Chris Taylor argued for Mashable that the show should be viewed more as satire than prophecy, as it employs "nightmare logic" and concepts that require suspension of disbelief.

Brooker described Trump as "an anti-politics candidate who's raucous and defensive" and "offers nothing", like Waldo. The creator Brian Patrick Butler said he wanted a sequence of stories with escalating tension, to create a "creepy and thought-provoking experience". According to Víctor Cerdán Martínez of Vivat Academia in 2018, Black Mirror was one of China's five most-watched Western television series.Black Mirror Creator Charlie Brooker on Predicting Trump, Brexit, and How the Internet Is Making Us Crazy". Technology was a lesser focus, and the worlds were larger and more detailed, which Jones said was not possible to execute properly in the short runtime.

a British anthology series that critics saw as more comedic than Black Mirror, and known for intricate plot twists. Individual episodes explore a diversity of genres, but most are set in near-future dystopias with sci-fi technology—a type of speculative fiction. Previously Jones executive produced a number of shows presented by Charlie Brooker including three series of the BAFTA-nominated BBC Two satirical review Weekly Wipe; all seven editions of the annual shindig Charlie Brooker’s End of Year Wipe, which won a BAFTA for its 2016 edition; How Video Games Changed the World; Newswipe, which won the 2009 Royal Television Society Award for Best Entertainment Programme; Gameswipe; and the How TV Ruined Your Life series for BBC Two.Charlie is also behind the BBC Two series Cunk on Britain and the BAFTA-nominated Cunk on Shakespeare with regular Weekly Wipe contributor Philomena Cunk. Brooker and Jones reported in 2018 that although they and Netflix were both keen to have Channel 4 as equal partners, Channel 4 were evasive.

Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair reviewed the episodes as "all engrossing in their way", but thought "Men Against Fire" had the weakest premise and production quality. It made me consider that was appears acceptable, what is on the surface of "doing good" - how much of it is for others and how much of it is for ourselves? This novel was edging on slightly too boring and quite disappointing compared to The Killer's cousin, the character of Frances, though suffers body image issues is not as relatable and I found myself disliking her. The project was postponed indefinitely in 2018 as Brooker and Jones could not dedicate enough time to it, with Brooker saying "I'm not sure when or if [the series] will appear. Also, Charlie previously presented the BAFTA-nominated Election Wipe, Gameswipe and Newswipe, which won the 2009 Royal Television Society Award for Best Entertainment Programme and the How TV Ruined Your Life series for BBC TWO.In a May 2020 interview with Radio Times, Brooker questioned whether the public mood would suit a sixth series of Black Mirror and said that he had been working on more comedic projects. White Christmas" was a portmanteau of three stories, inspired by works such as the 1983 science fiction film Twilight Zone: The Movie. Metalhead" is a black-and-white apocalypse episode starring Maxine Peake as Bella, a woman trying to escape a robotic "dog", and directed by David Slade. In September 2015, Netflix purchased the programme, commissioning a series of 12 episodes later divided into two series of six episodes. Also, the episode received 145 complaints to the television regulatory body Ofcom, the eighth-largest figure for the year.