We’ve known Black Mirror was coming back for a while, but Netflix has just released the episode titles and plot synopses for season six. The episodes debut in June, and I’m incredibly excited, although I know the show will likely fill me with dread and distress as it always does. Black Mirror is one of the darkest and sharpest satires of our time, with a heavy focus on technology and spanning multiple genres, including horror and romance.
Black Mirror has always been highly relevant, but it feels more necessary than ever right now. We’re in a time where The Onion’s headlines are becoming real headlines unironically published by big news sites, where major games journalism outlets post headlines and people reply, “I thought this was Hard Drive Mag at first”. The Simpsons somehow predicted that the President would get indicted, but all everybody could talk about was the Barbie movie. Elon Musk bought Twitter and ran it into the ground, being laughed at all the way. It would all be very funny if it wasn’t so scary.
It’s especially relevant now because of its focus on technology. I’m a writer, and so are many of my friends, all of whom are freaking out because they think AI will take their jobs. I know for a fact that ChatGPT can’t write as well as I can, nor can it do research or interview people, but corporations don’t care if it means they can get page hits. Does it make me nervous? Yes. Thinking about technological advances generally make me nervous, though, because it seems that humanity keeps pushing forward with no consideration for the ethical implications of the things they’re creating.
That’s why Black Mirror resonates so deeply with so many – it tells dystopian stories about what happens when you push forward technologically without regard for the consequences. It feeds on your fear, but in a way that is smart, often sad, and sometimes even sweet. It tells human stories about what it means to adapt to new things and refers to relevant, real-life events to make things especially painful to watch.
Season six of the dystopian sci-fi anthology series seems to be covering a number of topics, including the ethics of biopics and streaming services, as well as invasive paparazzi. The trailers and synopses are, understandably, fairly obscure, but I’m looking forward to letting some actors I love send me spiralling into existential despair. This is all wishful thinking, but I’m hoping that people will remember what Black Mirror stands for and realise they’re the ones contributing to those potential futures.
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I think about Fifteen Million Merits a lot, and how it examines the way we’re forced to criticise the system we live in while benefitting the system, and it reminds me to be conscious of who is profiting off my work. I think about White Bear and the creation of spectacle, and the cruelty of people when it’s easy to dehumanise others. I think about San Junipero, where technology lets two women be together after they die. The technology we’re developing is full of possibilities, and that’s terrifying. Black Mirror knows that, too.