It Starts On The Page (Limited): Read ‘Black Mirror' Episode 705 Script 'Eulogy' With Foreword By Charlie Brooker
Editor's note: Deadline's It Starts on the Page (Limited) features 10 standout limited or anthology series scripts in 2025 Emmy contention.
In Season 7 of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror, the dystopian sci-fi anthology series for Netflix continues to evolve the increasingly real tech depicted, especially the growing applications and implications of AI from Hollywood to everyday life.
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Written by Brooker and Ella Road and directed by Chris Barrett and Luke Taylor, the season's fifth episode, 'Eulogy', stars Paul Giamatti as Phillip, a man contacted by a tech company called Eulogy, informing him of the death of his ex-girlfriend Carol and seeking to collect immersive photo memories.
With the help of The Guide (Patsy Ferran), Phillip is able to use technology to walk through his memories. As none of the photos are usable, with Carol's image defaced in each, Phillip is left with only the painful memories of their downfall as he struggles to remember their good times. Meanwhile, the mysterious Guide helps him uncover a buried truth about his former relationship.
Here is the script for 'Eulogy' with an intro by Brooker, in which he discusses how he got to collaborate with Road on the 'bittersweet and heartbroken' love story, shares the initial inspiration for the episode reflected in Carol's name, and reveals how Giamatti's casting changed the original plan for the character.
Why do old photos feel more evocative than anything taken in today's smartphone-and-photostream era? I think it's a combination of scarcity and imperfection. Pre 2010 or so, you might have had a handful of snapshots to cover an entire decade of your life – and many of them would've been a little blurred, or out of focus, filled with red-eye and half-obscured by thumbs. The flaws make them more evocative somehow. That's why if I ran Apple – which just to be clear I don't – I'd implement an optional mode that automatically limits the number of photos you can take on any given day and randomly degrades them into the bargain, to make revisiting them later a more rewarding experience. Our episode 'Eulogy' came about after Black Mirror EP Jessica Rhoades read Ella Road's play The Phlebotomist and suggested her as a potential co-conspirator. Ella and I sat down for a long lunch and discussed areas we were interested in, stress-testing them as potential Black Mirror stories. We quickly zeroed in on memory, particularly how old photographs and music can evoke a time and place. The idea of using tech to throw someone inside a set of old images soon followed — with the aim being to create a 'cathartic, therapeutic tearjerker.' At first it was a little like Dickens' A Christmas Carol – hence Philip's lost love being literally named Carol. We pictured Philip being led through memories which played out around him in real time, with conversations and arguments and people storming out of rooms. But that began to feel a little TOO Christmas Carol. Keeping everyone frozen in place not only kept it focussed (and more eerie), it fundamentally shifted the story, into a tight, high-concept two-hander in which Philip chases a forgotten memory of Carol's face. We always knew there would be a transatlantic element to the story; originally Philip was a gruff Mancunian while The Guide was American. When we discussed casting Paul Giamatti's name was mentioned, and I almost leapt out of my chair — he's one of my favourite actors of all time. So we flipped it, retooling the character in his image. Unbeknownst to me, Paul was a fan of the show. He said when he read the script, knowing this was Black Mirror, he was waiting for some horrendous shoe to drop. But that's not what happens. This is a love story. It's bittersweet and heartbroken. But ultimately it's kind to its inhabitants. Paul and co-star Patsy Ferran knocked it out of the park, as did directing duo Chris Barrett and Luke Taylor. The ending hits me like a bus every single time I see it. Mission accomplished.
Charlie Brooker
Black Mirror's Emmy haul so far includes three wins for Outstanding TV Movie and two writing trophies out of three nominations. Read the script below.
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