Netflix Is Making More 'Black Mirror'

The first two seasons of the terrific UK series Black Mirror are on Netflix, and now the streaming giant is reportedly making a deal to bring more of the show to audiences.

Netflix isn't adding the 2014 Christmas Special (yet, sadly) but is doing something even more exciting: making new episodes. We've heard rumors in the past of a possible continuation of the TV series. Now a report says Netflix and series creator Charlie Brooker are in the process of making a deal to produce new Black Mirror episodes.

The Radio Times says,

The streaming giant is understood to have agreed terms with Brooker and his independent production company House of Tomorrow to make "multiple episodes" of the dystopian drama, according to sources involved in the negotiations.

Black Mirror first premiered with a three-episode season on Channel 4 in 2011, with the second season following in 2013 and the Christmas Special in 2014. That makes seven episodes total of the show, which sets it into Sherlock territory. Unlike that series, however, Black Mirror episodes tend to be only 44 minutes long. (With two exceptions.)

The series is the best modern equivalent to The Twilight Zone, using classic ideas, surprising plots, savage wit and brutal satire to explore the ways that modern technology affects our lives, our choices, and our morality.

Black Mirror stories are shocking and effective, in part because they present outlandish ideas that don't always seem so far-fetched in our current world? What if a chip allowed us to rewind and project memories? What if online relics of a person's history could be used to create a virtual version of that person? Or what if a criminal could coerce a politician to perform an obscene act on live television?

Or, as Brooker has said,

If technology is a drug–and it does feel like a drug–then what, precisely, are the side-effects? This area–between delight and discomfort–is where Black Mirror, my new drama series, is set. The "black mirror" of the title is the one you'll find on every wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the cold, shiny screen of a TV, a monitor, a smartphone.

The series doesn't have a consistent cast, with each episode populated with a great deal of talent. Episodes have featured Hayley Atwell, Domhnall Gleeson, Jon Hamm, Toby Kebbell, Rory Kenner, Lindsay Duncan, Jessica Brown Findlay, and many more.

This is an early report, so we don't know how many episodes might be in the offing, or who would star in them, much less what any of the plots will be. Netflix has not yet commented.