If you have never had to sit on a bench next to Forrest Gump, you are in for a treat. He will blab on for at least three hours, causing you to miss your bus, and he will offer you chocolates even though you have no idea where they came from. Remember that famous line from the 1994 epic comedy-drama starring Tom Hanks that sums up how random and unpredictable life is? Then, in Black Mirror, this same uncertainty is magnified to an extreme level through the lens of technology.
Well, the critically acclaimed TV series Black Mirror has succeeded in captivating audiences with its dark reflections on technology and society in a captivating blend of dystopian reality and mind-bending futurism. Charlie Brooker, the show’s creator, once spoke about the philosophy underlying his Emmy-winning series, and it closely resembles the famous quote from Forrest Gump.
How Does Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror Have An Unusual Link To Forrest Gump?
Charlie Brooker, the creator of Black Mirror, is used to reveling in dystopic misery, but he was even taken aback by real-world events. He compared it to a creative reboot and told Vanity Fair that he was determined to push the limits of the anthology series in its sixth season:
“I don’t want to sit here feeling like I’m in a box, where I have to write an episode about NFTs or whatever’s on the tech pages today.”
The program was debuted on the British network Channel 4 in 2011 and 2013. After that, the show was transferred to Netflix, where four more seasons aired from 2016 to 2023.
A number of the episodes were set in the past. But there was one episode, called Red Mirror, which was a horror film that did not use any technology at all, but it still evoked a lot of anxiety thanks to its bleak political setting. Brooker shared with Vanity Fair:
“The point of the series always was to make episodes that are really distinctly different but psychologically linked.”
He enjoyed characterizing Black Mirror as
“A box of chocolates: you don’t know what you’re gonna get, but there’s always gonna be dark chocolate. I’ve tried to push that to quite an extreme this season.”
Well, that saying is reminiscent of the wildly successful, six-Oscar-winning Forrest Gump movie starring Tom Hanks. Remember when the movie’s protagonist said the following in the 1994 release:
“My mom always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
Also read: Robert Downey Jr Screwed up George Clooney’s Plans to Turn This Black Mirror Episode into a Movie
Charlie Brooker Discussed The Subject Of Interconnectivity In Black Mirror
Creator of the dystopian series Black Mirror, Charlie Brooker has responded to a popular fan theory that claims that every episode is set in the same universe.
In an interview with the podcast The Watch, Brooker addressed the idea of a thread of interconnectedness running through all four seasons of Black Mirror, giving the theory’s proponents some hope that their hypothesis might be correct:
“I think we have malleable rules on that. Sometimes it’s useful. So in ‘Black Museum’, Rollo Haynes works for TCKR – which is the same company that we see in ‘San Junipero’ – and he’s going into a hospital called St Juniper’s Hospital. There’s a clear sort of through-line there that we don’t bother to explain.”
The English television presenter, 52, did not completely dismiss the fan theory, but he did point out that connections between some episodes were frequently made out of necessity rather than on purpose (via The Watch):
“But on the other hand, we sometimes have used the logic [of another episode] – often it is to do with the gadget. We did The ‘Entire History of You’, which is the episode where everyone can rewind memories, and they use a little thumb controller thing to access the UI in their eyes.”
Black Mirror, a British anthology television series, has garnered praise from critics and won the Primetime Emmy Award three times in a row. Meanwhile, Charlton Brooker has also contributed to comedic shows like The 11 O’Clock Show, Brass Eye, and Nathan Barley.
Black Mirror is streaming on Netflix and Forrest Gump is available on Paramount Plus.
Source- Vanity Fair; The Watch
