Black Mirror Season 5, Episode 1: "Striking Vipers"

This debut episode of Black Mirror’s fifth season breaches a highly modern type of infidelity that found me almost wanting to redefine the meaning. In this one, thirtyish Danny gets a very nice gift from his old buddy Karl—an interactive video game called Striking Vipers that allows you to enter its world and assume the being of one of the game characters. It’s an intriguing capability, especially when the friends decide to use the videogame for their own intimacy; Danny and Karl start having sex with each other through the game on a regular basis.

Danny, who has a wife and young son, fights to appear interested in his family dynamic despite having become consumed by the sexual relationship he has cultivated over Striking Vipers. His wife and he had begun trying to have another child right around his birthday and the feeble few attempts at baby-making since cause her to confront him on their anniversary.

Eventually you get the feeling that the marriage has taken a positive turn; Danny is able to log on and have sex with Karl, and his wife is able to go out and sleep with other men. It isn’t a particularly satisfying ending, yet it demonstrated what was in my mind the only possible compromise.