TV Series· 2011· Science Fiction

Black Mirror

by Charlie Brooker

Black Mirror: it draws on 1 recorded source.

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What influenced Black Mirror

The works this one is recorded as drawing on.

1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four

Book · 1949

InfluenceMEDIUM

Brooker's anthology is the Orwellian apparatus rebuilt out of consumer technology, and the series says so in its structure: the surveillance is not imposed by a ministry, it is bought, enjoyed and rated. The specific inheritance is Orwell's insistence that the machinery matters less than the consent. Fifteen Million Merits is Room 101 rearranged as a talent show; The Entire History of You is the memory hole run backwards, with nothing forgettable. Filed MEDIUM: the debt is to a tradition Orwell defined rather than to a text Brooker adapts, and the series is at least as indebted to The Twilight Zone for its shape.

About the work

Black Mirror

Most episodes are speculative fiction, set in near-future dystopias containing sci-fi technology. The series is inspired by The Twilight Zone and uses the themes of technology and media to comment on contemporary social issues. Most episodes are written by Brooker with involvement by the executive producer Annabel Jones.