Friday, March 29Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Black Mirror: Please Mr. Brooker, can we have some more?

Over the Christmas period we were lucky enough to be treated to another devilishly evil Black Mirror episode, starring Rafe Spall and John Hamm, warning of the dangers of our “block” culture, where we would rather “block” a person than deal with them face on. It was a typically brilliant and twisted episode, entwining three separate stories into a terrifying, gut wrenching climax, made all the worse by the fact it isn’t all that far away from the world we currently live in. Once again, Charlie Brooker knocked it out of the park, with the episode receiving suitably rave reviews.

Some have even started to recognise Brooker as one of the finest script writers working in this country. He has now been the creative force behind over 4 successful tv series, and with Black Mirror has written 6 brilliant feature length scripts, and been involved in the writing of another. Black Mirror is currently one of the finest TV show this country is producing.

However, here lies an issue for the common fan of the show. With Brooker so far maintaining control over the writing alone, and also being busy with a number of other pursuits, we are currently only getting a season of 3 episodes every couple years, and now the odd Christmas special. It’s a shame really, given the quality of the show, that we don’t get more, especially as an alternative would be so easy. If Brooker were to bring on other, younger writers, he could maintain creative control and input on all stories while increasing the output of the series, while also “sending the elevator back down” and helping some young people make it into the industry. It would benefit everyone, and help ensure that we get more brilliant episodes of this wonderful TV show. For now all we can do is enjoy what we have, and hope that Brooker will offer us more in the future.