Within the three years since Black Mirror’s earlier (and considerably disappointing) season, we have lived by a world pandemic, watched a US president set off a mob assault on the Capitol, and AI has gone mainstream. We’re barreling in the direction of the longer term sooner than ever, however loneliness stays a key problem in trendy life. What higher time for Charlie Brooker to deliver again his feel-bad sequence for one more season?
In 2019, I argued that Brooker was operating out of issues to say with the present, regardless of his deft capacity to foretell our tech-infused dystopia with Black Mirror’s first few seasons. One thing was misplaced together with his transition to Netflix, which led to larger budgets and extra notable stars, however much less of the sharp perception that made the present so memorable. (At the least we bought “San Junipero,” although.) Fortunately, just a few years away from the challenge appears to have helped. Season six of Black Mirror, which hit Netflix on June fifteenth, is the sequence at its greatest: Stunning, incisive and sometimes hilarious. It additionally finds new life by trying again into the previous often, in addition to exploring horror extra straight than earlier than.
Minor spoilers forward of Black Mirror season six.
“Joan is Terrible” is the proper approach to kick off the brand new season – it is probably the most stereotypical Black Mirror setup. A disaffected large tech HR employee is shocked to discover a present on Streamberry (an apparent Netflix stand-in) that recounts her day by day life. That features the cringeworthy layoff of a colleague (and supposed buddy), and a therapist appointment the place she reveals she’s dissatisfied along with her fiance.
It is a relatable Millennial malaise setup, the kind of factor Charlie Brooker captured so effectively early on within the sequence. Joan, performed by Schitt’s Creek star Annie Murphy, says she does not really feel like a predominant character in her personal life, so she coasts by all the pieces on autopilot, virtually all the time taking the simplest and fewer confrontational possibility. You’d assume that it will be unlawful for a community to simply recount her life for all of its subscribers — seems, she ought to have learn the Phrases of Service extra carefully.
I will not spoil the place, precisely, that episode goes, or the acquainted faces you find yourself seeing. However because the twists revealed themselves and it reached its inevitable bonkers conclusion, I could not assist however smile. It was like Charlie Brooker shouting at me by the display, “Black Mirror is again, child!”
Netflix
What’s really shocking, although, is that this season of the sequence additionally feels refreshing within the methods it veers away from what we count on. “Loch Henry” is an enchanting exploration of our obsession with true crime dramas, and the affect they’ll have on the folks affected by these tales. However apart from the presence of Streamberry as a service thirsty for true crime narratives, the story is extra cultural than expertise criticism.
Certain, we’ve got extra instruments than ever to make true crime documentaries – there is a drone getting used to make sweeping aerial photographs, and the digital cameras are completely suited to taking pictures in dimly lit basements – however the want to inform and eat these tales is solely human. And in relation to macabre drama we won’t assist ourselves.
Black Mirror additionally features some recent perspective by exploring the previous — or no less than, timelines with out smartphones and ubiquitous quick mobile web. “Past the Sea” is a chic but brutal story set in 1969, specializing in two astronauts on a deep area mission who additionally wirelessly management mechanical our bodies again on Earth. The episode is much less excited by how any of that tech works — simply settle for the thriller, people — and extra about the way it impacts these astronauts, their households and society as a complete.
