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Black Mirrormay be known as one of the most beloved sci-fi series of all time, but a scientist had lots of criticism of the science behind one of the anthology's most eerie episodes. "Metalhead", a realistic season 4 episode of the highly popular Netflix show, featured a society taken over by hyper-violent robot dogs.

"Metalhead" holds a moderately fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 68%. The episode is shot in black-and-white and has an extremely bleak ending. The episode stars Maxine Peake, Jake Davies, and Clint Dyer, and was directed by David Slade from a script by Charlie Brooker, who also serves as Black Mirror's creator.

In an Insidervideo, a scientist named Ayanna Howard, who serves as the Dean of Engineering at Ohio State University, critiqued "Metalhead" for certain inaccuracies. Howard explained that the movement of the robots in the Black Mirror episode is realistic, but all the actions the beings do...

Every new season of Black Mirror launches a feverish debate over which episode was the best. Emmy voters gave three consecutive Best TV Movie awards to "San Junipero" (2017), "USS Callister" (2018), and "Bandersnatch" (2019), but how does the entire fandom rate the best and worst installments? We've consulted the cumulative IMDb scores for all seasons and have come up with the definitive ranking of Black Mirror episodes. Can you guess the No. 1 choice?

Season 7 was released in April 2025 and brought the total number of episodes and specials to 34. Created by Charlie Brooker, the sci-fi anthology series began on the U.K.'s Channel 4 in 2011 before moving to Netflix (and becoming a worldwide phenomenon) in 2016. The show took a four-year break after Season 5, thanks in part to the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, but that just gave people even more time to relive their favorite episodes from the beginning.

See‘Black Mirror’ star Jimmi Simpson...

TV dramas like Black Mirror have gone mainstream, proving there's a wider audience for dystopian horror. Series creator Charlie Brooker said he's now jealous of Severance because he keeps hearing that it’s a "much better" show.

Charlie Brooker said he's not watching Severance; he's heard enough people asserting that's a better show. "There's certainly a show I haven't watched that's made me jealous. People keep telling me to watch Severance, and I haven't let myself do it because they also say to me, "Oh, you'll love it. It's a bit Black Mirror-y, but it's much better,'" he told THR. It's been 13 years since Brooker delved deep into dystopian horror; Black Mirror Season 1 instantly gained a cult following as an unapologetically dark TV show. Severance gained its fan base similarly, but quickly broke into the mainstream in Season 2.

Black Mirror and Severance have one more thing in common.

Breaking news: Charlie Brooker is developing a new piece of tech that will redefine reality.

The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday received in their inbox the ultimate Easter egg to promote season seven: A leaked internal and confidential email from Tckr Systems Communications preparing the Black Mirror creator for the launch of a new product called Nubbin.

Black Mirror viewers will recognize the Nubbin as the headpiece that many characters across six (and soon to be seven) seasons of the Netflix dystopian series place on their temple before they head into some sort of immersive escapade with their virtual consciousness.

(If you haven’t guessed by now, this is not a real product announcement. But it is a real Easter egg… so, let’s keep going!)

Included in the “leaked” email is a live website introducing the implantable technology, while also making users aware of its risks. [Writers note: Anyone interested in Nubbin should check out the FAQs section, and then go watch season six episode “Joan Is Awful” before engaging with this product.]

There’s also a...

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch utilized a classic trope that lets viewers pick their path. The film uses Post-Modernism to toy with the idea of free will, immersing viewers in a fictional world. Bandersnatch's use of the classic trope, as well as more modern themes, created something very special.

Black Mirror has grown from strength to strength since airing on TV back in 2011. Known for its unusual anthology structure and dystopian themes, the show became even more prevalent when it found its new home on Netflix in 2016. Alongside its eerie depiction of the future, Black Mirror is known for pushing the boundaries between fiction and reality, making it one of the boldest sci-fi series ever created.

In 2018, writer Charlie Brooker decided to expand the show even further, creating a bizarre interactive film called Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. Though it follows the same concept as a traditional "Choose Your Own Adventure" novel, this film...

Black Mirror is a British anthology series that first aired in 2011. The science-fiction series uses advanced technology as a backdrop for episodes that range from horror and thriller to drama and dark comedy, and the boldness of the short stories made the series quickly stand out. After two seasons, Netflix purchased the show and started releasing all episodes of each season simultaneously. Black Mirror Season 7 is expected in 2025, which will include a sequel to a famous Season 4 episode.

Although all seasons of Black Mirror are good, some impressed fans more than others with the overall quality of the episodes. A common opinion is that the show had better seasons before it became a Netflix commission, with Season 1, Episode 1, "The National Anthem" being one of the most memorable episodes of the entire series. However, recent episodes prove that Black Mirror is still as good as ever and continues to push boundaries...

Deadline is reporting on hundreds more layoffs incoming at one of the VFX top firms, Dneg, which is the VFX company behind major blockbusters like Dune: Part Two, Oppenheimer, The Last of Us, and many more. Because of AI?

no. of VFX Artists per mega project Dneg: Top-tier VFX company

Dneg (formerly known as Double Negative and stylized as D N E G) is a British visual effects, computer animation, and stereo conversion studio that was founded in 1998 in London, and rebranded as Dneg in 2014 after a merger with an Indian VFX company Prime Focus; it was named after the letters “D” and “Neg” from their former name. The company has received seven Academy Awards for its work on the films Inception, Interstellar, Ex Machina, Blade Runner 2049, First Man, Tenet, and Dune. In addition, Dneg has received BAFTA awards for Inception, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2,...

Quick Links "The Witness" and "Shut Up & Dance" Send Characters on the Run From Criminals "Beyond the Aquila Rift" and "Playtest" Question the Morality of Simulations "Pop Squad" and "Metalhead" Show the Lengths Humans Will Go to Protect Family "Sonnie's Edge" and "Mazey Day" Reflect Who the Real Monster Is

This article mentions abuse and suicide. It also contains spoilers.

Black Mirror's limited series format has been successful, with quality episodes over quantity. Love, Death & Robots is a sci-fi anthology with adult animation, similar to Black Mirror. Several Love, Death & Robots episodes parallel plotlines fans have enjoyed in Black Mirror.

Black Mirror's most recent Season 6 gave viewers six mind-bending new episodes in 2023. The show's first two seasons were originally shown on the British network Channel 4, with only three episodes each. Charlie Brooker, the creator of the show, has said this will be the style moving forward. Audiences respect quality over quantity,...

Dark Harvest, directed by David Slade, is a new horror film that has gone under the radar despite its potential to become a Halloween favorite. Slade's career has primarily focused on TV work, but he has returned to movies for Dark Harvest, which is based on a cult 2006 horror novel. The film has received a positive response with a 71% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but it has not received much promotion or fanfare. However, its unique premise and setting make it likely to develop a cult following.

Dark Harvest is a new horror film that is practically guaranteed to become a Halloween horror favorite - so why is it currently flying under the radar? Director David Slade first broke through with the deeply unsettlingly thriller Hard Candy in 2005 and quickly followed up with gory vampire movie 30 Days of Night. For a time, it appeared Slade might become the next big horror filmmaker,...

David Slade, the director of the Emmy and BAFTA-award winning “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch,” has signed with 42, the Los Angeles and London-based management and production company. The company will manage the filmmaker, who also joins 42’s commercials offering OB42 for representation in the U.K.

Slade’s previous work has received critical acclaim, with his first feature “Hard Candy” winning the jury and audience first prize at the 2005 Sitges Film Festival of Horror, before being acquired by Lionsgate out of Sundance. He also shown a flare for studio-driven and franchise films, such as Summit’s “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” and “30 Days of Night” for Sony. Most recently, Slade served as director on the upcoming MGM/Amazon feature adaptation of the Norman Partridge novel “Dark Harvest,” which is set to be released this year.

Slade made his start in the industry by directing music videos for artists such as Muse,...

Generally, anthology shows should tell independent stories, and Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror – in its best episodes – offers some all-timers. Each episode centers around unique tales that mostly show the implications of technological advancements. However, several Easter eggs throughout the series suggest that all the events might be connected.

Season 6, specifically, is littered with shout-outs to several other plots. There is a possibility that they will all lead to a major reveal in the future since when he asked about it in the past, Brooker appeared to confirm a connection, stating, "I think the rule is that when a character says something that explicitly refers to something else, it's canonical."

Related: 10 Best Sci-Fi Anthology Series Of All Time

The Streamberry Streaming Service

The Season 6 premiere, “Joan Is Awful,” introduces a Netflix-like fictional streaming service called Streamberry. Instead of random titles, some point to the Black Mirror's past or previous events.

This article contains spoilers for the Black Mirror episode “Demon 79.”

Black Mirror Season 6 Episode 5

Here’s another dubiously happy ending to add to Black Mirror’s growing pile: Girl summons demon, girl fails to commit the required number of human sacrifices to avert the apocalypse, demon asks her to spend eternity with him cast into a matterless void, girl says she’ll give it a go.

A matterless void, as protagonist Nida (Anjana Vasan) dryly notes, isn’t a million miles away from the life she was leading at the start of “Demon 79”, which was co-written by Charlie Brooker with new exec producer, Ms. Marvel and Loki’s Bisha K. Ali.

A young Anglo-Indian woman living alone in a drab flat, working a thankless department store job and having to wordlessly absorb the drip-drip-drip of ambient racism in 1979 Britain, Nida’s world didn’t have much to recommend it.

Enter: Satanic minion Gaap.

[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for all five episodes of “Black Mirror” Season 6.]

For a moment, it looked like “Black Mirror” Season 6 was going to douse its Trojan Horse in gasoline and drop a match. The first episode of the anthology series’ new, long-gestating batch puts Netflix in its sights from the outset, using the platform’s typeface and interface to tell a story about, well, faces. “Joan is Awful” is another in the show’s “ripped from the Wired headlines” approach to technology. After a relatively long time away, its welcome back message boils down to the idea that anyone can be content, with or without their permission.

It’s a potent idea for a changing age, one now filled with massive sectors of the entertainment industry undergoing a work stoppage to fight the very trends that this episode puts forth as a potential reality. It’s also messy in its execution, true to recent “Black Mirror” form, capped...

After taking a four-year break, Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror returns this weekend. The creator and writer of Netflix’s Emmy-winning anthology series has been vocal about his reasons for the long wait, saying essentially that the world itself felt too dystopian for his dystopian series.

When announcing its return with season six, releasing Thursday, Brooker said he set out to once again reinvent the series by “deliberately upending some of my own core assumptions about what to expect” from a Black Mirror episode. The result is five episodes — “Joan Is Awful” (which centers around a renamed Netflix-like streamer), “Loch Henry,” “Beyond the Sea,” “Mazey Day” and “Demon 79” — that will no doubt continue to subvert audience expectations.

And despite delighting viewers in the past with surprisingly hopeful episodes, like the Emmy-winning “San Junipero,” Brooker says the new installments are… bleak.

“I sort of circled back to some classically Black Mirror stories as well,...

Warning: contains spoilers for Black Mirror seasons one to five.

Black Mirror’s infamous first episode set a tone of comically absurd cruelty. In ‘The National Anthem’, the British prime minister is forced into an act of bestiality in order to save a kidnapped British princess. The cruel twist in the tale is that the princess was actually released before he carried out a sex act with a pig live on television, but because everyone was completely focused on watching his torture, nobody realised.

As the tech-focused anthology show has gone on, creator Charlie Brooker has leaned into Black Mirror’s reputation for downbeat, tragic or horrifying endings. On the whole, it’s been a successful approach. Some of its most memorable episodes have been those with dramatically cruel twists. The revelation that the protagonist we’ve been rooting for in ‘White Bear’ is a child murderer undergoing an extremely...

Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker has warned that one of the speculative sci-fi premises from an episode has already come true. The series, which is a techno-horror anthology where every episode tells a different story focusing on the dark side of modern advancements, originally premiered on the British network Channel 4 in 2011. Since season 3 the show has been produced by Netflix, and after a hiatus of four years it will be returning to the platform with a five-episode season 6 on June 15.

In their latest physical publication, Empire Magazine sat down for an interview with Brooker ahead of Black Mirror season 6. During their conversation, they discussed the series' reputation for prescience, though Brooker was quite to wave that idea away, citing a situation where the show was reported to predict robotic police dogs in the episode "Metalhead" when it was actually inspired by footage of those same dogs. However, he did...

Technology is developing at such a rapid pace. Inventions that were merely concepts in science fiction a few decades ago are now accessible to the general public. In some cases, maybe it was for the best that these innovations remained fictional. Black Mirror explores the frightening possibilities of what might happen if technology is regarded above human life.

The anthology series created by Charlie Booker will be returning to Netflix for its sixth season this June, and judging by the trailer, it looks a lot better than their original proposal for season six when they rolled out bus stop ads with mirrors and the tagline “6th Season. Live Now, everywhere” during the early months of the pandemic. In anticipation for the new batch of episodes, we'll be examining five times Black Mirror has predicted the future over the past dozen years, sometimes more accurately than others. Let's just hope this...

“Black Sands” producer Glassriver, one of Scandinavia’s fastest-growing production powerhouses, is teaming with a powerful writing duo, Ragnar Bragason and Snjolaug Ludviksdottir, to create “Magaluf.”

Currently in development, “Magaluf” marks a high-profile projects at late June’s Conecta Fiction in Spain, where it competes in the forum’s CoPro Series section.

One of Iceland’s most consistently prized top writers and directors and creator and head writer on “Magaluf,” Bragason’s credits include movie 2013’s “Metalhead,” which wonbest Nordic film at Göteborg, and in series, “The Night Shift,” part of a larger hit dramedy franchise, and the admired international sales hit “Prisoners.”

A stand-up comedian, Ludviksdottir co-writes. “She is a wonderful writer and writes three of the six episodes and on top of that ensuring that the female characters really come to life in a meaningful way,” said Glassriver co-owner Hörður Rúnarsson, a producer on the show with Arnbjorg...

Acclaimed actress Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir, best known for “Woman at War,” is set to star in writer/director Ragnar Bragason’s dark comedy “The Garden.”

Currently in post-production and to be pitched at Haugesund’s New Nordic Films over Aug. 20-23, “The Garden” is Bragason’s sixth feature and his first one since the 2013 Toronto entry “Metalhead.”

“I did two plays in between and the TV series “Fangar” (“Prisoners” in English”),” said the director, known as well for his twin features “Children”/”Parents”, and the ‘Shift’ TV series. Based on Bragason’s own 2012 stage play “The Garden,” which ran for a year at the Reykjavik City Theatre to a sold-out crowd, the picture is a social realist satire set in Reykjavik in a large apartment block full of immigrants.

Sectarian Indiana Jónsdóttir lives off the public welfare state, and in her small private garden, tends to her award-winning laburnum tree. Johanna – her neighbor,...

“Oh no, I wouldn’t do that. Why would you want to interact with television?” That was David Slade‘s response when the “Black Mirror” showrunners Annabel Jones and Charlie Brooker approached him to direct their interactive movie “Bandersnatch,” Slade recounts to Gold Derby on the red carpet for a recent Emmy event hosted by Netflix. Slade explains, “The bad news was no one had ever done this before and the good news was that no one had ever done this before.”

SEEour previous interview with producer Russell McLean.

“I’m not going to make it look like your TV show. Is that okay?” That was Slade’s response when the showrunners approached him to direct an episode of the fourth season a year earlier. His episode titled “Metalhead” upended the “Black Mirror” esthetic as its only black-and-white installment to date and “Bandersnatch” represented another departure for the anthology — and television altogether.

(Warning: This post contains major spoilers for “Black Mirror” Season 5)

The fifth season of “Black Mirror” dropped Wednesday, giving fans three fresh stories about how technology can screw with your life in the most unexpected of ways. And with the new came nods to the old, as there are several ways in which Season 5’s episodes connect to the rest of the Charlie Brooker-created anthology series’ universe.

TheWrap has rounded up all the shout-outs to the show’s first four seasons that can be found in the trio of new installments which include Miley Cyrus’ “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too,” the Andrew Scott-starring “Smithereens” and the Anthony Mackie and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II-led “Striking Vipers.”

See our list below and feel free to chime in with any we might have missed.

Also Read: Why 'Black Mirror' Season 5 Has Just Three Episodes

“Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too”

1. “Sea...

With the arrival of “Striking Vipers,” “Smithereens” and “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too,” it’s time to re-rank every episode of “Black Mirror,” going back to the first episode, “National Anthem.” There are no bad “Black Mirror” episodes, so we ranked them from good to mind-blowing.

23. Season 2, Episode 3: “The Waldo Moment”

Many have made the now-trite observation that this episode, about a cartoon bear who insults his way into higher office, predicted the rise of Donald Trump. Okay. This episode does a good job of again showing that we bend too easily before the loud and obnoxious. But “Black Mirror” usually had more novel things to say.

22. Season 3, Episode 6: “Hated in the Nation”

It’s disappointing that Season 3 — in which “Black Mirror” produced some of the best television, well, ever — ended on such a so-so note. This story about a killer hashtag and Terminator bees has shades of “Sharknado.

Captain America: Civil War star Anthony Mackie and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman) have been cast in the upcoming fifth season of Netflix’s Emmy-winning anthology sci-fi series Black Mirror, Deadline has learned.

Created and written by Charlie Brooker, each episode of Black Mirror employs a different cast of actors to explore themes linked to the collision of mankind with the unforgiving technology they have created.

Season four featured episodes including space thriller “USS Callister” starring Breaking Bad‘s Jesse Plemons, romcom “Hang The DJ”, Maxine Peake-fronted black and white nightmare “Metalhead”, Iceland-set “Crocodile”, Jodie Foster-directed “Arkangel” and Colm McCarthy’s “Black Museum”.

Netflix, which has been extremely quiet about the upcoming season, wouldn’t comment.

Mackie will next be seen in the second season of Netflix’s Altered Carbon as the lead Takeshi Kovacs. He most recently was seen on the big screen in Miss Bala and The Hate U Give.

Black metal has never been a purely musical phenomenon, nor was it meant to be. Even the most ardent of Mayhem, Darkthrone, or Gorgoroth fans would concede that its practitioners aren’t virtuosos so much as vessels for an anti-establishment worldview that demonizes Christianity the way punk rock savaged Reagan and Thatcher. If you know anything at all about the genre, it probably isn’t that “Transilvanian Hunger” is a pretty solid album — it’s that, back in the early ‘90s, a group of disaffected Norwegians earned notoriety by burning down centuries-old churches and committing grisly murders.

So don’t be surprised that “Lords of Chaos” offers less insight into Mayhem’s songwriting process than it does into the relationship between Øystein Aarseth and Varg Vikernes (Emory Cohen). The friends-turned-rivals, who performed in the foundational band Mayhem together, have emerged as the most infamous figures from that era — especially because...

By now, chances are you've heard about Black Mirror's new offering: a standalone "choose your own adventure" film called Bandersnatch. Yep, it's exactly what it sounds like: you're not just a passive viewer when it comes to our hero, Stefan. Instead, you must make choices along the way that inevitably affect his fate, as well as the ending you get to witness. The finished product is surely unlike anything ever before seen in the entertainment world, and it's so much more than that, too. It runs smoothly, it's an incredible story, and there are reportedly something to the tune of one trillion different permutations based on the varying choices you can make and paths you can take.

If that all sounds very complicated, it's because it is. To pull off Bandersnatch, Netflix had to develop new tools and programs, and they had to double the budget and the production...

(Warning: This post contains spoilers for “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” that you may be exposed to even if you’ve watched it, due to how many different versions of the interactive film exist.)

“Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” dropped on Netflix at 12 p.m. Pt/3 a.m. Et on Friday — and a bunch of (totally not crazy) people stayed up to experience the Charlie Brooker-created anthology series’ very first “Choose Your Own Adventure” installment as soon as it launched.

If you weren’t willing to sacrifice your sleep to see what all the fuss was about, don’t worry, because TheWrap went through several viewings of the interactive story that follows ’80s programmer Stefan (Fionn Whitehead) and his attempts to adapt the fantasy novel “Bandersnatch” into a video game. And in the wee small hours, we unearthed tons of references to previous “Black Mirror” episodes buried inside the movie.

Also Read: 'Black...

[This story contains spoilers from Netflix’s Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.]

There is one Easter egg that is very easy to spot in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. The computer game "Metl Hedd," which features a robotic creature, is the best-seller at Tuckersoft, the company that serves as the backdrop for the Netflix interactive film. Bandersnatch, a stand-alone offering of Charlie Brooker's sci-fi anthology series, dropped on Dec. 28 and launched the streaming giant into the new way of TV storytelling.

The "Metl Hedd" reference is a clear nod to the Black Mirror season four episode "Metalhead." The black-and-white ...

[Editor’s note: This review will be split into two sections — the first spoiler-free, the second containing some spoilers for “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.”]

Bad news for anyone who likes to sprawl on the couch when they watch “Black Mirror” — the new interactive film just launched by Netflix is not designed for passive viewing, but it is a lot of fun. “Bandersnatch,” starring Fionn Whitehead, is not available on some devices (including Chromecast and Apple TV), and for the best viewing experience, you’ll want to be at the ready to guide the story forward.

The actual plot of “Bandersnatch” isn’t all that complicated on the surface: In the year 1984, Stefan (Whitehead) is a young aspiring video game designer whose dream is to adapt a massive Choose-Your-Own-Adventure paperback called “Bandersnatch” as a PC game. He gets his chance courtesy of an established publisher (Asim Chaudhry), but while Stefan’s journey goes down many different roads, one element remains constant: Designing games like this is really hard work. So hard, in fact, that it could drive a person insane.

We know, your brain is still processing that “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” trailer. But it wasn’t just a preview of the new film — it also contained impressive callbacks to past “Black Mirror” installments.

TheWrap tracked the shout-outs you might have missed while you were singing along with “Relax,” the Frankie Goes to Hollywood song played in the trailer. And we’ll probably have a million more to highlight when “Bandersnatch” drops on Netflix early Friday, given that Charlie Brooker’s anthology series is known for its shared dystopian universe.

The first callback in the “Bandersnatch” trailer is a reference to the Season 4 episode “Metalhead.” We see it when young programmer Stefan (“Dunkirk” star Fionn Whitehead) and his boss stand in front of a poster featuring one of the vicious robodogs from “Metalhead.” In case the callback is too subtle, the poster text reads “Metl Hedd.”

Also Read: 'Black Mirror...

Season four of Black Mirror boldly goes where no season of the dystopian series has gone before. There's the Charlie Brooker-created show's first foray into black and white with "Metalhead," the first time a story was set inside a space epic with "USS Callister," and the first explicit acknowledgment that all of Black Mirror is taking place inside a shared universe thanks to the season's last episode, "Black Museum." There have been plenty of clues that all of the episodes over the years have been linked - the song that plays at least once a season, all of those Victoria Skillane Easter eggs - but Brooker had yet to confirm or deny the connected universe theory himself.

In one of the behind-the-scenes featurettes Netflix released to go along with season four in January 2018, Brooker sat down for a quick chat about the latest six episodes. In addition to commenting...

Tony Sokol Dec 27, 2018

Relax, the frumious Bandersnatch is just a glitch in the system in Netflix's Black Mirror: Bandersnatch trailer.

Forget the Jabberwock, the frumious Bandersnatch will catch you in a dream. The sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror is launching as a stand-alone film on Netflix. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch will be available for streaming starting on Dec. 28. With only one day of warning before the debut, the streaming station dropped its premiere date and a trailer.

The film is directed by David Slade, who directed Starz’ American Gods, the feature films Hard Candy, 30 Days Of Night, the Twilight movie Eclipse, and Black Mirror's season 4 episode “Metalhead,” which makes a titular cameo in the trailer in the forms of a poster for a computer game called “Metl Hedd.”

Further reading: Black Mirror Season 5 Release Date and Everything Else We Know

According to Netflix’s title page, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is a “mind-bending,...

Black Mirror previewed its upcoming stand-alone movie, Bandersnatch, with an ominous new trailer. The “event” film, which debuts Friday, December 28th on Netflix, follows a young programmer named Stefan (Dunkirk‘s Fionn Whitehead) who plummets down a surreal rabbit hole while attempting to create a computer game based on a classic adventure novel.

“I keep having these vivid dreams, like thinking weird things,” Stefan says to open the Eighties-set clip. We see the protagonist accepting his job at the game company (which his boss describes as “a hit factory, like...

“Black Mirror” fans, rejoice! Netflix has dropped the official trailer for “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch,” the first “Black Mirror” movie that, up until this point, had been shrouded in mystery. Rumor had it that the film was set in the video game world in the 1980s, and starred “Dunkirk” breakout Fionn Whitehead and Will Poulter, which is all confirmed in the trailer below.

The official “Bandersnatch” synopsis from Netflix reads: “In 1984, a young programmer begins to question reality as he adapts a sprawling fantasy novel into a video game and soon faces a mind-mangling challenge. Welcome back.”

Whether or not “Bandersnatch” is the choose-your-own-adventure project that was reported on back in October remains to be seen. The movie’s runtime is allegedly 90 minutes, but a report from earlier this week said there was over five hours of footage shot for the movie, which led many to believe “Bandersnatch” is interactive. The...

Netflix on Thursday unveiled a trailer for Bandersnatch, a standalone Black Mirror movie that is set to be released this Friday, Dec. 28.

As previously reported, Bandersnatch is expected to function as an interactive, choose-your-own-adventure-style film — and the above trailer hints at such (“Change your mind… Change your life… Change your past… Your present… Your future”). The cast includes Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk), Will Poulter (The Maze Runner) and Asim Chaudhry (People Just Do Nothing).

Netflix has also released a synopsis for Bandersnatch, which reads as follows:

“In 1984, a young programmer begins to question reality as he adapts a sprawling fantasy novel...

Netflix lifted the veil of secrecy surrounding the new “Black Mirror” film “Bandersnatch” by dropping a trailer in the wee small hours on Thursday, revealing that the widely-speculated-about standalone installment centers around a young man in the ’80s who unravels while working on a video game inspired by a fantasy novel. The promo also confirmed that (surprise!) the movie is launching Friday — as in tomorrow — on Netflix.

The streamer provided this brief synopsis for the project: “In 1984, a young programmer begins to question reality as he adapts a sprawling fantasy novel into a video game and soon faces a mind-mangling challenge. Welcome back.”

“ keep having these vivid dreams, like thinking weird things,” our hero Stefan (“Dunkirk” alum Fionn Whitehead) says at the start of the trailer, as he pops red-and-yellow capsules.

Also Read: 'Black Mirror': So What Is a Bandersnatch, Anyway?

A boss-type at the video game company explains,...

Black Mirror fans now have more clarity on upcoming Netflix film, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. The streamer has dropped a trailer for the movie that releases tomorrow, December 28, with a synopsis that reads, “In 1984, a young programmer begins to question reality as he adapts a sprawling fantasy novel into a video game and soon faces a mind-mangling challenge. Welcome back.”

Charlie Brooker’s praised dark anthology series was renewed for a fifth season back in March, although Bandersnatch is not thought to be a part of that order with Season 5 still to come at a later date. The trailer calls it “A Black Mirror Event” and features Dunkirk’s Fionn Whitehead with Will Poulter and Asim Chaudhry. The latter says, “We’re going to be a hit factory, like Motown, but for computer games.” Poulter’s character then tells Whitehead’s, “When it’s a concept piece, a bit of madness is what you need,...

“Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” is the gift that very slowly keeps on giving this holiday season. On the heels of confirmation that “Bandersnatch” is the first “Black Mirror” feature film, a first look photo has emerged (via Esquire) confirming three cast members: Will Poulter, Fionn Whitehead, and Asim Chaudhry. Whitehead was rumored to be involved in “Bandersnatch,” but the photo above proves he definitely is.

Outside of the photograph confirming casting for the project, not much else is known about “Bandersnatch.” The latest rumored details are that the film is directed by David Slade, who helmed the “Black Mirror” Season 4 episode “Metalhead,” and features over five hours of footage. The length led many to believe “Bandersnatch” is the choose-your-own-adventure “Black Mirror” that was first reported back in October.

The “Bandersnatch” landing page is now live on Netflix, and some subscribers are getting a 2 minute runtime for the project while others are seeing a runtime of 90 minutes.

“Black Mirror” Season 5 might not be debuting on Netflix before the end of 2018, but it’s become increasingly clear that “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” probably will, and it’s most likely happening on December 28. What is “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch”? A Netflix social media leak at the beginning of December suggested it could be the first episode of Seasn 5, but a new report from The Independent (via Esquire) reveals it’s a “Black Mirror” movie, which would be the first of its kind.

While Netflix will not confirm “Bandersnatch,” Esquire made note that an online Netflix page already exists for the title and labels it a “Netflix film.” Any Netflix subscriber can search for “Bandersnatch” on the streaming platform and be directed to this landing page, which confirms it’s not an episode but a film (see photo below). The leak at the start of the month said “Bandersnatch” would drop December...

Netflix had six installments of “Black Mirror” this season but is focusing on “USS Callister” on the Emmy ballot. This acclaimed production accounts for 13 of the 16 entries being touted by “Black Mirror,” including Best TV Movie and three performances: Jesse Plemons (lead), Cristin Milioti (lead) and Jimmi Simpson (supporting). TV academy voters note: look under the letter “U” for “USS Callister” instead of “B” for “Black Mirror” as the official title on the Emmy ballot is “USS Callister (Black Mirror).”

This marks a change in strategy from last year, when five of the six episodes from the third season were promoted in various categories. While “San Junipero” won both Best TV Movie and Best Movie/Limited Writing in 2017, it figured in only six of the 20 races that had a “Black Mirror” submission.

SEEour interview with “USS Callister (Black Mirror)” actor Jimmi Simpson.

Three categories this year will feature an additional “Black Mirror” submission,...

A woman who has a funny bone for a backbone. Entertainment One UK has debuted an official trailer for the indie comedy Funny Cow, starring English actress Maxine Peake as a comedienne in the 70s making her mark on the male-dominated stand up scene. Peake recently starred in the black-and-white "Metalhead" episode of Netflix's "Black Mirror", which is where some people might recognize her from, even though she has been in many films before this. Set against the backdrop of the 70s/80s comedy club circuit in Northern England, Funny Cow stars Peake as fictional comedienne "Funny Cow", trying making a name for herself in the stand up world. The full cast includes Paddy Considine, Christine Bottomley, Stephen Graham, Alun Armstrong, Tony Pitts, Hannah Walters, and Kevin Eldon. This film actually looks quite good. Here's the first international trailer (+ poster) for Adrian Shergold's Funny Cow, direct from YouTube...

Since the Emmys are just around the corner, we recently asked our readers to help Netflix choose which of its six “Black Mirror” Season 4 episodes they should submit for awards consideration. According to the results of our “Black Mirror” poll, the “Star Trek”-inspired “USS Callister” is Netflix’s best shot at winning the Emmy for Best TV Movie. This entry starring Cristin Milioti and Jesse Plemons earned a whopping 41% of the vote, which is no surprise considering fans are demanding that “USS Callister” become its own stand-alone TV series.

Second place in our poll was “Hang the DJ” at 26%. In this romantic hour Amy (Georgina Campbell) and Frank (Joe Cole) go on their first date via a new dating app that gives expiration dates on relationships. However, things are not all they appear to be after the young couple is forced to break up.

Here is how the other...

‘Black Mirror‘ season 4 has been released for just over a couple of weeks, but the latest season of the Netflix anthology series has already been divisive to say the least. In response, Netflix has unleashed 6 featurettes that delve into each of the season’s episodes, along with a special bonus featurette that answers a very important lingering question: do these stories share the same universe?

In the new featurette, series’ creator Charlie Brooker explains how they tried to push the limits of this season by “shooting stories in environments that we haven’t really done before”. If anything, the season did just that, and more. You can watch the first featurette–which features Brooker addressing the shared universe theory–below.

Before this season, many had speculated what Brooker just confirmed. If anything, the idea that all of the episodes (at least in this season) have connected threads between them only...

Dave Chappelle’s latest Netflix special, “Equanimity,” is being criticized for a segment in which he jokes about transgender men and women. The comedian has made jokes targeted at the transgender community in the past during stand-up sets, many of which have made caused controversy. In a first-person article published on Median, writer Tyler Foster slams Chappelle’s inclusion of transgender jokes in his new Netflix special, and the reason is incredibly personal.

Read More:Dave Chappelle Says ‘Poor Whites’ Are His ‘Least Favorite’ Because They Got Trump Elected President

Foster wrote Chappelle a letter in March 2016 after he saw the comedian’s first of four shows at the Neptune Theater in Seattle, Washington. The set included a “lengthy segment on trans people,” including complaints about how damaging Caitlyn Jenner’s coming out was to Chappelle’s memories.

“[Chappelle] trashed the notion that trans people experienced similar or worse types of discrimination as the black community,...

[Editor’s Note: Spoilers follow for “Black Mirror” Season 4, Episode 5, “Metalhead.”]

It all starts with The Dog.

David Slade, the director of “Metalhead” — itself the starkest episode in a particularly bleak Season 4 of “Black Mirror” — knew that for the story to work, the predatory robot had to be a realistic threat for both audience and prey. The effective other half of a horror two-hander, the faceless, nameless robot had to convey all the dread of future where all forms of life were under attack.

In a recent IndieWire interview, Slade talked about some of the original design ideas for what would become one of the series’ more chilling villains.

“We very quickly came to the idea in the backstory of what the robot was and how it’s made, that it would probably be a piece of military hardware. That it wouldn’t have generalized artificial intelligence, but it would have enough artificial intelligence to problem...

Looks like things won’t be getting too much easier for the Baudelaire kids when the newest season of their Netflix series, “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” returns to Netflix later this year. The streaming giant promises that this season will see “the extraordinary Baudelaire orphans face trials, tribulations and the evil Count Olaf in their fateful quest to unlock long-held family secrets” in the latest installment of their popular series that spins off the enduring charms of the Lemony Snicket novels of the same name.

When we last left the (presumed) orphans, they were heading off to a new boarding school alongside their pals the Qquagmire siblings. Based on this quick look, it seems like they’re set for an imminent reunion with their evil Count Olaf (Neil Patrick Harris), which will lead to further wild adventures.

Read More:‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’: Designing Neil Patrick Harris...

Netflix has released the trailer and announced the release date for “The End of the F***ing World,” an eight-part series that made a splash on the other side of the pond last fall. Based on the comic series of the same name (well, almost — “fucking” is uncensored there) by Charles S. Forman, the show will be available to stream this Friday, January 5. Watch the trailer below.

Read More:7 New Netflix Shows to Binge in January 2018, and the Best Episodes of Each

The series centers around James (Alex Lawther of “Black Mirror”) and Alyssa (Jessica Barden of “Penny Dreadful”), described as a “self-proclaimed psychopath and a foul-mouthed rebel fed-up with her boring life. The two teenagers embark on a road trip to find a better life, and escape the impending doom of adulthood. As their chaotic journey unfolds, it becomes apparent that James and Alyssa have crossed a line and...

[Editor’s note: Spoilers follow for every episode of “Black Mirror” Season 4.]

Happy “Black Mirror” Day! The release of Season 4 means that all the secrets of Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones’s always compelling sci-fi anthology series have spilled forth, and viewers are deciding just what they think of each individual installment.

The use of the word individual is key there, because while it’s easy to discuss “Black Mirror” in the abstract — “the ‘Star Trek’ episode is great” or “I didn’t really like the one with the metal dogs” — when you get into the particulars of each installment, both the benefits and the flaws of the anthology approach stand out.

Thanks to the creators treating each installment like, in “Arkangel” director Jodie Foster’s words, “a true anthology,” it’s impossible to avoid a range in quality. Some directors simply make better episodes, and not every cast is created equal. And sure, as a writer or co-writer,...

Kirsten Howard Joseph Baxter Dec 21, 2017

Netflix has renewed its first original German series Dark for a second season...

Netflix have decided to renew Dark.

See related Black Mirror season 4: Metalhead review Black Mirror season 4: USS Callister review Black Mirror season 4: Arkangel review

The time-bending German mystery, which saw the streaming giant dip their toe into the water of original, non-English language live action projects, has been a solid hit for them, and showrunners Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese are delighted with the news.

“We are overwhelmed by the response to Dark and are thrilled that our story has been a success with a global audience," they said in a statement. "Viewers have been captivated by the secrets of our protagonists and have taken delight in unravelling the various puzzles that the story presents. To know that we will now embark on our next journey is, for us showrunners,...

Ryan Lambie Dec 29, 2017

Black Mirror delivers its scariest and most visually arresting episode yet in Metalhead. Spoilers ahead in our review...

This review contains spoilers for Metalhead.

See related Timothy V. Murphy interview: True Detective season 2 True Detective season 2 episode 8 review: Omega Station True Detective season 2 episode 7 review: Black Maps And Motel Rooms

After the quivering slab of weirdness that was Terminator: Genisys, it was a wonder what on earth was left to be done with James Cameron’s ageing killer cyborg franchise. This episode of Black Mirror, I’d argue, offers on potential answer: pare the damn thing right down to its bare essentials: a would-be human target on the run, and a homicidal machine in hot pursuit.

Director David Slade has form in tense, blood-curdling horror (see also: Hard Candy, 30 Days Of Night and, er, Twilight: Eclipse), and he brings a brilliantly lean nastiness to Metalhead -...

As both a musical genre and a subculture, heavy metal has always lent itself to exaggerated depictions. It’s easy to dismiss any art form that takes itself so seriously, and most of the reductive metal send-ups have been well deserved. But what’s also deserved is a more accurate, even affectionate portrayal that gets the smallest details right and comes from a place of good faith. That void has been filled at last by writer-director Ragnar Bragason’s Metalhead. Set in Iceland in the early 1990s, just as the darkest, most genuinely violent strain of metal was taking hold elsewhere in Scandinavia, the film deftly marries the essence of the music to a moving coming-of-age framework.

In a prologue set on the family farm, teenaged Baldur’s long, flowing ...