DUBAI: The current boom in anthology series — no self-respecting streaming platform, it seems, can be without one — is due in great part to “Black Mirror,” the prescient sci-fi/horror/black-comedy show from writer and director Charlie Brooker. It has just returned for its sixth season — five episodes that mine the existential fears of modern life (lack of privacy, the reverence for algorithms over creativity, what’s ‘real’ in a world of increasingly human-like machines and AI… that kind of thing) and the ancient terrors that have been part of humanity since its origins: Can we ever really know the true nature of even those closest to us? How far will anyone go in pursuit of accumulating more possessions or wealth? It’s not cozy viewing. But it is compelling. The latest series begins with the nightmarish “Joan is Awful,” in which bored, mostly miserable HR manager Joan (Annie Murphy) sits down to watch a show of the same name on a streaming platform, Streamberry (which looks very much like Netflix), only to discover that it’s a dramatization of her own life (in fact, a replay of that day’s events, including verbatim conversations) starring Salma Hayek as Joan and ‘tweaked’ to present Joan in the worst possible way. As her life falls apart, she discovers that — thanks to the terms and conditions she agreed to when she subscribed to Streamberry — not only can she do nothing to prevent this invasion of her privacy, she’s not even getting paid for it. And Streamberry, it turns out, has similar plans for hundreds of thousands of its subscribers. It’s familiar ground for “Black Mirror,” but none the less powerful for that. Second episode “Loch Henry” is a fairly straightforward (though immensely unsettling) horror story that includes some thought-provoking commentary on the commercialization of true crime stories and how little consideration seems to be given to how they may affect those on whom the original events had the most impact. Episode three, “Beyond The Sea,” stars Aaron Paul and Josh Hartnett as two astronauts in an alternate-reality 1960s. While they are up in their spaceship, they can link their minds to inhabit their replicas back on Earth. Things don’t go smoothly. Season six features stellar performances from stars and soon-to-be stars, and the plot twists are as sharp as ever. It lacks a stand-out episode to match the best of past “Black Mirror,” but Brooker’s dystopian visions remain some of the highest quality TV around.