Netflix Black Mirror

[Richard Channing]

It’s back. Black Mirror Season 6 is returning this June and it will be the most unpredictable season yet. While you wait to see how wild and weird things get, why not watch the trailer right now?

There’s always been an element of the unexpected baked into the dark, satirical anthology, but with Season 6, creator Charlie Brooker tells Tudum that he even surprised himself.

“I’ve always felt that Black Mirror should feature stories that are entirely distinct from one another, and keep surprising people — and myself — or else what’s the point? It should be a series that can’t be easily defined, and can keep reinventing itself,” the writer, creator and executive producer said.

So that’s exactly what he did. Not every episode of the new season will be exactly what you’re expecting — but that’s the whole point.

“Partly as a challenge, and partly to keep things fresh for both me and the viewer, I began this season by deliberately upending some of my own core assumptions about what to expect,” he says. “Consequently, this time, alongside some of the more familiar Black Mirror tropes we’ve also got a few new elements, including some I’ve previously sworn blind the show would never do, to stretch the parameters of what ‘a Black Mirror episode’ even is. The stories are all still tonally Black Mirror through-and-through — but with some crazy swings and more variety than ever before.”

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1 / 10


Nick Wall/Netflix
That variety applies to both the episodes’ subject matter and to the long, long list of stars joining for Season 6. “Bringing it all to life we’ve got an incredible roster of disgustingly skillful, smart directors working with a cast of actors so talented they frankly have no right to exist,” Brooker says.

Among those too-talented stars: Aaron Paul, Anjana Vasan, Annie Murphy, Auden Thornton, Ben Barnes, Clara Rugaard, Daniel Portman, Danny Ramirez, David Shields, 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 and Zazie Beetz. No big deal. Check them out in the tweet below.


The series, which is written and created by Charlie Brooker, counts Brooker, Jessica Rhoades, Annabel Jones and Bisha K. Ali among its executive producers and comes from Brooker and Jones’ production company Broke & Bones.

Season 6 of Black Mirror premieres in June. Says Brooker, “I can’t wait for people to binge their way through it all and hope they enjoy it — especially the bits they shouldn’t.”

Airs June 15th.

 

[Willie Oleson]

New episodes of Black Mirror (and also the Canadian series "Slasher") could lure me back to Netflix.
And I'd love to have a complete Black Mirror DVD boxset because there are so many gems that need to be rewatched.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Season 6, hip hip hurrah!


And it's a very good start! The legal aspect ("you agreed to the terms") is questionable, but we're living in strange times.
I always love these Russian Doll type of stories.

 

[Willie Oleson]

A very spooky eerie episode, and I figured they were all in it à la THE WICKER MAN. It's also the funniest episode of series 6.
BERGERAC is available on DVD so that was very suspicious.
It does an even better streaming-commentary than JOAN IS AWFUL when it tackles the shameless serial-killersploitation as seen on Netflix itself.
Or maybe it's not brave, but just Netflix saying: yes, we stream tacky content and we don't care how it looks as long as people watch it.
Food for thought, peeps!
I'm not sure if I had heard this song before.

I love it! (it's Melanie's People In The Front Row - just in case the video gets deleted and I don't remember what it was)




I don't mind the super-grim ending but it doesn't feel like a great payoff. Science fiction is about what could happen even if it looks totally unbelievable, but to put that in a retro setting in which it obviously never happened...it just seems unnecessarily convoluted.
Nevertheless I applaud them for lulling me into a false sense of happily ever after romance, and what happens on screen looks very good.




It's a fabulous pre-ABIGAIL plot twist but apart from that I didn't find much to enjoy in this episode.



The obvious nod to classic Hammer House (preceding the HHoH TV series by just one year) looks very Ti West-esque.
The story itself is everything but the kitchen sink, and whatever social commentary that can be found in the episode seems to further the plot rather than trying to say something meaningful. And why shouldn't they use it as a plot device?
Most of the story is sort of an ALADDIN with a twist, starring a fake Bobby Farrell as the devilish genie on a mission. The Boney M classics used in this episode kinda sounds like hearing them for the first time.
I felt the same when they played Bee Gees' To Love Somebody in GLASS ONION. Then, my first reaction was "they are better than the Beatles!" Of course I wouldn't think that if they had played a Beatles song.
Or maybe....yes, now I think about it....it's the Boney M classics from a British perspective. It's different, it's just different.
A very entertaining, unpredictable and rewatchable episode.

Still, the first episode is the best quintessential BLACK MIRROR story of series 6, imho. I knew that I was watching JOAN IS AWFUL but I didn't know that I was watching-watching it. So clever.
Roll on series 7!
Goodbye.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Oh, Black Mirror, why are you so good to me?
Series 7 is another collection of perfectly zany episodes. Strangely enough they keep it very simple and recognisable, and then remix it with all kinds of exaggerated modern technology.
Most of these episodes are peak-Doctor Who, minus the aliens.


Essentially a story about not having enough money to survive, which - sadly - is the brutal reality for many people on this earth.
It's revamped as a Stepford Wives subscription combined with the explosion of the lucrative Onlyfans accounts.
It also tackles the issue of the current subscriptions upgrades which aren't really upgrades but simply a way to make you pay more for the same service. If you don't, there will be consequences.
There's an unapologetically in-your-face, almost Dickensian evil in this story as they continue to put the unfortunate couple through the wringer.
But there's also a silver lining: the ability to buy extra time. Not to live it, but to end it, to get the opportunity to say goodbye (how sad as it may be).
Of course Black Mirror comes up with a sinister last-minute twist, and their final moment is far from peaceful.
It's nasty but also very very good.



The technology as explained in the Black Mirror episodes is as bollocks as a Star Trek story, it just sounds a bit more familiar.
The mumbo jumbo explanations are usually delivered in a moment of rush or calamity, and therefore it's useless to try to comprehend it.
Sometimes it's delived with so much confidence that you want to believe it.
Not much effort has been made to make any of the sci-fi stuff in this story remotely believable. We got one sentence of "alternative realities" and "corporate frequencies" and that's it.
But as a story of revenge and gaslighting it's very entertaining, and Rosy McEwen is very convincing as the former classmate from hell.
It starts with a disagreement over an email and initially I thought it would expose the protagonist as being dyslexic. Not that dyslexia is a crime, but who knows what impact it could have on her career.
The thrill of the various events leading up to the climax compensates for a somewhat weaker conclusion.



The Purple Rose Of Cairo combined with the discussion about adjusting/vandalising Classics and race/gender swapping for political or sensible reasons.
Black Mirror, rather cleverly, doesn't take sides because black actress Brandy Friday isn't the first choice for the role of the modernised leading man in the upgraded version of the fictional film HOTEL REVERIE.
But regardless of who was going to play the role, it's a cynical business model completely devoid of artistry.
I understand that it was going to be a weird experience for actress Brandy but it doesn't really help that she lacks improvisation skills, and I think this makes it unnecessarily cringy to watch. She never becomes one of the classic characters therefore I can't see this upgraded film becoming a success.
There's a lot of good stuff in it, the Hotel Reverie film almost looks like a parody, and the phone call to Dorothy's screening test is very lovely.



I've always been instinctively averse to scanning QR codes that are everywhere these days. What a treat to see that very QR code becoming the end of the world!
It's very mysterious and mind-boggling, creepy without showing creepiness, and a strong contender for a ranking in the 10 Best Of Black Mirror.
The theme of "growing out of proportion" also reminded me of the ever-expanding mansion in ROSE RED (best haunted house film ever made).



A classic tear-jerker with a fabulous set design, including a nod to the TV movie THE LETTERS (1973).
It's very effective in how it shows that people can remember and misremember things from the past, but the best part is the chemistry between the two lead actors.

ALL the performances in Black Mirror are terrific, and possibly better than what I see in many theatrical releases.
Episode 6 is feature-length special! and I'm going to watch it tonight.