If You Liked Black Mirror Before Netflix, Here's the Show You Should Watch ASAP
Black Mirror seems to have learned a great deal from one particular show.
It's hard to forget the profound impact Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror had in 2011 when the first season of the dystopian series premiered on Channel 4. Audiences were mesmerised by the dark undertones and unique narratives of each episode, and the provocative topics the series touched upon gave viewers ample food for thought.
Given how it became an instant hit, it was no surprise that Netflix soon acquired the show, promoting it heavily as one of the greatest series of our time. Unfortunately, the new Black Mirror seasons produced by Netflix saw a marked decline in quality, with each subsequent episode feeling more and more banal.
However, it doesn't mean that fans of the show's earlier seasons have nothing to quench their thirst for unique dystopian television content. After all, Black Mirror didn't appear in a vacuum, and Brooker was, to a large extent, inspired by another iconic dystopian anthology series.
The show we are talking about is Rod Serling's legendary The Twilight Zone, an anthology series that debuted in the dim and distant 1959, at the dawn of television. Although it hails from a bygone era, don't be dissuaded from binge-watching it. The creativity and innovation underpinning the series are genuinely timeless.
Every episode of The Twilight Zone delves into universal themes, with no two episodes bearing much resemblance. Yes, the show is in black and white, but true Black Mirror fans will undoubtedly appreciate the brilliance in every single instalment of this classic series.
Some viewers even argue that The Twilight Zone surpasses Black Mirror in quality. They highlight how Serling pioneered provocative episodes at a time when television shied away from such bold narratives.
'Original twilight zone blows Black Mirror out of the water. I'd say it's not the structure as much as the time period. We give it credit for having an amazing plot structure, but the time period it was made in played a huge factor in how it's perceived today. It was criticising core fundamentals of society when they were just forming,' a fan explains.
In 2019, Paramount + attempted to revive The Twilight Zone for a modern audience, but sadly, the final material lacked the excitement and daring that made the original series so great.
Source: Reddit.