One of the things that makes TV series Black Mirror so compelling is how it blurs the boundaries between the frighteningly futuristic and the tech-obsessed world in which we already live. Episodes in which a woman creates a virtual simulation of her late boyfriend using information from social media (Be Right Back, season two), or which see people giving all of their personal interactions an Uber-style rating (Nose Dive, season three), get under our skin because they are outlandish and unsettling – yet not at all beyond the realms of imagination or possibility. 

Now, it seems as though Black Mirror is set to get – well, even more Black Mirror. Netflix is reportedly working on making the series interactive, so that viewers can choose how they want an episode to end.

The fifth series of Black Mirror is expected to hit Netflix in December. Bloomberg reports that one episode in the series will be given a “choose-your-own-adventure” spin not unlike a video game, allowing fans to decide what storylines they want to play out.

This is apparently part of a wider push at Netflix to invest in interactive programming, a decision that makes the production of TV series much more lengthy and complex. 

It’s not hard to see why: whereas a normal script only goes in one narrative direction, and only requires one storyline to be filmed, an interactive episode will need to have several different storylines written and filmed.

Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker has said that the show is “about the way we live now; and the way we might be living in 10 minutes’ time if we’re clumsy”. Given the series’ preoccupation with humans’ relationship with technology, it seems eerily fitting for the series to become interactive in this way.

But will the average Netflix viewer enjoy the experience of stepping into Brooker’s shoes and deciding where the story goes? Only time will tell.

Images: Netflix / Jonathan Prime