Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker reveals how Netflix reacted to his plans for a season 6 episode to parody the streaming service. Based on shows like The Twilight Zone, the anthology series provides dystopic views into some of humanity’s baser instincts and their intersection with technology. In an upcoming Black Mirror season 6 episode titled “Joan Is Awful,” the show will parody Netflix via an almost identical streaming platform dubbed “Streamberry.”
In a recent interview with Empire, Brooker reveals that when he initially sought Netflix’s permission for the show’s fictional streaming platform to mirror its real-life streaming host, he disappointingly did not experience any form of pushback. Instead, Brooker says Netflix came back “weirdly quickly” to give their blessing for the idea, robbing him of the opportunity to say he “just did it anyway.” Check out his comments below:
We just said, ‘We’ve got this streaming platform called ‘Streamberry’ in this episode… can we make it look like Netflix?’ They went away and came back quite quickly — weirdly quickly — and said, ‘Yeah, okay.’ There wasn’t any resistance to it, that I could tell. Which is a bit disappointing, because it would be good to be able to say ‘I just did it anyway, because I’m an anarchist!’ But no.
That episode is quite meta and weird anyway. It’s one thing me watching it in the edit, but the thought that people are going to be watching it on the Netflix platform itself? That’s quite bonkers.
Initially produced for Britain’s Channel 4 network prior to moving to Netflix, Black Mirror became renowned for critiquing technological trends long before it became a streaming hit. While the technology at the heart of each episode is often speculative in nature, it usually has direct parallels to technology’s contemporary uses and place within society. While it may seem like a bold move for Brooker to set his show’s sights on the very streaming service which currently hosts it, the meta nature of “Joan Is Awful” is merely a natural extension of the various themes Black Mirror has already been exploring over the previous five seasons.
Critiquing everything from social media and gaming to reality television and tracking technology, Black Mirror has not been shy about postulating some of the most sinister outcomes that might arise from the evolution of contemporary innovations. With streaming platforms such as Netflix holding such important sway over modern audiences and the way they engage with entertainment, it was only a matter of time before Brooker would be tempted to turn his attention a little closer to home.
Set to star Schitt’s Creek’s Annie Murphy, “Joan Is Awful” will follow Murphy’s character as she discovers her life is the subject of a streaming series in which she is portrayed by Salma Hayek. Whether the episode’s Streamberry streaming service will turn Black Mirror‘s Netflix parody into a scathing indictment remains to be seen, but the opportunities seem laden with storytelling potential.
Source: Empire
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
