James Veysey/BAFTA/Shutterstock What, you're not in the mood to watch folks implant electrodes into their eyeballs and rate every human interaction? Or see a pack of robo-dogs revolt against their human masters and devour your friends? Charlie Brooker, Black Mirror's godfather, also does not. What a turn of events! The creator and showrunner of the dystopian anthology series, whose writing on society and technology has been known to induce the need for Zoloft, stated in a recent interview that the coronavirus outbreak has rendered him incapable of even considering fresh episode ideas. âI've been busy, doing stuff. I'm not sure what I can say about my actions and inactions,â he told Radio Times. âAt the moment, I'm not sure I have the stomach for tales about society collapsing, so I'm not working on one. I'm kind of itching to rediscover my comedy abilities, so I've started producing screenplays geared at amusing myself.â Or, if you're in the mood to swoon, that one episode of Black Mirror about finding love in a virtual world.
With the release of Black Mirror on DVD later this month, we spoke with Mr Brooker about the process of creating the series, as well as gaming and his next projects.
The natural place to begin, I think, is with Black Mirror, which, as I understand it, will be released on DVD later this month.
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If anything other than dystopian cynicism is at work, is Black Mirror a misunderstood project? Is he bothered, for example, by the degree to which the film's title has become a byword for any vaguely scary technological event? "I don't mind because it's free advertising," he explains. "Anytime anything fucked occurs, people discuss the program." "If Samsung releases a phone that explodes, people will exclaim, 'Wow, that's very Black Mirror.' Therefore, if something is terrible for the planet, it is almost certainly excellent for the brand!"
That is extremely intimidating. I've met Vince Gilligan and David Simon [creator of The Wire], and I would never place myself on their level. As a bit of a control freak, I write the majority of the episodes and am in charge of all the details. Five seasons of Breaking Bad must have been mentally exhausting – and he directed many of them. I'm awestruck by that degree of talent. Today, how simple is it to have a television program made?
