Season 6 breakdown of episodes tech or trope? (Feel free to contribute)
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Black Mirror
Phaenon — 2 years ago(June 16, 2023 06:16 PM)
This is an abridged overview of the episodes from Season 6 of Black Mirror and is intended to see if the dark comedy and tragedy of prior seasons holds up, or improves upon, with its stories.
Feel free to add, disagree or suggest edits to make it a trophy of collective appreciate of cinematic art
Joan Is Awful
Joan is awful is a metaphoric look at how our overall lives would be if everything we did, thought or reacted to was available, in a highly stylised cut, to the general public without of consent or prior knowledge. Sort of like The Truman Show but completely automated and rendered in effective deep fake video.
While there are plenty of comedy points, terrors of EULAs that nobody reads prior to agreeing to and general nastiness to some aspects of everyday humans it is, to my mind at least, a general existential breakdown of identity and who we hide from ourselves and others depending on the situation.
Loch Henry
Loch Henry was a little easier on the tech front, but still tying into Joan Is Awful with some branding fronts. In essence it is a mixture of the exploration of isolation via the Highlands of Scotland and the lack of technology available there (Such as mbile phone reception), a found-footage documentary and a good old M.R. James scary story. The true crime tourism aspect is certainly relevant within Social Media and how things can be hot or not depending on what the news is reporting on at any given time.
Beyond the Sea
In this Hitchcockian tale technology is used rather back-to-frontly as two skilled men have split existences; one here on Earth with their families and the other on some far fllung mission in outser space which will take 6 years to complete in total. Rather than leave their flesh-and-blood selves here on Earth and send their animatronic avatars into space (Which would have been more sensible I reckon) the space agency involved has two men communicate with earth via
wireless
technology whilst away. Trouble occurs on Earth and one man is left much more isolated than he was before, torn completely and lacking motivation and possibly sanity after a while. Through a brilliantly classic flip of the story can you trust who someone is just by the way they look and act. Extermely Kafka-esque story reliant solely on technology to make its point, but not the universe back on Earth in any way.
Mazey Day
Celebrity, drugs, drama, paparazzi, chasing the money this was a great story in terms of being enjoyable. Technology certainly took a backseat in this one for me with an iPod Nano, a 128Mg SD card and some gossip sites on the Internet. I had great fun with it but I don't think that it was a great example of Dark Mirror's usual fare with regards to story. Could be more alagorical elements to it, which hopefully we can develop somewhere in this thread.
Demon 79
Fun story, lots of music videos and songs being played on equipment of the era it is set in, but mostly about the potential quick horrors of Mutually Assured Destruction between atomic powers of that time. Set design and racially aggravating features were done very well, soft enough to be accepted as real, but hard enough to be as brutal as they are perceived by those in the know. It did feel like a reverse whodunnit, which was fun, and the actors all had great chemistry regardless of their character. Pushing it on the Minutes to Midnight technology vibe but, cnnsidering when it was set, believeable as many things were still new at the time and those which were not, had seen hard times which everyone remembered. Fun but more Black Mirror Retro than a modern episode would usually be.
Right! That's my brief overview of each episode of this season, what say you each and let's see if we can't get ourselves shaving adverts and **** out of being awesome at adding to the mi of it all whilst hot
Ding Dong
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Phaenon — 2 years ago(June 16, 2023 09:07 PM)
I doubt anything can beat seaason 1 due to its timing with events which took place during the then Prime Minister's time at Oxbridge but this season has at least 50% of the same kick as season 1 overall NZer
Ding Dong
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Phaenon — 2 years ago(July 02, 2023 02:04 PM)
A lot of work was put into making it seem like 1979 and the Red Mirror production company title was a good laugh too Dazed
It certainly was a stand along episode even though there were many tiny tie-ins to events that happen elsewhere in the Black Mirror universe.
I find it odd though that the run she picked up at the beginning only had two prongs on it and not three or none
Ding Dong
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— 2 years ago(July 02, 2023 03:07 PM)The lighting worked very well to give The 70's feel along with The Orange and Beige colour scheme!
The only strange thing to me was a young Indian woman living alone in 1979 but I guess that was explained sufficiently with the mother's photo.
It's a shame she didn't take out the racist shop assistant! -
Phaenon — 2 years ago(July 02, 2023 03:15 PM)
It's a shame she didn't take out the racist shop assistant!
I know! As I said earlier it was like a reverse whodunnit as some were bad uns' and some were worse
The colouring, set design and costume were all very well put together, could have done with a couple of upside down dalek heads hanging from the ceiling in the store but perfect beyond that.
The strange thing to me Dazed was a young Indian ethnicity woman, living alone, eating fish and chips while watching Top of the Pops after work having a biryani in a Stork tub for lunch the next day.
Making biryani is akin to making a lasagne and ain't no small feat
Maybe a neighbour with a large famiy gave her some
Ding Dong
!
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The Strange Agent — 2 years ago(July 02, 2023 03:06 PM)
i think Demon 79 was ****ing awesome! i enjoyed all of the episodes for what they were…but would rather the tech take the front seat on future seasons.
i really dug Joan too…but that might be because all i could see during the end was Twiz in that yellow outfit!!! yes….i watch all programming with deepfake in mind -
Phaenon — 2 years ago(July 02, 2023 02:05 PM)
I liked Beyond the Sea but it was pretty much a given how it would turn out.
Good acting from Aaron Paul and the ambiguity of when the show was taking place in human history was a nice touch.
But yes, I can definitely see how it didn't compare to the others Panther
Ding Dong
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