Black Mirror’s Season 5 Trailer Teases Fresh Techno-Nightmares
“Everywhere you look, people are hooked on the things!”
Netflix has released the first trailer for Black Mirror‘s upcoming fifth season, which will arrive on the streaming service June 5. And from the looks of it, Charlie Brooker’s technoparanoiac fables are no closer to learning to love the dot.com.
The three new episodes about humanity’s foolhardy embrace of cutting-edge technology – without considering its dark side – appear to be taking aim at smartphone addiction, online dating, Alexa-esque smarthome applications, and… Miley Cyrus?
The teaser’s cagey about specific plot details, but Brooker’s sense of dark, satirical humor appears intact. Black Mirror, across its past four seasons and standalone ‘interactive episode’ “Bandersnatch,” has emerged as one of the best TV depictions of how terrifying screenlife can be.
Its most memorable episodes have taken aim at Tinder-esque dating apps, information storage, mass surveillance, and AI technology, navigating each with a mordant streak of gallows’ humor. At its outset, Brooker reflected the show was meant to mirror “the way we live now—and the way we might be living in 10 minutes’ time if we’re clumsy.” Indeed, the show’s title refers to the unlit smartphone screen close by every viewer, a sleek, pocket-sized abyss promising boundless potential but reflecting back at you an eerily silenced, darkened version of yourself.
Black Mirror‘s new season will star Anthony Mackie, Miley Cyrus, Topher Grace, Damson Idris, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, among others. At three episodes, it’s on the shorter side for this series; but even with limited time, Brooker’s proven himself eminently worth of our attention – and anxiety.
Black Mirror S5 hits Netflix June 5.
