In the circles of "Black Mirror" fans, the series is often discussed as if there are two different shows: British Channel 4 "Black Mirror" and American Netflix "Black Mirror". Some fans insist that something crucial is lost at the time when the "black mirror" bought Netflix, that the pleasant American streaming service destroyed all the things that the show did so special.

While Netflix certainly has done many horrible things over the years (Like removing "Bandersnatch"), this is not the reason for all those changes in the tone and approach of the show. Longer times, happier endings, celebrity casting - these are just Netflix guilt in the sense that they gave the show Charlie Brooker budget and creative freedom to make them happen.

"Netflix, it hurts me to say, it really didn't give me a stupid note," Brooke explained In an interview in April 2025"What's almost disturbing because you want to feel like you are a swashbuckler that would ignore it. But I try not to read notes on the phone when it appears -it is -because if you are moving, it continues for 100 years. And then if you look it later on the desktop computer, it's like" Oh, oh. "

Brooker has repeatedly said over the years that Netflix is ​​quite practical, probably because the higher understands how much the "black mirror" is and do not want to get in. It is a nice contrast to Channel 4, which Brooker said got very controlled When they first tried to make the season 3 under their helm. Even Netflix's crime to remove "bandersnatch" is difficult to get angry, because an interactive episode like it would never have ever been done in the first place, if this was still a channel show. (That said: Please return, Netflix!)

Probably the coldest trick Netflix allowed Bruker to withdraw was with Season 7 episode "Bane Black", Which quietly published two separate versions of the episode and did not warn viewers ahead of time. In both versions, the characters are arguing over whether the restaurant chain is called Barney or Bernice. In one version, the main character Maria (Siena Kelly) is confused and upset to realize that the restaurant is called Bernice. In another version, she understands the restaurant called Barney. The tricket did not affect how the episode itself was played, but it affected how the fans then talked about the episode. They will penetrate their argument as to whether they were called Bernice or Barney, having their moment of Gaslit's feeling when they returned to the episode of proof.

This kind of trick is a rare TV, and probably unable to happen on the broadcast channel as Channel 4 .. The closest comparison I can think about is "Simpsons", where writers He thought he was publishing multiple versions of "Who shot Mr Burns?" with a different killer discovered in different parts of the country. But even that would not be the same. Most people, especially in the 1990s, would talk to people who lived near the episode afterwards, so there wouldn't be much confusion about what really happened.

Perhaps the clearest sign of how practical Netflix with the "Black Mirror" came in season 6, when the show released two episodes in a row where Netflix was a villain. "Anoan is terrible" revolves around the main character, realizing that Streamberry, an obvious stand-in-in for Netflix, has Sleeazily created all the TV -shows based around her personal life. Loch Henry, meanwhile, ended up with Streamberry, making an exploitative drama about real crime about the events of the rest of the story. Netflix/Streamberry has been shown absurdly negative in both episodes, but Netflix certainly didn't seem to care.