One of the best things about streaming services is that you get a chance to see television programs from elsewhere in the world. I wouldn’t have gotten to watch Doctor Who, for example, if the first three seasons hadn’t been on Netflix instant watch in 2009. Yes, I’m a huge fan of British content, so when there’s a new show available to me, or a show that everyone has been telling me to watch but I hadn’t yet, it fills me with all the transatlantic feels.
One such program that’s been recently (this week) added to Netflix’s streaming library is Black Mirror. Created by satirist and broadcaster Charlie Brooker, who is often one of the most vocal critics of today’s techno-obsessed society, as a way of depicting how technology can and might be something to fear, or at least be wary of. An anthology series, in the vein of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, Black Mirror has two seasons of three 45-minute episodes, but it is six episodes fraught with far-out ideas that are actually closer to reality than you might think. One episode, for example, depicts a future where power is generated by cycling on stationary bikes to earn theoretical money one can use to upgrade virtual avatars. Another has a woman recreating her dead husband using his online profile and interactions. See what we’re working with here?
Coming this Christmas to the UK’s Channel 4 (the home of Black Mirror), there will be a feature-length holiday special, suitably bleak-looking, entitled “White Christmas,” that will feature none other than Mad Men‘s Jon Hamm, perhaps the most perfect human alive, along with Rafe Spall (Hot Fuzz), Oona Chaplin (Game of Thrones), and Natalia Tena (also Game of Thrones). This will air December 16th in the UK, so no telling when/if it’ll come out here any time soon, but with Hamm on board, I’m sure it won’t be too long.
Take a look and tell us what you think! Juan Jamón looks pretty creepy, huh?
Just watched the first two episodes last night and I’m hooked. Amazed I hadn’t heard of it before now but big thanks to Netflix for starting to run it.