Black Mirror, a Twilight Zone-esque anthology, is coming back to Netflix with new episodes. For the uninitiated, the show is a techno-horror series that feels like our reality, only fast-forwarded a few years. You can catch up here before the show returns on October 21.
In the opening episode, a terrorist forced the Prime Minister of England to have sex with a pig. (That one turned out to be oddly prescient.) In another episode, a young man becomes a celebrity when he threatens to kill himself on an American Idol-style show designed to raise its participants out of grinding poverty. The episodes are always creepy, often scary, and always deadly accurate.
The show’s creator, Charlie Brooker, says that this season will be his most ambitious yet. He also claims that he’s no technophobe.
"Technology is not ever a villain in the show — it's always about human failings and messes that technology has helped facilitate," he tells The Hollywood Reporter.
The new episode titles are out and they don’t tell us much. But the cast and directors already look fantastic. Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Mackenzie Davis are both underrated actresses, Davis particularly for her star turn on the criminally under-watched Halt and Catch Fire. Jerome Flynn will look to make us forget that he's a sell-sword on Game of Thrones. Malachi Kirby isn't a household name yet, but he might be after this and Roots.
On the other side of the camera, Dan Trachtenberg's 10 Cloverfield Lane was the rare sequel to find something new to say in the world of the original. Joe Wright's experience with period dramas like Anna Karenina and Atonement makes him a prestige pick. The others are more workmanlike, but still represent a strong set for any TV show.
See the episode titles, stars, and directors below.
“San Junipero”, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Mackenzie Davis, directed by Owen Harris
“Shut Up and Dance,” starring Jerome Flynn and Alex Lawther, directed by James Watkins
“Nosedive,” starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Alice Eve, and James Norton, directed by Joe Wright
“Men Against Fire,” starring Michael Kelly, Malachi Kirby, and Madeline Brewer, directed by Jakob Verbruggen
“Hated in the Nation,” starring Kelly MacDonald, directed by James Hawes
“Playtest,” starring Wyatt Russell and Hannah John-Kamen, directed by Dan Trachtenberg
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