For many, 'San Junipero' was the standout episode of Black Mirror's third season... and indeed, of the show's entire run.
So it's perhaps no surprise that the upcoming fourth season of Charlie Brooker's anthology series will be a little less bleak. But the success of that Emmy-winning episode isn't the only impetus behind the lighter tone.
"There is some more hope in this series," Brooker said at a screening last night (December 12) in central London.
"This season, the writing of it started in July 2016, so there were episodes being written all through the American election... and everything was looking horrible. I genuinely thought, I don't know what state the world's going to be in by the time these [episodes] appear, and I don't know how much appetite there will be for nothing but bleak nihilism.
"If you're living in a dystopia, you don't necessarily want to look at another one. So I sort of thought, let's maybe not make them all [depressing]. Although, the thing is, you have to be aware that a lot of people tune in for that. So you still want to give them that."
The end result is a balance, with lighter offerings like 'Hang the DJ' balanced out by episodes like the terrifyingly tense 'Metalhead'.
"Part of it is, it gets too predictable," Brooker said of switching up the feel and flavour of episodes. "If every single episode is like... 'And then, it all f**ked up', then you're just waiting for that to happen, and so it becomes very predictable."
But while the state of the world might have shaped the tone of the new season, Brooker insisted he never tries to be overtly political in the stories he tells.
[asset removed due to syndication rights]"There's sometimes episodes where... 'The Waldo Moment' was one where it's about a political joke being elected. I guess, on some level, there must be some element there that was tapping into something, without really thinking about it.
"But we don't try and predict things. We don't sit down and look at the news pages and think, 'How could we do an episode about that?'"
Black Mirror season 4 will be available to watch exclusively on Netflix from Friday, 29 December.
