Netflix expands its crime fiction slate with a gritty dark comedy that’s giving off The Gentlemen vibes, mixed with a bit of Bodkin and Big Mistakes. It’s already getting the flagship-level treatment ahead of its release, bolstered by a creative visionary and powerhouse writers penning the script. The new series is shaping up to be a major streaming event, featuring a stacked cast with a MobLand star at the helm.
Black Mirror Season 8 is still a ways off, but creator Charlie Brooker is offering a brand-new series to ease the long wait. Netflix unveiled Brooker’s Blackmere at a UK upfronts event in London this week, and the first-look photos tease a gritty crime drama at the outset, which tracks because the show is described as an “absurdist comedy disguised as an incredibly serious crime thriller.” Blackmere unravels as a four-part series, so it’s bound to get straight to the point.
Blackmere stars Paddy Considine (MobLand, Peaky Blinders) as “tormented detective” John Blackmere, who leaves the rain-soaked Northern city of Bleakford for London to catch a ritualistic serial killer and avenge his partner’s death. That sounds like the plot of a True Detective season, but Brooker promises the tone is far from that. Blackmere is a blood-soaked comedic spoof of the gritty British crime thriller genre — it’s evident in one preview photo showing Considine’s character casually strolling by a shop selling old food, nappies (diapers), and used vapes.
Brooker leads a roster of writers whose experience in deadpan comedy, parody, and no-nonsense crime thrillers builds Blackmere‘s twisted DNA. The dark humor comes from Jason Hazeley (Death to 2020), Joel Morris (Philomena Cunk), Daniel Maier (You Have Been Watching), and Ben Caudell (Cunk on Earth), while Emer Kenny (Karen Pirie) and Victoria Asare-Archer, co-writer for the Netflix Harlan Coben thriller, Stay Close, lend the grit.
Considine leads a stacked ensemble featuring Georgina Campbell (Barbarian), Lena Headey (Game of Thrones), and Rory Kinnear (The Diplomat), who previously starred in a deeply disturbing Black Mirror episode. Abbie Murphy (David Brent: Life on the Road), Maximilian Osinski (Ted Lasso), Nadia Albina (Doctor Who), Endy McKay (The A List), Charles Armstrong (The Crown), Brendan Patricks (Downton Abbey), Paul Ginns, Brad Alexander, and Suzie Chard round out the cast.
Blackmere is slated for an early 2027 release date. For those wanting to see how Brooker might satirize the genre, look no further than A Touch of Cloth, his parody of British police procedurals starring John Hannah (The Mummy) and Suranne Jones (Coronation Street). Having showcased his vision in dystopian science fiction, Brooker now lends his signature style of black humor to a detective series that’s sure to subvert conventional crime thriller tropes.
- Network
-
Netflix
- Directors
-
Al Campbell
- Writers
-
Charlie Brooker, Ben Caudell, Jason Hazeley, Emer Kenny, Daniel Maier, Joel Morris, Victoria Asare Archer
