Black Mirror Sets Official Return to Netflix for New Season
Overview & Key Takeaways
Black Mirror's eighth season is currently in production for Netflix, with series creator Charlie Brooker returning to write and produce.
Get ready for more dystopian science fiction because an eighth season of Black Mirror is in production for Netflix. Variety reports that the show began filming this summer, but has no confirmed release date. Series creator Charlie Brooker is back, and he will write and executive produce the series alongside Bisha K. Ali.
“Black Mirror will return, and hopefully it’ll be more Black Mirror than ever,” Brooker said in an interview with Netflix’s Tudum when the series was renewed this January. “I can confirm that Black Mirror will return, just in time for reality to catch up with it. So, that’s exciting. That chunk of my brain has already been activated and is whirring away,” he added.
Black Mirror is an anthology sci-fi series that began in 2011 on the British network Channel 4 before moving to Netflix. The show largely focuses on near-future dystopian scenarios, tapping into contemporary anxieties about our relationship with technology; "black mirror" refers to phone and computer screens. The series currently spans 33 episodes and a special across seven seasons. There’s also the experimental interactive film *Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (*which was admittedly more interesting in theory than practice).
Over the years, the show has divided critics, with some praising its trenchant observations on modern society while others find its messaging ham-fisted and numbingly cynical. The series' anthology format certainly adds to these divided opinions, since it is easy to hold both views at once: some episodes are definitely better than others.
Black Mirror has won multiple times at the Emmys, and “San Junipero,” “USS Callister,” and (somehow) Black Mirror: Bandersnatch took home the Outstanding Television Movie award for consecutive years from 2017 to 2019. Since then, some argue the series has declined with its fifth and sixth seasons. Considering that the phrase “It’s like we’re living in a Black Mirror episode” has become increasingly common, it will be interesting to see if the series can stay ahead of the times.
