Netflix has released a trailer for the second half of Black Mirror season 4, and it is cryptic as all get-out. Running under a minute, it provides only the episode titles of the six new installments, with brief glimpses of each. So—let’s start guessing how Charlie Brooker is going to reach into our souls this season!
Entertainment Weekly has the episode breakdowns, which of course don’t come with descriptions. After scrutinizing the trailer below, I’ve included some thoughts on what each episode could be about.
“Arkangel”
Cast: Rosemarie Dewitt (La La Land), Brenna Harding (A Place to Call Home), Owen Teague (Bloodline)
Director: Jodie Foster (The Beaver, Orange is the New Black)
Written by: Charlie Brooker
Reminiscent of season 3’s “Playtest,” moving between a sterile lab/testing environment and a quintessential house with what looks like a problem child.
“USS Callister”
Cast: Jesse Plemons (Fargo), Cristin Milioti (How I Met Your Mother), Jimmi Simpson (Westworld), Michaela Coel (Chewing Gum)
Director: Toby Haynes (Sherlock)
Written By: Charlie Brooker & William Bridges
Quite the Star Trek parody, where everyone looks so amused with themselves—except for poor Cristin Milioti!
“Crocodile”
Cast: Andrea Riseborough (Birdman, Bloodline), Andrew Gower (Outlander), Kiran Sonia Sawar (Murdered By My Father)
Director: John Hillcoat (Triple Nine, Lawless)
Written By: Charlie Brooker
Snow and surveillance, both very creepy.
“Hang the DJ”
Cast: Georgina Campbell (Flowers), Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders), George Blagden (Versailles)
Director: Tim Van Patten (The Sopranos)
Written By: Charlie Brooker
Looks like a riff on dating, judging from those phone swipes. But then if you look up the actual phrase “hang the DJ,” it refers to bitching about the DJ’s choice of music. I’m gonna guess that this episode introduces technology where listeners can torture DJs for not playing the right tracks.
“Metalhead”
Cast: Maxine Peake (The Theory Of Everything), Jake Davies (The Missing), Clint Dyer (Hope Springs)
Director: David Slade (Hannibal)
Written By: Charlie Brooker
Could the black-and-white be an homage to David Lynch’s Eraserhead? As EW points out, the robot the woman is fleeing resembles the creepily lurching Boston Dynamics deer-bots we can’t stop watching videos of.
“Black Museum”
Cast: Douglas Hodge (The Night Manager), Letitia Wright (Humans), Babs Olusanmokun (Roots)
Director: Colm McCarthy (Sherlock, The Girl With All the Gifts)
Written By: Charlie Brooker
Considering that the episode title refers to an actual “Black Museum,” I’m expecting some sort of Get Out-esque horror.
No word yet on when season 4 will premiere. In the meantime, the anthology Black Mirror: Volume I will be published February 20, 2018.
