Editor’s Note: The following are spoilers for Black Mirror Season 6.Black mirror returned to Netflix for its first post-pandemic season, and the new episodes showed that those behind the anthology series weren’t afraid to experiment during the show’s hiatus. Between episodes of the past and exploration of the supernatural, Season 6 is set apart from its predecessors, potentially ushering in a new era for Black mirror. Whether the show continues in this direction depends largely on how critics and fans react.
With such a wide variety of storylines, settings and tones, a lot of what fans will like or dislike about the new season comes down to personal taste, so it made sense to start the season with a genre. the majority may fall behind; comedy. Although Black mirror incorporates humorous elements into its storytelling, the show tends to take on a more serious tone and was yet to enter full-fledged comedy territory until Joan Terrible dived into how absurd the intersection of entertainment and technology can become. Making fun of contemporary issues seems natural for a show like Black mirrorand the first episode of the new season shows why he should lean more towards comedy.
‘Black Mirror’ Season 6 Premiere Dedicated to Finding Humor in Nightmarish Scenarios
“Joan Is Awful” starts out similar enough to any Black mirror classic introducing us to the main character of the episode, Joan (Annie Murphy), and the world she lives in, which is very similar to today’s real world, with the exception of a streaming service called “Streamberry” replacing Netflix. While browsing the Streamberry platform, Joan stumbles upon a new show called Joan is terriblestarring deepfake Salma Hayek with Joan’s signature hairdo.
Joan soon learns that by signing Streamberry’s terms, she has given the company permission to create a show based on her life that can be created in real time thanks to spyware and advanced computer graphics. As is common with many re-enactments of a real person’s life, the on-screen version of Joan exaggerates the real Joan’s actions to the point where she appears as a deliberate villain rather than the confused mess that Joan really is. This results in Joan losing her fiancé, job, and reputation, so she goes on a quest to close the show by any means necessary.
The episode criticizes the entertainment industry, so naturally Joan uses celebrity power to get the real Salma Hayek to close the show for her. I’m not sure if I can write down what she’s actually doing here, which proves that her obscene plan was sound. After Joan’s actions put Hayek’s public image in the trash (pun intended), the best-of-breed actress joins the episode as herself and, like Joan, learns that Streamberry can do whatever he wants with her likeness. Hayek goes into a hilarious rage, lashing out at her lawyer with all the fun quirks we love her for, while making fun of how celebrity status allows her to treat her lawyer in ways the average Joe would never think.
In an age where it’s nearly impossible to read and understand the terms of everything you sign up for, her rage at the situation is very close, which is why the humor works especially well with Black mirrorcontemporary episodes. As infuriating as the late-stage state of capitalism may be, from a certain angle the absurdity of it all is laughable. How did society get to the point where rules that any reasonable person would call absurd were taken seriously enough to be legally binding?
“Joan is terrible” doesn’t care about being serious
While viewers will almost certainly never be faced with the same situation as Joan and Hayek, we live in a world where our reputation can be ruined overnight by someone with a cell phone camera and a Twitter account who will catch us at a difficult moment. and with artificial intelligence technologies that learn day by day. , deepfakes and other uses of someone’s image become a legitimate issue even for the average person. Also, while most of us won’t have to deal with the entertainment industry exploiting them on such a personal level, many have recently been shocked by the issues exposed by the writers’ strike, including the use of AI for screenwriting. The idea of an algorithm being an acceptable substitute for human writers is so preposterous that if it wasn’t, it would make people laugh.
Unlike real people who can only laugh at the damage that mega-corporations decide to cause, Joan and Hayek head to Streamberry headquarters, where the program that creates Joan is terrible is in real time. While the couple are spying on the CEO of Streamberry, she shares with a journalist that more AI-generated shows based on real people’s lives will be released in the near future, and that the shows are intentionally distorted in a negative direction because that’s what the audience wants. If this last part were delivered seriously, it would cause an eye roll, because the idea that our current culture thrives on the negative has been beaten to death, and frankly, those who poetize it are unbearable, regardless how right they might be. However, when it’s quickly delivered to the audience as a quick joke, it gets the point across in a fun way, rather than in an annoyingly preachy way, which is necessary for the episode’s message to reach ears that really want to listen.
To bring it all home Michael Cera appears as an AI programmer, and in the classic Black mirror the mod uses nerd jargon to show that no one in the episode is a real person, but instead AI characters who believe they are real when they play off the original. Joan is terrible show. The real Joan is a normal person(Kayla Laurette), whose AI-created screen self is played by CGI Annie Murphy, who created a seemingly endless loop due to the nature of the show and Joan’s actual actions. Like Hayek, Cera can showcase his comedic ability in a role written just for this, including some physical comedy when he gets punched by Joan Annie Murphy.
The episode ends with a surprisingly touching moment of dedication and introspection from A.I. Joan that shows that comedy doesn’t undermine what Black mirror does the best. When it comes to technology that won’t actually be implemented for a long time, a serious approach may be the best way to get viewers thinking, but for ideas that are too close to reality, comedy is a great choice - after all. when people like Musk and Zuckerberg loudly proclaim that their terrible ideas are actually brilliant, Charlie Brooker there is a lot of material to work with. In all seriousness, to avoid talking to today’s audience and to help offer catharsis in the ridiculous state of the world, Black mirror occasional comedic episodes should be included more frequently.
All episodes Black mirror now available to stream on Netflix.
Source: Collider
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