John Delmenico
Black Mirror put on hold indefinitely as the world is now too much like Black Mirror
It probably comes as no surprise to anyone who has watched UK satirist Charlie Brooker’s smash modern take on the Twilight Zone “Black Mirror” that the modern age has managed to make it redundant. With a show featuring such storylines as a British Prime Minister having sexual relations with a pig, a foul mouthed anti-establishement Reality TV star running for office and proving a nightmare success, or a phone app that allows citizens to be given a rating (yes all of those have since come true) the show itself is now more a mirror of reality than it ever intended to be.
While there’s obviously room for more stories on how things could yet get worse, the show’s creator Brooker thinks it’s just not what we need right now. “At the moment, I don’t know what stomach there would be for stories about societies falling apart,” he recently told Radio Times, “so I’m not working away on any on of those. I’m sort of keen to revisit my comic skill set, so I’ve been writing scripts aimed at making myself laugh.”
Some fans have suggested that the show could instead try a different angle, given the show’s most highly rated episode ‘San Junipero’ unexpectedly presented fans with a twist happy ending. However, with the rights to the show currently split between writer/creator Brooker and his former production company, who are reportedly not on good terms, humanity is most likely just going to have to keep watching the news to get their fix of nightmarish sounding stories for the foreseeable future.