Charlie Brooker’s techno-horror anthology series Black Mirror is returning to Netflix soon, and although an exact date hasn’t been announced, the network released a trailer Saturday for the new season’s first episode, “Arkangel.” Judging from the trailer, it looks like Brooker and company have really gone dark this time: “Arkangel” is set in a world where people make television shows about people sticking needles in children’s skulls.
It’s easy to laugh this off as dystopian nonsense, but consider: the first season of Black Mirror made the unlikely prediction that we would one day live in a futuristic world where people would make television shows about prime ministers having sex with pigs. And then, right around the time Black Mirror’s first season came out, someone made a television show about a prime minister having sex with a pig. If that weren’t frightening enough, several of the show’s other dark predictions have come true, from its eerie vision of a futuristic world where people make television shows about social media-run dystopias to its cynical “Christmas Special,” which sounded the alarm in vain about a fast-approaching nightmare world where Jon Hamm appeared in Christmas specials.
Given that track record, we need to seriously prepare ourselves for a future where actors like Rosemarie DeWitt will star in television programs in which someone sticks a needle in a little girl’s skull, possibly directed by Jodie Foster from a script by Charlie Brooker. We ignore this chilling warning at our own peril!
