The teaser trailer for Season 5 of Black Mirror is out and it’s filled with a powerhouse cast. For starters, Miley Cyrus shows up in a fabulous purple wig, apparently playing the meta role of a famous singer and popstar. There’s also Andrew Scott, better known as James Moriarty in BBC’s Sherlock, Anthony Mackie who’s our new Captain America, Pom Klementieff who plays the name kicking, ass taking Mantis in the MCU, Yahya Abdul Mateen II, Topher Grace, and many others.
I’m very intrigued by Miley’s storyline in the new season, partly because it’s Miley and as Kathleen said after the Grammys, she makes it difficult to dislike her. I’m also intrigued by her storyline because while she was filming for Black Mirror in South Africa, she and Liam Hemsworth’s Malibu house burned down in the Woolsey Fire. As she tells Vanity Fair, the day that happened, she was filming a scene for her character, at a Malibu house, having a panic attack. A house burning down is a traumatic experience in itself, but as Miley struggled to regain control of her life, it sounds like she poured those feelings into her work on Black Mirror. It looks like it’s going to be a powerful performance.
I have no idea what the f-ck is going on in this trailer. At first, I thought that they were showing clips from six or seven episodes, which was still confusing but understandable. Turns out, the Season 5 release will have three stories, which makes the trailer make even less sense! There are like at least five clear storylines and main character ensembles here that need to fit into three episodes. That math doesn’t work! So far, I can tell that there’s a story about dating simulations (and maybe cheating?), a lonely girl who befriends a robot (which is basically the plot of Star Wars), celebrities and their megafollowings, an unhinged guy who hates technology and has a gun, and Topher Grace doing something. I do know that I want to buy that robot that tells me I look pretty, no matter how evil it looks later in the trailer. I’ll take potential homicide in exchange for stoking my vain ego any day.
Black Mirror is all about the mindf-ck, and it’s really good at doing that. We’ve also patiently been waiting or one and a half years since the end of season four, although the creators graced us with Bandersnatch in December of 2018. I worry that with three episodes, will there be enough content to satiate the demand? I think it’ll be sufficient because Black Mirror never disappoints, and it seems like Netflix has been working on these episodes for a while, even if Bandersnatch took its fair share of that time.
In a FYSEE interview with creators Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones, the reporter asks Brooker a question along the lines of predicting the future, because Black Mirror does such a good job of seeing into the “crystal ball.” He replies, “If we do have a crystal, then we are screwed when it comes to the next season.” That’s frightening. Some sh-t is definitely going down in the three new episodes, and I’m betting that it has to do with Miley. Catch me watching the new season on June 5 in broad daylight, at noon, surrounded by an armada of stuffed animals.
Attached - Miley Cyrus in New York yesterday.