Missing Black Mirror? Amazon’s sci-fi series Soulmates puts a dystopian spin on modern dating

Missing Black Mirror? Amazon’s sci-fi series Soulmates puts a dystopian spin on modern dating

If there was a foolproof way of identifying your ideal partner, would you do it? What if you were already married to somebody else? What if you were straight but your soulmate was the same gender? What if they were a stranger on the other side of the world? Soulmates (Amazon Prime Video) ponders such questions in an intimate set of provocative playlets.

Arriving ahead of Valentine's Day, this six-parter is a futuristic anthology series – meaning that each episode is a self-contained comedy-drama with a fresh cast and different story. Think Black Mirror meets Blind Date (it's even created by occasional Black Mirror co-writer William Bridges and Ted Lasso's Brett Goldstein).

Soulmates sends us rocketing 15 years into the future, when science has made a discovery that changes the lives of all humanity – a painless procedure which resembles looking down a Dalek's eye-stalk and which unequivocally reveals who your soulmate is. As the dating agency-style advert says: “Soul Connex: Your future is waiting.” Will people opt to take the test, let alone act on their results? And what will be the impact on a myriad of relationships? 

It's an ingenious concept, stylishly realised. The series opens with a quietly devastating portrait