Black Mirror season six is on the way to scare you out of signing up, logging on or maybe even just going outside. As usual, the horror anthology about a future so close it’s basically the here-and-now has lined up a rock solid cast, featuring the likes of Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad), Zazie Beetz (Atlanta), Josh Hartnett (Penny Dreadful), Paapa Essiedu (Men) and Kate Mara (House of Cards).
Black Mirror has been in a legal tangle for about three years, which is why you haven’t seen anything from the famous series that has almost become second-hand for tech overreach. But speaking of tech overreach, Netflix sorted it all out and now series creator Charlie Brooker is back in the driver’s seat along with his creative partner Annabel Jones. We don’t know anything else about the new series other than each new episode will be “cinematic in scope” (interpretation: long) and they are each been treated as miniature movies. That seems to be the name of the game with Netflix’s prized properties lately, as the latest batch of Stranger Things episodes were all pushing feature length.
Black Mirror‘s messaging can get a little on the nose sometimes, wagging its finger at kids and their phones these days. But at its best, it’s a pretty insightful and existentially harrowing exploration of the confluence of unfettered consumerism, morally rudderless technological growth and our Neil Postman-esque everything-as-entertainment-opoly, and what all this is doing to us. The fact that we’re all watching this exploration on Netflix, which is a result of consumerism, tech growth and our desperation for entertainment, is an irony not lost on Black Mirror itself.
No release date for season six has been announced yet but it is sure to come in the not-too-distant and relentlessly terrifying future.
