BIG PICTURE BLACK MIRROR
PRODUCTION
BLACK MIRROR CREATOR CHARLIE BROOKER AND EXEC JESSICA RHOADES TELL JON CREAMER HOW THE SHOW’S LATEST SEASON AIMS TO CONFOUND VIEWERS’ EXPECTATIONS
DETAILS
Broadcaster Netflix Production co Broke and Bones Exec Producers Charlie Brooker, Jessica Rhoades, Annabel Jones, Bisha K. Ali (Demon 79 and Joan is Awful) LOCH HENRY Director Sam Miller Written by Charlie Brooker BEYOND THE SEA Director John Crowley Written by Charlie Brooker MAZEY DAY Director Uta Briesewitz Written by Charlie Brooker DEMON 79 Director Toby Haynes Written by Charlie Brooker & Bisha K Ali Cast Aaron Paul, Anjana Vasan, Annie Murphy, Auden Thornton, Ben Barnes, Clara Rugaard, Daniel Portman, Danny Ramirez, Himesh Patel, John Hannah, Josh Hartnett, Kate Mara, Michael Cera, Monica Dolan, Myha’la Herrold, Paapa Essiedu, Rob Delaney, Rory Culkin, Salma Hayek Pinault, Samuel Blenkin, Zazie Beetz
T
here’s been a little breathing space since the last Black Mirror anthology appeared on our screens 2019. Up to that point, from its Channel 4
debut in 2011, writer and exec Charlie Brooker created a series at the rate of almost one a year across five seasons, quite a punishing schedule for a high-end drama series with completely distinct episodes that were mainly penned by a lone writer. But, says Brooker, the four-year gap
up to the latest 2023 iteration “wasn’t a deliberate pause.” For a start “there was a rights negotiation going on” after Brooker and Annabel Jones left their Endemol Shine based label and set up on their own. The rights stayed with Endemol Shine, and then new Endemol Shine owner Banijay. “So, it’s sort of chiefly that and then there was a pandemic…” and then “I was sort of caught up doing other things,” says Brooker. Whatever the
reasons for the pause, Brooker says it was in many ways a good thing “because I think that I was consciously wanting to change a few things this season.”
starts to feel like that’s what a Black Mirror episode is or should be.” He also wanted it to stand out from
an increasingly congested crowd. “When it started, there weren’t many dystopian sci fi shows around. And now you can’t throw a smartphone across the room without hitting a dystopian future with somebody surrounded by chrome and glass and they’re crying.” So, he says, “it’s partly thinking that we’ve got to distinguish ourselves from other shows and partly from me thinking, ‘I might shake the box up a little bit.’”
“WHEN IT STARTED, THERE WEREN’T MANY DYSTOPIAN SCI FI SHOWS AROUND. NOW YOU CANT THROW A
SMARTPHONE ACROSS THE ROOM WITHOUT HITTING A DYSTOPIAN FUTURE”
BACK TO BLACK And the change has been about going back to the original essence of Black Mirror. “When I thought back to where the show started, a lot of the impetus was wanting to do something that’s a bit Twilight Zone, a bit Tales of the Unexpected, lots of variety, unpredictable and hopefully unlike anything else on TV.” The breathing space has helped with
that. “I’m not throwing shade at episodes I’ve done myself in the past but there were quite a few about consciousnesses getting uploaded into things and people wearing little nubbins on their head and their eyes milking over as they go into virtual reality.” For the new series, says Brooker,
he wanted to break away from expectations as “after a while, it
GOOD TIMES This time around, there’s supernatural horror and true crime satire mixed in with tech dystopia with the action jumping from near future to present day to 70s Britain and 60s America. “It was very liberating to think I’m going to write an episode set in the past. Why not? I’m going to break the rules because I can in this show,” says Brooker. Dipping into period
drama generated more than just variety. The episode Beyond the
Sea, set in late 60s space race America, was originally an idea planned to be set in the near future. “Whenever I pictured it. It was set in 2043 and then as you slightly break your regular thought patterns and think ‘what if I just took that idea and set it in 1969? what happens then? That immediately changes quite a few things. The characters are people of their era. They’re not people of the future who’ve been staring at screens and are very modern. That was instantly really exciting.” Brooker’s fellow exec on the show,
Jessica Rhoades, points out that a period setting also allows the show “to explore some of the social elements” of those times. Supernatural horror Demon 79 takes in racism in 70s Britain and
Summer 2023
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