Well done. You finally put Andrew Scott in Black Mirror. Following his recent renown as ‘the sexy priest’ in Fleabag, the first head-on shot of said sexy priest’s holy face left me incredibly excited as to what series five of Black Mirror has to offer.
Series four of Black Mirror let me down a bit.
Apart from 'USS Callister', I have to admit that series four of Black Mirror let me down a bit, which admittedly wasn't surprising following series three: an equal disappointment. I don’t know if Charlie Brooker has just run out of good ideas, or if it has had something to do with the shift from cynical British gem Channel 4 to a more americanised Netflix version of the show, but Black Mirror has become a less and less captivating show as the seasons have gone on.
And this series really does look like the icing on top of the shite suicide mission Black Mirror has sent itself on.
Imagine my excitement seeing Andrew Scott, had finally made the cut, only to be overcome with the overwhelming disappointment that he appears to be playing some boring basic anti-mobile phone character. I mean honestly. Hasn’t that outdated trope been done to death a bit? It was also interesting that as far as the trailer seems to suggest, a show which was once the absolute gem of British drama has been overrun with americanisms and cinematic tropes. Not to say we need to ‘keep British shows British’ or anything like that, but part of what made Black Mirror so fantastic was its bleak, distinctly British cynicism. The intellectually pessimistic mind of Charlie Brooker was so tangible from episode to episode, something which the show appears to have drastically lost.
The deep ambient music, the sweeping cinematic shots, Miley fucking Cyrus - everything about the show feels horrifically cinematic. It’s like Marvel and Charlie Brooker bumped heads and produced this confused, underwhelming show that looks like it has lost its sense of its roots.
Maybe the actual show will prove me wrong, maybe Andrew Scott will be an even better angry phone man than he is sexy priest, but as far as this trailer goes? I for one am not convinced.