Black Mirror Season 6 - First Impressions

[HotDogJoe]

Just finished it. My review that nobody asked for -

ep1 - was definitely the most Black Mirror style episode of the season. It started off decent but I kind of checked out mentally when they explained how it works and it didn't really make any sense. I get that it's explained towards the end but still. Also the whole notion of some big name actress like Salma Hayek showing she has a sense of humor by talking about shitting and her asshole was just a bit cringe to me. Would probably be better on a 2nd viewing.

ep2 - was really good even though it's just very basic horror.

ep3 - could've been the best episode of the season if it had a better ending. It was actually great up til that point and I didn't mind it being slow paced. The ending just made no sense to me at all though. Didn't understand the guy's motivation and they hadn't set him up to be as big a psycho as that throughout the episode so it just didn't ring true. Was saved a lot by the acting.

ep4 - was good but the twist was fucking ludicrous. Kind of funny though just because it was so random. Also what the fuck was the point of it being set in 2006?

ep5 - probably the most enjoyable episode to me even though I know you can go on about it being woke and all that shite. I just think the humor worked a lot better than in the first episode and they also did a really good job of giving it a convincing 70s setting. Soundtrack was really good too.

Overall I'd give the season 7 anal eggs out of 10

 

[Jack_Horner]

Beyond the sea could have been done in half the time. It wasn't too bad but it's rough going sometimes, kinda like being in space. Kate Mara would still get it and Aaron Paul needs to not cry in everything.

Over on Reddit, I wrote "Aaron Paul seems to play the exact same character in everything he does. That works for Jack Nicholson, because he's funny and delightful, but I get the impression that Aaron Paul is cast every time a story needs a bitchy angry dude who cries a lot."

 

[Jack_Horner]

I don't want to ruin the twist, but if you finish the episode everything connects by the end.

You guys are watching the first 10 minutes and getting worked like a bunch of marks.

That's one of the things I liked about the episode in Scotland:

It's beyond obvious that some bean-counter at Netflix has a quota to fill. Gotta have an interracial relationship in one episode, gotta have a troon in another episode, gotta have a cuck in another episode. It's "Degeneracy by Numbers."

But the twist with the black girl was delightful and made up for it.

Like others, I was screaming at my TV for the first ten minutes, irritated by all the Globohomo shit.

 

[Jenna]

ep1 - was definitely the most Black Mirror style episode of the season. It started off decent but I kind of checked out mentally when they explained how it works and it didn't really make any sense. I get that it's explained towards the end but still. Also the whole notion of some big name actress like Salma Hayek showing she has a sense of humor by talking about shitting and her asshole was just a bit cringe to me. Would probably be better on a 2nd viewing.

Spoiler: Watch the episode, nerds

So the entire episode is meta commentary on how soon Hollywood rushes to put up "adaptations", it was inspired by the hulu miniseries about Elizabeth Holmes and how weird it must be for Elizabeth to be in her 30s, watching an adaptation of her life starring Amanda Seyfried.

The "reality" we only see at the very end, Joan's the Joan, Annie's the actress. Level 1 (which we see) Annie's the Joan, Salma's the actress. Level 2 Salma's the Joan, Cate Blanchette's the actress. Etc etc. As such, with each level, each adaptation gets more netflixy. More high profile actors are cast in every role, the series gets more noticbly woke, and the computer keeps taking more liberties with the story for dramatic reasons (having Salma-Joan flick the vape pen at the employee she just fired when Annie-Joan didn't do that). But it still follows the basic plot points of what happened to Real Joan, from firing the black lady to destroying the Netflix supercomputer with an axe, it's just dramatized!

It just tricks us into believing Level 1 is reality because we're conditioned to expect adaptations to be like that. At the beginning of the episode when Annie-Joan's assistant is watching with his partner, he goes "oh my god they made me sooooooo gay". On each subsequent level, the assistant gets more flaming, and the previous assistant is always disgusted watching Netflix have to fag up them. I rewatched it and my favorite part was realizing Salma Hayek is basically playing Annie Murphy (the actress) the entire time, or at least an Alexis Rose clone. It's just more woke, because it went through the Netflix filter yet again. MY ABUELITA DOES NOT WANT ME POOPING IN CHURCH!