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Charlie Brooker's 'Black Mirror' is back later this month. Six new episodes are poised to drop on Netflix (and turn us into quivering paranoid technophobes afraid to use our smartphones). But writer and creator Brooker is already thinking about what he can give the terrifying 'Black Mirror' treatment next.
Brexit and the rise of racism is the current frontrunner. ‘I was trying to think about a “Black Mirror” for this the other day, actually. If you could get everyone to pop on a helmet that makes us all the same colour and makes us speak the same language… is that what it would take? Would that solve petty racism? Or would people just start going, “I don’t like the way you’re walking! Boo!”
'I don’t know. I’m trying to be optimistic, though,' he says in next week's Time Out magazine.
Brooker admits to finding Brexit 'scary', saying: 'I don’t like the way that people who did not vote to leave are being told to shut up and stop whining. That seems a bit mental. That’s like if the passengers voted for a drunk pilot, I’m going to be screaming all the way into the mountainside, frankly. So if I’m worried and scared, fucking leave me alone! Let me shriek and panic and cry!’
When it comes to 'Black Mirror' season four, Brooker also has some ideas about how he can use the show's new on-demand platform to his advantage. 'I want to do something that is the equivalent of those old vinyl records. There was a commentator describing a horse race but there were different grooves so sometimes a different horse would win. I realised that you could, with Netflix, potentially break the fourth wall or randomise scenes, something like that,' Brooker added at a 'Black Mirror' screening in London this week.
'We thought about it for one of the stories this time around and then we collectively went, "Well, that's fucking too much work." We have a video game themed episode and I wanted to make it so that once you've watched it, it unlocks, like, nightmare mode of the same episode.'
'I did ask Netflix at one point if it would be possible to localise the audio and have somebody in the episode refer to where you are, wherever you are in the world watching it. Just because I thought that would freak people out!'
The future of TV? Watch this space.
'Black Mirror' season three is available to stream on Netflix from October 21
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