It’s looking like more twisty cautionary sci-fi tales will definitely be heading to a Netflix streaming account near you. We told you back in May that it looked like Charlie Brooker’s mind-binding, heart-ripping science fiction series Black Mirror—which initially ran on Britain’s Channel 4—would be getting a new series made specifically for the red-hued entertainment provider. And now it looks like our dark wishes have been answered.
The UK’s The Radio Times is reporting that Netflix and Brooker’s production company House of Tomorrow have agreed to terms concerning the internet service producing “multiple episodes” of Black Mirror. The first two series of the program, consisting of three episodes each, debuted on Netflix in the U.S. back in December and became a huge hit almost entirely through word of mouth. The 2014, feature-length Christmas special starring Jon Hamm has yet to make it to Netflix, but a lot of people (like me) have seen it and it’s really good.
Evidently, both Netflix and Channel 4 made no comment regarding the deal, though a source told RT that Channel 4 would have a first-look deal on the newly-produced episodes. I’m assuming that’s specifically for British viewing purposes, not for any of us Yanks.
It seems weirdly perverse that Brooker would agree to have his series produced by a new technology and entertainment paradigm such as Netflix since Black Mirror is a strong warning—if not a full condemnation—of relying too heavily on technology that supposedly makes our lives easier. This is a series where one episode had people peddling stationary bikes to power TV screens and the only way out was to be come a celebrity; where people’s memories are recorded and a man can make his wife show him her adultery; and where you can decide to physically “block” someone from your life, making them appear as nothing more than a blob of vague shading and indecipherable noise. I mean, it’s pretty rough stuff.
Still, any method that gets more Black Mirror into our eyes, ears, and brains is a good thing—especially if we in the U.S. aren’t made to wait the usual long-ass time after it airs in Britain.
Are you excited for more Black Mirror? We certainly are. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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HT: The Radio Times
IMAGE: Channel 4
Kyle Anderson is the Weekend Editor and a film and TV critic for Nerdist.com. Follow him on Twitter!
