Despite having a hit series, creator Charlie Brooker chose to delay the sixth season of Black Mirror due to the conditions created by the pandemic. Understanding the global impact of the disruption to lives by shutdowns, layoffs, school closures, rising death counts and everything else the pandemic threw at us, Brooker could have leveraged the fact everyone was stuck at home to juice his ratings and reach new audiences like Squid Game and The Tiger King were able to do. Like a good DJ, he was able to read the room and held on to new episodes knowing it wasn’t the right time to release them. Sometimes the truth can be as strange as fiction.
"At the moment, I don't know what stomach there would be for stories about societies falling apart, so I'm not working away on one of those. I'm sort of keen to revisit my comic skill set, so I've been writing scripts aimed at making myself laugh” Brooker said in a May 2020 interview with Radio Times.
Seeking to explore new ideas outside Black Mirror’s all-to-familiar 2023 vision of a "twisted, high-tech near-future where humanity's greatest innovations and darkest instincts collide,” season six will head down different paths than in the past.
There are so many dystopian shows out there that are a bit Black Mirror-y, none of which I will watch because I get crushing professional jealousy and I’ll get annoyed. I didn’t want to be just hitting the same premises over and over again. Like, ‘What if this app ruined your life?’ Or, ‘Oh look! It turns out you’re in virtual reality.’ So there was a slight reset.
Past topics have included: AI, fake news and disinformation, obsession with celebrities, video games, pornography, immersive augmented reality, cyberbullying and many more.
As always, an A-list ensemble cast like Aaron Paul of Westworld, Breaking Bad, Salma Hayek, who has appeared in Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard and House of Gucci and Annie Murphy, acclaimed for her work in Kevin Can F**k Himself, join the cast. Other notable actors include Paapa Essiedu from Gangs of London, Kate Mara from Fantastic Four and Call Jane, Danny Ramirez from Top Gun: Maverick, Clara Rugaard from The Rising, Auden Thornton from This Is Us, and Anjana Vasan from We Are Lady Parts.
10 Most Disturbing Black Mirror Episodes, Ranked
The show, which won an Emmy award, was initially broadcasted on the BBC. However, it was only after it was made available on Netflix that it gained access to a broader and even more receptive audience. The anthology format of the series really allows you to jump into the show at any season and not feel like you need to dedicate hours to catching up, considering the last batch of episodes aired in 2019. Here are Alternative Press’ most disturbing episodes.
9. Bandersnatch
