Charlie Brooker, the creator of Black Mirror, says that he has stopped writing new episodes because he doesn’t think there will be much ‘stomach’ for the dystopian show, given that society is actually collapsing for real.

 

When Brooker was asked about the potential for a sixth season of Black Mirror he told The Radio Times that “I’ve been busy doing things. I don’t know what I can say about what I’m doing and not doing. At the moment, I don’t know what stomach there would be for stories about societies falling apart, so I’m not working away on any of those [Black Mirror episodes].”

 

“I’m sort of keen to revisit my comic skill set, so I’ve been writing scripts aimed at making myself laugh.” he added.

 

Brooker is set to front a coronavirus themed version of show he created before Black Mirror, titled Screenwipe, in which he disects and ridicules news, and often the way it is packaged and used by the media to control the masses:

 

The most memorable episodes of the Emmy award winning Black mirror focused on nightmarish dystopias, with technology being used to track and control people.

 

In one episode, robot dogs hunt and kill people after the collapse of society:

 

Such (albeit unarmed) robots dogs and drones are now being deployed in reality to enforce social distancing:

 

In another episode of Black Mirror, society is ruled by a social credit scoring system:

 

In the wake of coronavirus and social distancing, there are eerily similar systems being developed with the justification of ‘controlling the outbreak’.

 

 

Surely there is some milage to be had for Brooker on the subject of social distancing.

 

Eating in pods, living in pods, working in pods…

 

While it may not have the stomach for it, perhaps what society needs right now more than ever is more nightmarish visions of where this can lead in order to prevent it taking hold.