Is it your favourite episode from the series?
It is fairly commonly believed that San Junipero is one of the best episodes from Charlie Brooker’s hit TV series Black Mirror.
The episode in question may be the most optimistic out of all of them, as it explores an incredible town that can be inhabited even after death. It is very much a “heaven on Earth” sort of place, and the episode itself is a beautiful love story from start to finish.
It won two Emmys, and regularly tops the lists of Black Mirror fan’s favourite episodes.
But it almost wasn’t to be! And it was all because of the TV show Westworld.
Brooker felt that the entire concept was all too similar to that of the sci-fi world of Westworld, which almost resulted in the episode being scrapped.
According to Vulture, Brooker spoke about the thought process behind the concept for this episode, saying: “I’d been obsessed with doing a story about the afterlife.
“I wanted to do a sort of supernatural story, and was thinking of spooky, creepy story ideas. So, weirdly, ‘San Junipero’ had started in a sort of horror-movie world.
“We always have a scientific explanation for things, even if it’s bollocks!
“We introduced the idea of digital consciousness in ‘White Christmas,’ but hadn’t really explored the moral or emotional implications. There was so much untapped potential.”
He expands: “Something else that we’d discussed was a way of expanding the world of (a season 2 episode starring Domhnall Gleeson), ‘Be Right Back.’ We couldn’t do this now because of Westworld, but we had the idea of a theme park you went to that was essentially Heaven.”
“All your dead relatives and friends would be there, and you’d pay to go and visit them,” Brooker added of his Westworld-like ‘San Junipero’ idea. “So that thought stayed around for a while – this notion of Heaven that you go to as a holiday.”
We’re delighted that the episode made it to our TV screens, because it is absolutely amazing.
Season Five of Black Mirror is due to be released soon, although there is no confirmed release date as of yet.
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