the games we love, the digital world, and getting lost in the magic we see onscreen.

The show has dipped into this well before, with the VR horror show “Playtest” directed by hardcore fan Dan Trachtenberg, the extremely horny “Striking Vipers,” and two sequel episodes we get this season, a first for the series. Interactive narrative game/episode “Bandersnatch” is about a game developer losing his mind (with a meta-shifting twist half way through), and that passion for creating has led to a follow-up in “Plaything” starring the always terrific Peter Capaldi. Sadly, it also comes alongside the untimely death of the original “Bandersnatch.”

The second sequel is “USS Callister: Into Infinity” which sees a studio reckon with an MMO they created turning into a full-blown crisis involving clones, pirates, cheating, doxxing, the ethical implications of merging players with their avatars, and, of course, turning their game into a battle royale extraction shooter.

I have scoured the earth for more insights into gaming culture and game development, but besides a few great books (“Masters of Doom,” “Console Wars,” “Ready Player One”) old videos of G4, and the occasional documentary (“The King of Kong,” “Indie Game The Movie,” “PsychOdyssey”), there isn’t much to rave about.

Most of my life has been watching horrifically bad and totally inaccurate portrayals of people with controllers in their hands mashing for their lives, or footage of some “GTA” knock-off that’s clearly a bad CGI rush job. The main culprits, of course, are any cop procedural blaming violent gaming (“Law & Order,” “CSI”) as well as recent blunders like “Jumanji: The Next Level.” For a movie set inside of a game, can you not have Danny DeVito pretend to press the “counter strike” button while playing “Street Fighter V?” It’s beyond embarrassing.

There have been a select few shows to even approach something that isn’t cringe worthy or downright vomit-inducing. The pixelated comedy “Code Monkeys,” the sitcom “Dead Pixels,” the adorably innocent green screen magic of “Nick Arcade,” and the Apple TV series “Mythic Quest.”

Each has their own appealing qualities — “Mythic Quest” especially was great at getting the little facts right and the overall tone of the industry was spot on, but they never really bothered to get deep into the game itself. Which is fine, it’s about the characters, drama, and humor of running a team.

But with “Black Mirror,” you fully understand that the writers not only play, but live and breathe gaming in a way no other show’s staff has. The episodes discuss real-life issues of the medium, it knows where the industry is going and what pitfalls lie ahead, it focuses on the nerds who buy consoles on launch night, the late night LAN parties, and the obsession with the craft. It’s everything you could ever dream of, but with the added cynical drenching of the dangers of technology for society.

“Playtest” has playful nods to the cult-like status of Hideo Kojima, as well as fun easter eggs, but at its heart, it’s about using and abusing QA testers, and then spitting them out on the cheap. “Plaything” is about the extremes of addiction — being so into one particular title that everything else becomes secondary; your job, your health, your hygiene, your ability to communicate with other people and the world around you. “USS Callister” is a tribute to male toxicity and online harassment, a plague that has invaded all aspects of life and politics.

And “Striking Vipers” is about having sex with polar bears. Well, really its about gender identity, body dysmorphia, the trans experience, love, male friendship, and a hell of a lot more. But every possible angle of gaming, from the people who create it to the people who play it to the money men at the top who profit off of it, “Black Mirror” effortlessly tackles issues in and revolving around the industry while also providing well made, well written, entertaining and sometimes moving one-off stories.

As an anthology series, it’s unparalleled in the world of genre filmmaking, but I just wanted to tip my hat to Charlie Brooker for being able to write an episode about crunch culture and women in the tech workplace, while also being a great jab at “Star Trek,” “Fortnite,” and revenge porn without it being too much or forcing any one issue.

Image Credit: “Black Mirror”