Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
So you’ve done it. You’ve watched every episode of Black Mirror and now you’re suspicious of your smartphone, Roomba, all of Twitter, and probably your toaster. We get it; we’ve all been there. Now the question is what should you be watching next?
On that front we more than have you covered. The main appeal of Black Mirror is how it takes truly gifted actors and contorts them into horrifying sci-fi situations. Luckily for all of us, Netflix has spent years trying to perfect that specific formula. Want to check out other shows and movies from the brilliant Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones? Craving a more traditional sci-fi experience, maybe one that combines time travel or an apocalypse? No matter what you’re in the mood for or why you watch this chilling anthology series, we have you covered.
'The Twilight Zone'
Why not go back to the first show that explored the most disturbing paths life can take? Each episode of this anthology series follows a different person trapped in another unusual event. And just like with Black Mirror, you can never predict the sorts of lessons they’ll learn at the end of their traumatizing sagas. Though the original Twilight Zone ran for five seasons, only four of them are currently available on Netflix. That’s more than enough to fuel a binge watch.
'Dead Set'
Black Mirror wasn’t Charlie Brooker’s first scripted show. That honor belongs to the five-episode Dead Set. A zombie apocalypse breaks out in the middle of filming an episode of Big Brother. Now the producers and contestants have to band together if they have any hope for survival. Setting an apocalypse on a closed TV set is inherently a fun idea. But what follows is a nuanced and deeply upsetting reflection on how our reality TV obsession cheapens our appreciation of humanity.
'Love, Death & Robots'
Want more cool sci-fi and fewer devastating revaluations about society’s countless pitfalls? Then you need Love, Death & Robots. Produced by Tim Miller, Joshua Donen, David Fincher, and Jennifer Miller, each episode tells a different short story ranging from mecha famers to predatory yogurt. You never know what to expect from this series. But the animation is so gorgeous and consistently innovative, it will keep you pressing play.
'Death to 2020'
Do you know why there wasn’t a new season of Black Mirror this past year? Because Charlie Brooker — the man who made a movie about the Prime Minister screwing a pig for the greater good — thought 2020 was already dark enough. But that doesn’t mean Brooker and Annabel Jones sat around all year doing nothing. Death to 2020 stars Samuel L. Jackson, Hugh Grant, Lisa Kudrow, Leslie Jones, Joe Keery, Kumail Nanjiani, Tracey Ullman, and Cristin Milioti as a series of professionals and everyday people all being interviewed about the same thing: how truly awful 2020 was. If you want to complain about the state of the world, this one is for you.
'You'
Sure, You doesn’t utilize any crazy new tech. But if you’re looking for a modern-day horror story you won’t find anything better. All that Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) wants to do is fall in love. The steps that he’ll take to accomplish that goal and the way he’ll manipulate social media will make your skin crawl.
'Dark'
There is truly no show that handles time travel better than Dark. After Jonas (Louis Hofmann) loses his father to suicide, he becomes obsessed with figuring out why his dad took his own life. It isn’t long before Jonas discovers that the man who fathered him was actually his girlfriend’s young brother who was trapped in the past. It’s wonderfully acted, brilliantly directed winding mystery that will leave your head aching as you try to unravel all these different timelines.
'Black Summer'
The best episodes of Black Mirror do a very specific thing. They take something seemingly innocuous in the world, like virtual reality or Instagram likes, and question how this technology would look realistically against the worst circumstances. Oddly enough, that’s exactly what this show about zombies and the apocalypse accomplishes. With episodes ranging from 20 minutes to nearly an hour, each installment focuses on a different challenge of the apocalypse most zombie movies have never considered. No other series or film has explored the challenges of language barriers or standalone survival sagas quite like this.
