12. Black Mirror
After a four-year break, the ominous, playful Black Mirror returns for its sixth season, arriving at a time when fears about technology and artificial intelligence are likely to make the anthology series’ dystopian stories more topical than ever. Netflix has announced the titles and stars of this season’s five episodes, which include Joan is Awful, a meta-tale about an ordinary woman astonished to see that her life has been adapted into a streaming series, and that she is portrayed by Salma Hayek Pinault. Aaron Paul’s character lands in an alternate 1969 in Beyond the Sea. And Zazie Beetz stars in Mazey Day as a troubled celebrity hounded by the paparazzi. The gap between seasons was partly due to rights issues, and perhaps because, as series creator Charlie Brooker said in 2020, during the worst of the pandemic, “I don’t know what stomach there would for stories about societies falling apart”. It would be true to the dark spirit of Black Mirror if he has finally assumed the worst and given up waiting for things to get better.
Black Mirror premieres in June on Netflix internationally
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