‘Black Mirror’ Creator Charlie Brooker Wants Fans to Remember It’s Never Just Been the ‘Tech Is Bad’ Show
“Black Mirror” isn’t just about the dangers of technology, according to creator Charlie Brooker.
The Netflix showrunner addressed the ongoing themes of the futuristic series, specifically with the Season 6 tonal pivot with central stories warning audiences about the pitfalls of tech.
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“It was definitely a conscious decision to slightly upend what the show is,” Brooker told Games Radar. “It was interesting to kind of reset things in that way. It was a palate cleanser, and it means that you’re then approaching all the other episodes from a slightly different perspective.”
Brooker added, “There was a slight danger that people were bracketing [the series] as the ‘tech is bad’ show – and I found that a bit frustrating partly because I always felt like, ‘Well the show isn’t saying tech is bad, the show is saying people are fucked up’. So, you know, ‘Get it right!'”
Brooker pointed to the “media commentary and satire” in the sixth season, as well as an emphasis on personal image, identity, and perception.
“I guess parts of it are [about] the pain of a real-life thing becoming a sort of true crime documentary, like ‘Loch Henry’, or something more playful, like ‘Joan is Awful’, which is an existential nightmare, but it’s also to do with identity and control and all that beeswax,” Brooker continued. “On Netflix, they’re in reverse order to the way they were written, because ‘Demon 79’, which I co-wrote with Bisha K. Ali – who I think is fantastic – we wrote that as a ‘Red Mirror’. I was almost thinking, ‘OK, let’s imagine it’s a companion piece to Black Mirror.'”
“Black Mirror” Season 6 is now streaming on Netflix. Read IndieWire’s review of the new episodes here, and see where they rank among the series overall here.
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