No one would every accuse Black Mirror of being “easy viewing.” As it tackles the darker side of modern life and technology, the British drama has horrified viewers with a prime minister manipulated into porking a pig on live television in one episode and a grief-stricken woman tormented by the synthetic, AI version of her dead lover in another (wow, this show is a hard sell to the uninitiated).
However, in the Netflix-based third season, there was one episode that actually had a happy ending: the queer love story “San Junipero.” Despite dealing with death and what may or may not come after, the season highlight ended on a romantic and heartfelt high note for stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Mackenzie Davis. However, an early draft featured a scene that was deemed “too sad,” even for Black Mirror. You know, the show that had an episode with enslaved people sent into an inescapable life of violent pornography if they lose a rigged signing competition.
Creator Charlie Brooker explained the cut scene during a Vulture Fest panel:
“In ‘San Junipero,’ there was going to be a sequence in which Gugu’s character is spending some time in a kindergarten, and you realize subsequently that those were all deceased children she was spending time with. We realized that’d just be too sad.”
So, if you were wondering where the line was for Black Mirror, apparently it’s a room full of dead kids. Yikes.
(Via Vulture)
