TV #33 of 2023:
Black Mirror, season 6
After four long years — twice the length of its previous longest gap — the infamous anthology series is back with another star-studded cast in five new twisted installments. Despite the program’s frequent focus on the dark underbelly of emerging technologies, I’ve always maintained that Black Mirror is a show more about the moral failures (and occasional triumphs) of people than about the devices that happen to aid them. And that feels especially true this time around, with the majority of its episodes — “Loch Henry,” “Mazey Day,” and “Demon 79” — not being particularly tech-driven at all. The last two of those, which close out the season, aren’t even set in the present or future, instead taking place in the decidedly non-dystopian eras of 2006 and 1979 respectively.
Regardless, it’s a strong sequence, although I personally don’t like the pair of horror period pieces quite as much as “Joan Is Awful,” “Loch Henry,” and especially “Beyond the Sea,” which all have some stomach-turning ironic twists to their already-delightful high concepts. A woman finds that the terms and conditions of her streaming service allow it to air a barely-fictionalized version of her life that puts all her flaws on display for the world to see. A couple budding documentarians turn their attention to the history of a local serial killer, only to learn that the case isn’t nearly as cold as anyone thinks. And in the most heartbreaking hour, far-distant astronauts with an Avatar-like connection to cyborg versions of themselves back on earth discover how helpless they are when personal tragedies strike at home.
The shorthand criticism of this series has always been Daniel M. Lavery’s iconic and admittedly funny formulation, “what if phones, but too much,” but in my opinion that’s never been less fair an assessment of the show’s aims, themes, and general operating procedures. Showrunner and primary writer Charlie Booker is producing a modern Twilight Zone here, a genre-hopping tour de force that uses black comedy, shock horror, and political satire to explore the unintended consequences that can spin out from any number of intriguing premises, often with a twist ending adding further impact to the current affair. In the more sci-fi-oriented stories, that can involve smartphones or their imagined descendants, but either way, it’s the core human frailties that really drive the plot, as they continue to do throughout this latest batch.
[Content warning for sexual assault, torture, domestic abuse, racism, gun violence, violence against children, incest, and gore.]
★★★★☆
Like this review?
–Throw me a quick one-time donation here!
https://ko-fi.com/lesserjoke
–Subscribe here to support my writing and weigh in on what I read next!
https://patreon.com/lesserjoke
–Follow along on Goodreads here!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6288479-joe-kessler
–Or click here to browse through all my previous reviews!
https://lesserjoke.home.blog
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 