‘It was too weird of a coincidence’: The Black Mirror scene that can’t be forgotten

Netflix show Black Mirror has released a new interactive film that seeks to reimagine streaming. But there’s one scene the show’s famous creators will always be remembered for.

Fans of the hugely popular Netflix show Black Mirror have some innovative new content to sink their teeth into this holiday season.

The streaming giant released a choose-your-own-adventure film this weekend as it bets big on a new era of interactive TV.

MORE: Netflix expects to usher in a new era of active streaming

The show — which began on Channel 4 in the UK before moving onto Netflix — explores the addictive, intrusive and often dystopian nature of technology when we become obsessed or too reliant on it.

Increasingly, society seems to almost confirm some of the insidious storylines played out in the show, which debuted in 2011 and has gained a dedicated cult following. But there’s one scene that the show’s creators never thought would be reflected in real life — until it pretty much was.

“I’m immediately alerted any time when there’s a news story that looks a bit Black Mirrory – people tweet me or email links to it,” creator and writer Charlie Brooker said. For instance the Orwellian system of individual social scores being rolled out in China is very similar to a season three episode of Black Mirror called Nosedive.

“The weirdest one, that’s come closest to reality was the National Anthem (episode) which was the very first one we ever did,” Mr Booker said.

“I remember very clearly it was about midnight and I was up late writing a script and my phone started going mad and I immediately thought catastrophe had happened, that something terrible like nuclear war had broken out,” he said. The truth was much more amusing.

“It was just people going ‘how did you know?’”

They were referring to a newly published rumour that former British Prime Minister David Cameron had once put his penis in the mouth of a dead pig during an initiation ceremony while he was a student at Oxford University.

If you haven’t seen the Black Mirror episode, this is, all things considered, strikingly similar to what happens. The general plot of the pilot episode is that a terrorist demands the Prime Minister perform a sexual act with a pig live on TV in order to secure the release of a prominent hostage.

David Cameron has denied the salacious rumour.

The alleged incident with the former British Prime Minister involved a dead pig years before he held office, but nonetheless, it was a pretty unlikely case of life imitating art.

“That was literally the weirdest one. It was too weird of a coincidence,” Mr Brooker said. “I genuinely felt like the world was a simulation for a few minutes.”

“That was really annoying,” the show’s producer Annabel Jones added. “Because that was always our example when people asked what hasn’t come true. And then that story broke and it was like ‘ahh f***’ we can’t say that anymore.”

“It’s almost certainly not true,” Mr Brooker said of the rumour. “I have to say that for legal reasons ... Although I love to think that it is,” he joked.

BLACK MIRROR GOES INTERACTIVE

On Friday night, a new Black Mirror film dropped into Netflix’s global library where the viewer controls the story by making crucial decisions about what the main characters do.

Set in the 1980s, Bandersnatch follows Stefan, a young programmer who has hopes of creating a best-selling, text-based computer game inspired by a choose-your-own-adventure novel that was given to him as a child.

As the viewer, you feel responsible for the protagonist because you decide where he goes and what he does. It’s a new direction for the streaming giant which says it wants “to take storytelling to the next level” and has other interactive projects in the pipeline.

But the Black Mirror creators aren’t so sure they’ll dive back into the innovative medium for Netflix any time soon.

“I think we all had a period of going never f***ing again am I doing this,” Mr Brooker told journalists at an event to promote the show at the Netflix headquarters last month. “We thought it would be as complicated as (producing) about two episodes, and it was more like four.”

He sees the game-like interactivity as another genre for filmmakers. “In doing it, you learn the ropes, it will never supplant doing a linear story, ever. But I think it’s another tool in your box as a writer.”

Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror has gained a cult following since moving to Netflix.

‘WE WANTED TO PULL THE RUG OUT FROM UNDER YOU’

The central plot of the film mirrors the new interactive genre for Netflix as the protagonist works on his own interactive creation. For me, that part of Bandersnatch felt a bit on the nose but at the same time it allowed for an interesting and self-deprecating look at the style of storytelling (Spoiler alert if you read on).

Questions of determinism, free will and who is really in control are at the core of the episode as Stefan begins to get a sense throughout the film that someone else is pulling the strings.

“We kept stripping it back and stripping it back and kept making it more and more meta,” Ms Jones said. She believes the interactive style is worth the effort “if it ads something to a story and amplifies the experience.”

The film starts out slow. The viewer is asked to make a few trivial and inconsequential decisions but it’s not long before you’re thrown a curveball. You quickly get to make the call on whether Stefan accepts the job he has always wanted. At this point the show takes a more ominous turn and the audience feels the weight of responsibility become much heavier.

“We wanted to pull the rug out from under you early on so you’re a bit uncertain what is the ‘right’ thing to do,” Mr Brooker said. As a viewer, you’re quickly thrown off guard.

The action doesn’t stop when you have to make a choice.

You can be led down what feel like dead-end paths that loop you back to a previous decision and some endings are particularly abrupt and will leave you wanting to backtrack to change course and find a different fate.

The strong theme of mental health runs through Bandersnatch which explores concepts of false dichotomies and parallel realties.

There is one pivotal moment, where you decide if the protagonist kills his father. On one level, you know that even if you don’t choose to kill him there is another storyline out there where he bludgeons his dad to death. You can pick a timeline that suits your purpose, but in the back of your mind you know someone else chose the other path. In a way your choices are meaningless. Somewhere Dad is dead.

But at least you get to choose how to dispose of the body.

The author travelled to Los Gatos, California, as a guest of Netflix