Before Netflix’s 'Black Mirror,' This Forgotten Sci-Fi Series Basically Predicted Our AI Hell

In many ways, Netflix's Black Mirror changed television forever. With different stories, casts and even timeframes in each episode, the series, which first premiered in 2011, tells individual, spine-chilling and often satirical tales about the dangers and ever-growing paranoia that comes with developing technology. In each episode, the series follows a new gadget, device or reality, like a woman buying an AI version of her late boyfriend, or an implant designed to protect children, and dives deep into the benefits, the horrifying risks, and the dehumanizing repercussions.

But while Black Mirror is certainly groundbreaking, creating a genre of TV all by itself, a forgotten sci-fi series from 1987 shined a light on a similar theme. In Max Headroom, the series asks the audience: What would happen if TV networks controlled the world? By watching and controlling everything society does, while eliminating everything that isn't TV-related, TV networks become the masters, and people do whatever they can to survive their dominance. Decades ahead of its time, Max Headroom is a must-watch TV show, not only for pure entertainment, but as a further warning of the growing tech world we live in.

What Is 'Max Headroom' About?

The character of Max Headroom first appeared in the 1985 British cyperpunk TV movie Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future. He then went on to host The Max Headroom Show, where he served as a video jockey playing music videos. With its success, Max Headroom quickly became a pop culture icon in the UK, and famously appeared in ads for New Coke. With his popularity then established, Max Headroom was brought to the US for the ABC drama series, which served as a continuation of the TV movie.

Released in 1987, Max Headroom follows Edison Carter (Matt Frewer), a sharp investigative reporter who uncovers corruption within his own network, only to suffer a near-fatal accident while fleeing a dangerous story. After the accident, his consciousness is partially copied into a computer, which accidentally creates Max Headroom: a glitchy, fast-talking digital persona who looks like Carter but behaves like a sarcastic, self-aware TV host. In addition to Frewer, the series, which came to an end after only two seasons, also starred Amanda Pays, Chris Young, George Coe, and Jeffrey Tambor.

Before Deepfakes and AI Hosts, There Was 'Max Headroom'

While Black Mirror will forever be known as "the TV show that takes a dark look at technology," Max Headroom certainly also fits the bill. After all, Max Headroom, with his loud, satirical and quintessentially '80s personality, is half robot and half human, almost like modern AI avatars who might look and sound human, but fundamentally lacks humanity and feeling. Nonetheless, he still captures audiences, exerts influence and shapes society.

Plus, it's not just Max Headroom's existence that the series shines a light on; it emphasizes a reality in which the media ecosystem is purely based on profit and control. In the series, society is entirely controlled by TV networks, and their surveillance determines everything they do. Therefore, while Black Mirror certainly gives poignant examples of how technology can threaten humanity, Max Headroom uses that logic as a jumping off point, showing a world in which television networks quite literally own reality—shaping news, culture, and even identity itself.

With that said, while Black Mirror is certainly a trailblazing series in its own right, Max Headroom was certainly decades ahead of its time. By shining a light on how technology can erase humanity and identity, the series is a satirical yet necessary prediction onto the future. And while both shows have opposite tones and aesthetics, they are both ultimately warning the audience about the same thing: a future where systems designed to entertain end up stripping humanity instead.