Welcome to your preview of the upcoming season of Black Mirror season 4. Below we’ll take a look at everything you need to know regarding the new season. Whether it’s the episode guides, release dates, casting news and even news about season 5 of Black Mirror too.
First and foremost, the new episodes of Black Mirror are due out on Friday 29th December just a couple days before the New Year. It was a late addition to the December 2017 Netflix lineup and as a result, it caught many off guards. The series had a strange social media campaign dropping snippets of information at the end of November.
How many episodes in season 4?
There are six full-length episodes (stories) planned for season 4. The order in they’re listed have no actual affect on your viewing experience. With that said, you need to watch at least episode twice as it’s been known that they regularly hide easter eggs from the shared universe in them. Ultimately though, as Charlie says: ‘you can watch them in whatever flippin’ order you like’.
Trailers
There are plenty of trailers for Black Mirror but only one for the series as a whole. This was the first trailer to be released and gives you each of the episode names (wrong order) and a glimpse into each of the episodes which we’ll expand on below.
Episode Guide for Black Mirror season 4
It’s worth noting that because the series is an anthology, the order the episodes are released in don’t perform any actual purpose.
Listed in final order that they’ll be released in.
U.S.S Callister
Directed by: Toby Haynes
Cast: Jesse Plemons, Cristin Miloti, Jimmi Simpson, Michaela Coel
Runtime: 74 minutes
If you’re looking at the picture and the trailer thinking, ‘wait this is just a rip-off of Star Trek’ you’d be absolutely right. This episode has been compared already by the shows creator to San Junipero, one of season 3’s big success episodes.
Featuring Jesse Plemons, who you’ll know from Breaking Bad and the second season of Fargo he’ll play the ship commander on the U.S.S Callister and while all looks hunky-dory in the trailer, you can expect things to go downhill fast. The trailer also (probably wrongly) implies that the episode is more of a parody of Star Trek than a work of fan-fiction. Charlie Brooker has also been coy on the story stating that: ‘it’s a story set in space’. Thanks, Charlie.
Without a doubt, if you’re only going to watch one episode next season, make it this one.
Arkangel
Directed by: Jodie Foster
Cast: Rosemarie DeWitt, Brenna Harding, Owen Teague
Runtime: 60 minutes
This episode will be directed by the legendary director Jodie Foster known for her acting work on The Silence of the Lamb, Taxi Driver and Paper Moon. She’s moved into directing in recent years and her style seems to be coming through to create an eerie episode which instantly reminds us of
This episode looks into parenting with a new solution to keeping your kids safe or not as the case will probably end up. By installing a sophisticated implant to her daughter’s skull, she’s able to keep a track of her. We’ve seen these themes touched on before with both The Entire History of You featuring similar technology.
Another striking theme is that the first line of speech stated ‘I’m 2,000 years old’ implying that we’re dealing far more than the issue of keeping an eye on your children in this episode.
Crocodile
Directed by: John Hillcoat
Cast: Andrea Riseborough, Andrew Gower, Kiran Sonia Sawar
Runtime: 60 minutes
This episode’s trailer instantly reminds of us last years final Black Mirror episode, Hated in the Nation mostly in style but sharing a similar plotline in the sense that we’re chasing crimes. The episode will play with human memories by using a machine that will enable whoever to extract a memory. The tagline for the episode implies that the memory extractor is a falsehood by saying ‘Memories can be subjective’.
The entire episode was shot in Iceland and you can hear, once again, quite thick accents throughout the trailer. This will likely be one of the slower episodes of the season.
Hang the DJ
Directed by: Timothy Van Patten
Cast: Georgina Campbell, Joe Cole & George Blagden
Runtime: 60 minutes
This episode is one of the lighter in the series and is directed by Timothy Van Patten. Along with directing Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos and The Pacific, Timothy also had a hand in many massive 80’s movies.
Much like season 3 episode 1 took on social media, Hang the DJ will be taking on the world of dating applications. This new application seemingly hooks you up, tells you for how long and tells you what to do in the said relationship too. You don’t seem to have a say in the matter. Expect a bit of comedy, which you’ll need if you’re binge-watching through them all in one go at this point.
Hang the DJ is the only part of this episode making us scratch our heads as to why they didn’t just call this ‘the Tinder episode’.
Metalhead
Directed by: David Slade
Cast: Maxine Peake, Jake Davies & Clint Dyer
Runtime: 38 minutes
For the first time, this will be the first episode seemingly completely shot in black & white. Set in Scotland, this high-octane episode will see us following a woman whose friends are viciously mauled by a ‘dog-like’ creature in a warehouse. Once that part is skipped, the trailer takes us to dramatic music and car chases.
Beyond that, this is the most mysterious episode on the entire roster this year. It’s also one of the shortest meaning it’s going to have to pack a punch in a short amount of time.
Charlie said this episode is different from anything filmed before stating: “It’s not the sort of story that we tend to do. We tend to be more about a human dilemma.”
Black Museum
Directed by: Colm McCarthy
Cast: Douglas Hodge, Letitia Wright & Babs Olusanmokun
Runtime: 60 minutes
This final episode of Black Mirror is directed by Colm McCarthy, known for his work on the BBC series Peaky Blinders and Sherlock.
This is the episode for ultimate fans of Black Mirror. The episode sets us up with a girl being given a tour around a museum full of artefacts. The twist is that some the artefacts are related to previous Black Mirror episodes and possible future ones too. We’ll be getting a tour while also following one specific murder case if the trailer is anything to go by.
Ultimately, this episode will be looking to provide you with one last punch before departing until season 5.
Will Season 5 of Black Mirror happen?
Undoubtedly, Black Mirror will be coming back for a fifth season. The series is now among Netflix’s biggest jewels in the crown and Charlie Brooker has already hinted at plenty more episodes that he’s working on. Once again, you can expect six new episodes and a 2018 release date is most likely but given the delay on season 4, you could expect it to drop into 2019.
Are you all set for season 4 of Black Mirror? Let us know which episode you’re most looking forward to below!
Rating: TV-MA
