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Not every episode of Netflix's Black Mirror is an absolute bummer. Take, for example, San Junipero, the fourth episode of Black Mirror season 3, the first season to have premiered on Netflix instead of the show's original home - the UK's Channel 4. Here's the thing, though - as it turns out, San Junipero didn't just come about because creator Charlie Brooker wanted to tell a more upbeat scifi story.

It apparently came about after he challenged himself to do so.

That's what we learned from Brooker's appearance at the Edinburgh TV Festival in 2025. Asked about whether Brooker ever considers his audience as he's writing episodes of Black Mirror, Brooker responded with a not-quite-yes, not-quite-no.

"If you think too much about the audience," Brooker said, "You go a bit mad. It kind of gets in the way because you feel like you're  faking it somehow or you're forcing something. That said, sometimes I've written things that are in a different kind of tone to what would [usually]."

"One of the first times" that happened, Brooker continued, was for San Junipero, which would eventually star Mackenzie Davis and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. But don't mistake his meaning - at no point in his construction of the episode did Brooker feel pressure from the new home of his series.

"Netflix never said, 'Could you make this a bit more jolly and American?'" he recounted, "They never said that. I was just thinking, 'If I just do nothing but downer endings, that's really predictable, and I'll get very bored.' So the first episode I wrote for Netflix was called San Junipero; it had a much more upbeat ending and an upbeat tone. I suppose I was writing for me. [...] I was sort of experimenting and thinking, 'Can I can I write an optimistic story? What happens if I do that? It's terrifying.'"

Brooker's self-challenge led to what he called "one of our most popular ever that we've done," and depending on which Black Mirror fan you ask, hat opinion holds. But for those who do prefer the darker endings for the anthology series, well...

There are a whole lot of episodes that fit that bill.

Black Mirror is streaming now on Netflix.