30 Facts About Black Mirror Every True Fan Should Know
If you can't name the title font, you can't sit here.
Maybe you've watched every Black Mirror episode. Maybe you've even obsessively rewatched every trailer that's been released for the show's fourth season, which arrives on Netflix December 29. But until you know which font is used in the opening credits, what famous horror writer is a fan of the show, and which episode of the show might be a movie one day, you can't call yourself a master of Black Mirror trivia. Read on for the 30 facts every Black Mirror super-fan needs to know.
The series got its name from the black screens that surround us every day.
While there are many potential interpretations of the title, creator Charlie Brooker has confirmed that it's inspired by the look of a switched-off screen. He explains, "Because any TV, any LCD, any iPhone, any iPad — something like that — if you just stare at it, it looks like a black mirror, and there's something cold and horrifying about that."
The show has attracted celebrities as writers and directors.
Jodie Foster is set to direct a season-four episode ("Arkangel") and Parks and Rec's Rashida Jones and Michael Schur co-wrote the season-three premiere, "Nosedive."
Bryce Dallas Howard's episode inspired her to check her Uber rating.
After Howard appeared in "Nosedive," set in a world dictated by social media ratings, she was inspired to ask an Uber driver what her ranking was — and horrified to learn she was "only" a 4.8.
It took a while to determine the details of the sex act performed in the series premiere.
The series premiere, "The National Anthem," is best known for its (no pun intended) climax, in which the British Prime Minister has sex with a pig on TV in order to satisfy a kidnapper's ransom demand. But it wasn't always a pig: Brooker explains, "We went all around the farmyard. At one point, we were thinking of a giant wheel of cheese." Horrifying.
That episode weirdly predicted a future story in British politics.
Several years after "The National Anthem" aired, allegations emerged that David Cameron, the IRL British Prime Minister, had placed a private part into the mouth of a dead pig as a part of a fraternity initiation. But Brooker claims that was merely a coincidence, and he had no knowledge of Cameron's alleged past acts while writing the episode.
Jon Hamm was a big fan of the series before he was cast on its Christmas special.
Jon Hamm's appearance on the show came about because he was such a big fan of it he asked his agent to arrange a meeting with Brooker. Jon explains, "It came about in this very odd way, with me asking my agent if I could meet Mr. Brooker. I didn't know he was even working on a third series or a Christmas special or anything, it was simply that I really liked his work and really wanted to meet the guy."
Charlie Brooker used his real-life experience to write "Hated in the Nation."
In 2004, Brooker wrote a satirical editorial calling for the assassination of then U.S. president George W. Bush. The barrage of criticism he received inspired the theme of public, large-scale backlash that "Hated in the Nation" explores.
The show is heavily influenced by The Twilight Zone.
From the beginning, Brooker was inspired by The Twilight Zone's anthology-based approach to telling spooky stories. "Every week you were plunged into a slightly different world," Brooker says. "There was a signature tone to the stories, the same dark chocolate coating — but the filling was always a surprise."
A Black Mirror episode is set to become a movie. (Maybe.)
In 2013, Robert Downey Jr.'s production company optioned the rights to "The Entire History of You" with the goal of making it into a film with Warner Brothers. But in 2016, Brooker admitted that he isn't sure what the status of the project was, or whether the adaptation will go forward at all.
Get ready: There's a lot of variety to season 4.
Each episode will tackle a different genre, including a dark noir filmed in black and white ("Metalhead"), and an episode marking Black Mirror's first trip into space ("USS Callister").
Despite the series' new home on Netflix, Charlie Brooker doesn't recommend you binge the show.
Netflix may be the biggest binge-watching hub on the internet, but Brooker doesn't recommend watching Black Mirror episodes one after the other. "I don’t know that we’re really much of a binge-watching show, because it’s a bit like being hit by a car," he says. "How many times can you get hit by a car in one day?"
Charlie Brooker's roots are in comedy.
Brooker got his start working on British shows such as The 11 O'Clock Show and Nathan Barley, and he doesn't see Black Mirror as the dark dystopia many viewers do. He thinks of it as dark comedy, saying, "I think that doesn’t often translate in the U.S."
The series won an Emmy award in September 2017.
Last September, Black Mirror won the Emmy award for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special, based on the merit of the critically acclaimed episode "San Junipero." (Black Mirror also won an International Emmy for its first season.)
The visual effects team went the extra mile to make the monster in "Playtest" horrifying.
The half-spider, half-human hybrid monster in the second episode of season three was one of the most chilling images of its season, but Black Mirror's visual effects team initially had concerns about how to ensure the monster was creepy, rather than funny. To up the scare factor, the team consulted the work of experimental artist Chris Cunningham. (Warning: the making-of video is somehow EVEN CREEPIER than the episode.)
Stephen King is a fan of the show.
Black Mirror's creative team must have been thrilled to learn that the King of Horror himself is a big fan of the series. In 2014, Stephen King tweeted, "Loved BLACK MIRROR. Terrifying, funny, intelligent. It's like THE TWILIGHT ZONE, only rated R."
Ross Gellar predicted the plot of "San Junipero" in an episode of Friends.
No, seriously. As Buzzfeed has pointed out, Ross put forth the idea that by the year 2030, it would be possible to add human thoughts and memories to a computer and live forever as a machine — the same technology behind the episode's twist ending.
That '80s hair and makeup in "San Junipero" isn't just spot on — it's award winning.
Tanya Lodge won a BAFTA for her work on Black Mirror in 2017.
"San Junipero" has so much cultural cachet that it's been referenced on other TV shows.
There's a Saturday Night Live sketch that references "San Junipero," a reference on the CW's Riverdale, and an Orange is the New Black crossover mashup.
Charlie Brooker and co-showrunner and producer Annabel Jones have teased a "San Junipero" sequel, but not in the way you might think.
When asked whether they'd consider doing a sequel to the series' most popular episode, Brooker and Jones said they would, but not necessarily as a traditional TV episode. Brooker said, "Like, a thing. An experience." And Jones added, "Like, for real." SOLD.
The technology behind one of the series' most poignant episodes actually exists.
In "Be Right Back," Martha uses her partner's digital past to create a version of him after his death — first as a text bot, then via phone calls, and finally through a life-sized android. The seeds of this technology have already been explored by developer Eugenia Kuyda, who coded and created a digital version of a friend of hers who'd passed away.
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