BLACK MIRROR
anthology show black mirror is returning for three more episodes. showrunners charlie brooker and annabel jones talk to will salmon about tandems, uber and… miley cyrus?!
Just when you thought it was safe to relax around technology again, Charlie Brooker’s back...
BLOODY TECHNOLOGY, EH? Black Mirror, satirist Charlie Brooker’s darkly twisted science fiction anthology show about life in a world saturated with smartphones, ever-more-efficient gadgets and the often dehumanising effects of social media, returns to Netflix for its fifth season soon. SFX is trying to chat to Brooker and executive producer Annabel Jones over the phone, but our line keeps hissing and crackling ominously. Is this the work of some malevolent algorithm trying to stop us from getting to the truth about the new episodes? Unlikely. When we finally get a clear signal, Brooker offers an alternative, typically self-deprecating explanation: “I was so boring your phone exploded.”
That’s not true, of course. Both Brooker and Jones are a delight – witty, thoughtful and clearly excited about sharing the fruits of their labour with the world. It’s been a long road to finally finishing season five – largely because of a certain interactive episode that premiered over Christmas...
Released into the world on 28 December – just a day after it was announced – “Bandersnatch” was Black Mirror’s most ambitious and attention-grabbing instalment yet. Tapping into the nostalgia for Choose Your Own Adventure games, it was an enormously ambitious undertaking, and one that had a major knock-on effect for the rest of the season it was intended to launch.
“It was a completely new proposition for us,” says Jones. “It was mammoth in scale and execution and, in all truth, we were making it up as we went along. We had to reinvent all of the processes for how we make the show: the production, the filming, editing, the score. It was just huge. I think we got away with it…”
That’s one way to put it. “Bandersnatch” was the surprise telly highlight of the festive season. It did, however, mean that season five had to be knocked down to just three episodes (from the usual six that have typified the show’s Netflix years), and released several months later.
“We could have rushed things and tried to do six episodes,” Brooker muses. “But, to be honest, that would have been shit! It became clear that ‘Bandersnatch’ was its own beast – and making it was the equivalent of doing about five episodes in one.”
“Also, it felt right that ‘Bandersnatch’ stood alone,” says Jones. “It was such a different way of filmmaking and such a different experience that we wanted people to have the chance to lose themselves in it and not be thinking about what the other episodes would be like.”
The other benefit of separating out the special from the rest of the season, says Brooker, is that it helped demonstrate the flexibility of the show’s format. “Nobody batted an eyelid when it went out as a standalone. That means that going forward – and I hate people who use that expression – we can do more standalones, more seasons… who knows? The ground is the limit.” MILEY CULTURE
But for now, season five. Three episodes “all on the longer side, all just over an hour”, according to Brooker.
Specific plot points are, naturally, being kept tightly under wraps, but Brooker and Jones are at least willing to share with us a few hints about each episode.
Jones describes “Striking Vipers” as being about the question of “how you sustain a long-term relationship in a world of instant gratification”. The episode is directed by Owen Harries, who previously helmed “Be Right Back” and the Emmy and BAFTA-winning “San Junipero”, and stars occasional Avenger Anthony Mackie alongside Aquaman’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (“It’s a secret Marvel/DC crossover,” Brooker deadpans) and American
Violet’s Nicole Beharie. “I think it’s a very thought-provoking story,” Jones continues. “It’s very Black Mirror in the sense of there’s lots of ideas running through it, but it’s very emotional, sad – and sometimes uplifting. It’s not something that you will have seen before.”
So, just how do you sustain a relationship in a world ruled by instant gratification? “You get a tandem,” says Brooker. “Turns out… tandems. The film is actually sponsored by the Tandem Society of Sao Paulo. I’ve just given away the twist.”
Another episode, “Smithereens”, is described by Brooker as the season’s “nail-biter”. It grew out of a conversation between the two showrunners about ride-sharing apps such as Uber or lyft.
“It started out with that thing of, you get in the back of an Uber and you’re looking at your phone, and when you look back up, you’ve no idea where the hell you are,” says Brooker. “It’s set very much in the present – or rather, the very, very near past…”
The episode stars Sherlock’s Andrew Scott – very much in the spotlight following the second season of Fleabag – alongside Damson Idris and Monica Dolan. Directed by James Hawes, who helmed “Hated In The Nation” back in season three, it’s described by Jones as being suffused with “a kind of soft dread”. It sounds like the sort of dystopian premise that
Black Mirror made its name with. The third episode – though both Brooker and Jones are keen to point out that a final running order has yet to be decided – is “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too”, directed by critically-acclaimed Norwegian filmmaker Anne Sewitsky. It will likely be the episode that draws the most public interest, given a spot of high-profile casting… As well as Madison Davenport and The Nice Guys’ Angourie Rice, it stars a certain Miley Cyrus. Yes, really.
“That episode is quite a romp, in many ways,” says Brooker. “It’s about celebrity, it’s about loneliness, it’s about music and it’s about digital assistants in the Alexa or Siri mould, so there’s quite a lot going on in it. It’s also quite bananas.”
getting Cyrus in the show was, in Jones’s words, “the dream” – but it wasn’t one that either of the duo really expected to come true.
“We sent her the script thinking, ‘As if she’s going to say yes to this,’ says Brooker. “We sent it in the full knowledge that it probably wouldn’t even be rebuffed – it would just be ignored. But we very quickly got word back to say that she was interested.”
Miley’s character is a former child star – something that clearly resonated with the actress and musician, who grew up in the spotlight playing the part of Hannah Montana.
“She had all sorts of insights and opinions on the script,” says Brooker. “We had a Skype call with her. She really related to the character and had some useful observations – and very quickly she was on board. I think people will be surprised at what she gets up to in the episode, and by her performance.”
Jones agrees: “I think it was quite an emotional experience for her. She brought lots to the script, but also I think she felt emotional reliving some of these things. She gives a very raw and vulnerable performance. I think it’s one of the best things she’s ever done.”
liGHTENiNG UP?
Black Mirror has a reputation for having a certain dark and cynical world view – something that Jones says occasionally dismays the producers, though given that its first ever episode was about the British Prime Minister being forced to have sex with a pig on live television, it’s hardly an unearned rep. Still, both Brooker and Jones reckon that the show is more nuanced and playful than is sometimes acknowledged. “I would say in the three stories in season five, there are a lot of very poignant moments and bleak moments, and nail-biting or sad moments,” says Brooker. “But there’s also a lot of playfulness in there. Our dark sense of humour is probably a little bit more on display this season.”
Could that be, perhaps, because the world outside has grown so overtly nightmarish over the last few years? Is it hard to keep up with a world of Brexit, Trump and climate change?
“Yeah, we’re the happy window that you can stare through as the real world goes to shit,” says Brooker. “We don’t tend to do stories about Brexit, or things like that. We feel like we sort of did Trump, in a way, with [season two’s] ‘The Waldo Moment’. It’s not like we’re ignoring that stuff though – we’re all living in it, and we’re reacting to it while coming up with story ideas.”
“It feeds through,” agrees Jones. “If you look at something like the portmanteau episode, ‘Black Museum’, it’s all backgrounded there. The good thing about Trump is that he makes
Black Mirror look like light relief!” But if that sounds worryingly like Black
Mirror may be losing its bracingly bleak edge, don’t be too concerned. “It’s not that we’ve suddenly gone all light and fluffy,” Brooker reassures us. “Nobody is singing ‘Chim chiminey, chim chiminey…’ I’ve got to finish the song now, haven’t I? ‘Chim chim cher-ee…’”
Black Mirror season five starts streaming on Netflix on 5 June.
There’s a lot of playfulness – our dark sense of humour is probably a little bit more on display this season