The world is officially too dystopian to handle another season of Black Mirror. In a recent interview, show creator Charlie Brooker revealed that he’s not currently working on a new installment of his dark, satirical Netflix series, unsure viewers are really interested in more “stories about societies falling apart.”
“I’ve been busy, doing things. I don’t know what I can say about what I’m doing and not doing,” he told RadioTimes when asked about a sixth season of his Emmy-winning series. “At the moment, I don’t know what stomach there would be for stories about societies falling apart, so I’m not working away on one of those. I’m sort of keen to revisit my comic skill set, so I’ve been writing scripts aimed at making myself laugh.”
Black Mirror is a staple of Netflix’s repertoire, a thought-provoking series that has become shorthand for all the ways in which technology is actually making our lives worse. With the world caught in the thrall of the coronavirus, it makes sense that things are simply too terrible for Brooker to even think about a new season of the show, let alone sit down to write it. How nice of him to read the room.
Meanwhile, the rest of the film and TV industry is figuring out how to forge ahead in the wake of the pandemic. Jenji Kohan, the creator of Orange Is the New Black and another big name for Netflix, is working on a limited series literally titled Social Distance, a remotely filmed and produced project about self-isolation. “We’ve been inspired to create an anthology series that tells stories about the current moment we are living through—the unique, personal, deeply human stories that illustrate how we are living apart, together,” she and the rest of the show’s producers said in a joint statement.
Ted Sarandos, the chief content officer at Netflix, has also spoken about how the streamer is planning to get production going again in an essay for the Los Angeles Times. Some Netflix productions have already begun in South Korea, Japan, and Iceland, he noted, with an array of safety protocols in place. “On sets, the usual buffets have been replaced with boxed meals,” he wrote. “There is one makeup artist, who uses single-use, disposable applicators for all makeup. Every two or three hours a production assistant announces a break so people on set can wash their hands, and alcohol is used to wipe down doorknobs, loading areas, and the craft table.”
Alas, Brooker’s hesitancy to write a new season of Black Mirror means it’ll still be quite some time before the world gets a new season of the series. Perhaps that’s for the best.
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