Channel 4's latest idea-driven drama series Black Mirror finished last night. The third and final instalment, titled The Entire History of You stood out from the previous two, but didn't fail to reach the high quality standard that had been set by the previous two.

Most notably, this was the only one of the three-part series not written by Charlie Brooker, the series' creator. Instead, at the pen of this episode was seasoned veteran Jesse Armstrong (Peep Show, In the Loop, Three Lions,Fresh Meat). In addition, and contrary to Armstrong's usual work, the social commentary was much more subtle and reserved than the previous two episodes. Whereas Fifteen Million Merits had a very obvious, popular message and The National Anthem was overtly thought-provoking and unnerving, the social commentary in The Entire History of You is skillfully woven into an abstract narrative and scenario.

Like Fifteen Million Merits the latest episode was in the not-so-distant future, however instead of presenting a dystopia powered by present technology The Entire History of You presents a world not dissimilar to our own, but dominated by a strange and eerie innovation. The centre-piece of this frightening world is 'the grain' - a cybernetic implant that stores every sensation of every memory ever experienced, complete with the ability to witness it again at any time, with all the functionality of a DVD, and display it to others.

The narrative told within this brave new world is that of Ffion (Jodie Whittaker) and Liam (Toby Kebbell, regardless of what imdb says - it's gotten the leading men the wrong way around), an affluent young professional couple whose marriage comes under strain when Liam becomes suspicious of Ffion's faithfulness. The show is an exploration of Liams descent into insane jealousy as he becomes obsessed with constantly replaying his own memories to explore his wives fidelity.

Despite depicting the the memory technology being used to uncover the truth, The Entire History of You displays this as the exception, not the rule, with regards to its regular application. Elsewhere, replaying memories is shown as the means to sustaining an artificial existence; the sheer clarity of past memories with the implant, endorsed enthusiastically and mechanically by one of the peripheral characters at one point, provides a frighteningly easy way of experiencing the best parts of your life, creating a chilling form of alienation. The entire episode is shot very uncomfortably to heighten this effect, dialogue is dripped out of the characters slowly and uncomfortably whenever they are in groups, and the visual effects used to render the use of the technology are particularly disturbing.

The portrait of a world with perfect memory which is painted is therefore one which is hollow, where the sheer reality of the memory has created a society that is quite unreal, constantly fetishising over its own perfect memories - without any of the charm of story-telling. It's taken the mystery and romance out of people knowing each other - something highlighted as one of the characters belittles relationships.

In addition, the desire to log perfectly all of human existence has left humanity imprisoned by the past. In a very roundabout and detached way, it's a clever analogy for one of the externalities of social networking, the store of data, something particularly relevant as Facebook rolls out its latest innovation - the timeline.

Like the previous instalments of Black Mirror, The Entire History of You was an incredibly thought provoking, idea-driven drama, highlighted by terrific acting from the main cast. It really was fabulous, it's inception a piece of genius by Brooker, and the writing, a departive but brilliant effort by Armstrong.Black Mirror finished last night (Sunday 19th December) but is available on 4oD.