Black Mirror Creators Call Striking Vipers Episode A 'Porn Analogy'

Netflix

The first episode of Black Mirror Season 5, Striking Vipers, featured some sexual moments between Anthony Mackie's Danny and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II's Karl, inside a Street Fighter-inspired virtual reality simulated game called "Striking Vipers." The creators of Black Mirror Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones recently talked to IGN about the new episodes, including the Striking Vipers episode.

Speaking to IGN, Brooker jokingly called the episode "a porn analogy" - is it considered cheating if it's digital? "It's a fantasy because it's not real, but on the other hand, it very much is real," Brooker said. "It's not personal because they're avatars, but it is intensely personal because they're best friends. It's not cheating because nothing's actually happening, but it is cheating because it's impacting on both of their lives. And it's impacting directly on Danny's marriage."

The Striking Vipers episode showed how technology can affect our relationships and questions how our digital lives could define our masculinity but I can also see how it's a porn analogy. It's definitely the most thought-provoking episode of the new Black Mirror season.

Brooker revealed the creative origins of the episode's story came from his university days: "One of the original germs for the episode was, I used to play a lot of Tekken in the ‘90s with a flatmate of mine," Brooker said. "We suddenly realized that our neighbors must think we're running an S&M dungeon down here because the air was full of us shouting, ‘oh god,' 'no,' 'ah,' 'yes, yes, yes.' And this went on for hours and hours. It struck me that this was an interesting an amusing image. It's a weird thing when you're grappling with another person… There's something very primal about that build up and release. So [that world] seemed like the perfect arena."

The three new episodes of Black Mirror Season 5 are available for streaming on Netflix now.

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