Netflix has just quietly teased the weirdest ‘Black Mirror’ Crossover

Before there was Black mirrorthere was Charlie Brooker. The British author has never stuck to one genre: he has been a cartoonist, video game critic, columnist and satirist. At one point he even created a successful zombie series focusing on the Big Brother house. But in 2024, he’s made a name for himself with two equally brilliant creations thanks to Netflix’s streaming platform: dystopian anthology series black mirror, and Diane Morgan’s deadly parody documentarian Philomena Cunk.

Although they both have so much in common, these two masterminds have remained estranged and exist in separate worlds with wildly different tones. While Philomena Cunk has compared the story to the Belgian techno anthem “Pump Up the Jam”, Black mirror have told twisted tales of technology gone wrong.

But in Philomena’s latest endeavor, the lines between the two halves of the Brookerverse become very blurred – possibly hinting at something to come Black mirror Season 7.

Cunk on lifethe 70-minute Philomena Cunk special, now streaming on Netflix, follows Philomena as she tackles the biggest subject possible: life itself. She interviews philosophers, professors and physicists as she tries to come to terms with the meaning of life, from the miracle of reproduction to the possibility of life among the stars. She interviews experts on how people derive meaning and purpose from life: religion, art, science, imagination and exploration.

The result is wildly fun and classic Cunk, and there are a few moments where it’s very clearly the creator of Black mirror had a hand in the script. For example, when Philomena sits down with an expert to talk about the Ten Commandments, she says “How did God boil his terms and conditions down to ten sentences when the iPhone end user agreement is 100 pages?”

In a particularly bleak chapter, Philomena wonders what exists to help distract from the miseries of life. To find out more, she visits the headquarters of streaming service Streamberry to learn about the future of entertainment. The twist is that Streamberry doesn’t exist at all, it’s the fictional version of Netflix introduced in Black mirror Season 6’s “Joan is Awful.”

In a conversation with (again, fictional) “Content Empress” Jacqui Flink, Philomena learns about the bundle of programs Streamberry has released aimed at “viewers who have given up all hope,” including a category called “Standing on a Ledge Right Now.” which is aimed at viewers who are on a ledge right now. In a segment that could be pulled out of a Black mirror episode; we even see a snippet of a “Standing on a Ledge Right Now” show aimed at younger viewers.

Cunk on life is already an incredibly ambitious series that takes the Cunk character to its absolute extremes, as she even dwells on existential dread and suicide. But it’s secretly doing something completely different: possibly setting up Black mirror Season 7, coming later this year. Streamberry was the show’s way of biting the hand that feeds it, and this easter egg proves that it’s not going anywhere in the future.

Cunk on life now streaming on Netflix.