Stranger Things
2016
Search results
Rating
Jun 15, 2023 · ‘Black Mirror’ Review: Charlie Brooker Delivers a Hit-or-Miss Sixth Season. The acclaimed anthology returns to Netflix with five episodes about technology, media and human nature, featuring...
- Angie Han
Jun 15, 2023 · With high-tech dystopias and pointed satire, and a cast including Aaron Paul, Josh Hartnett, Salma Hayek Pinault and Kate Mara, Black Mirror season six aims high – but its two final episodes...
Jun 15, 2023 · ‘Black Mirror’ Season 6 Is a Refreshingly Uncynical Return to Form: TV Review. By Daniel D'Addario. Courtesy of Netflix. The first episode of “ Black Mirror ’s” new, sixth season...
Jun 16, 2023 · The Netflix anthology series Black Mirror hasn't presented any new episodes since 2019. But now it's back, with a new season of five fresh episodes from writer-producer Charlie Brooker and...
- Netflix's anthology series moves away from dystopian sci-fic, with mixed results.
- Black Mirror Season 6 Images
- What's your favorite Black Mirror episode?
- Best Black Mirror Episodes
- Verdict
- Black Mirror Season 6 Review
- More Reviews by Samantha Nelson
- IGN Recommends
By Samantha Nelson
Posted: Jun 15, 2023 7:01 am
Black Mirror creator and writer Charlie Brooker has some big ambitions for the anthology show’s sixth season, but the attempt to shift from suspenseful science-fiction to horror and bleak drama is largely disappointing. The single standout episode among the five is the one that wasn’t entirely written by Brooker, demonstrating that if he wants Black Mirror to branch out from the dystopian stories he’s best known for, he should keep seeking partners to help realize the vision.
A full three of this season’s episodes are set in some version of the past, one is in the present, and only the premiere, Joan Is Awful, feels like a traditional Black Mirror episode in that it focuses on exploring the potentially dangerous impacts of new technology. Brooker does well in the comfortable terrain as he takes aim at Netflix itself – dubbed Streamberry in the show – and its addiction to true crime stories that don’t require the consent of the real people portrayed.
The episode follows Joan (Annie Murphy), who feels like a supporting character in her own life until she sees herself played by Salma Hayek Pinault in a new streaming show that somehow has access to her most private moments. It’s a blistering critique of an entertainment industry that profits from the exploitation of people’s stories and images, and a warning about the use of AI to generate personalized stories. But it’s also hilarious, from the subtle ways that Joan’s story is exaggerated to the ludicrous lengths she goes through to try to retake control of her life. Michael Cera also makes a wonderful cameo to deliver some heavily meta exposition.
Loch Henry unfolds too slowly towards an obvious twist and then keeps going.
“
Loch Henry continues Brooker’s attack on true crime, this time by following a couple who set out to film a documentary about a serial killer who was active in a small Scottish town. The work from Luther and I Will Destroy You director Sam Miller feels a bit like stumbling into a David Fincher story 20 years later when the central players are all dead or broken, the town itself is basically a ghost, and what secrets are still there would be better left buried. While that setting has potential, the episode unfolds too slowly towards an obvious twist and then keeps going, just so Brooker can really drive home his point about who actually benefits from this kind of entertainment.
Be Right Back
The Entire History of You
Fifteen Million Merits
San Junipero
USS Callister
Other - Tell us in the comments
I would have written off this season as a near-total failure if not for Demon 79, which Booker co-wrote with Ms. Marvel head writer Bisha K. Ali. It’s introduced as “A Red Mirror Film” presented by Black Mirror as a way to make it clear the show is going for something very different, and it fully lives up to that expectation. It draws a connection to the series’ other offshoot, Bandersnatch, by sharing a symbolic Easter egg and a protagonist who may or may not be descending into total insanity.
Ali brings her talent for humor to a bizarre episode following a quiet shoe seller (Anjana Vasan) navigating microaggressions and outright anti-immigrant hostility in 1979 Northern England who is given a shocking outlet for her violent fantasies. Paapa Essiedu shines as her disco-fabulous homicidal guide and tormentor, turning the episode into a particularly dark version of Good Omens mixed with It’s a Wonderful Life. Demon 79 keeps delivering a mix of hilarious and emotional surprises up until the final moments.
Season 6 of Black Mirror has more misses than hits, but at least there are two winners among the five episodes. Demon 79 shows that Charlie Brooker’s experimentation outside of the traditional Black Mirror box can pay off, while Joan Is Awful delivers some funny meta-humor that mixes well with the show’s classic dark spin on science fiction. Luckil...
Review scoring
okay
Black Mirror season 6 expands beyond dystopian science fiction, but only two of five episodes are bright spots.
Samantha Nelson
Jun 15, 2023 · Black Mirror: Season 6 Genre: Sci-Fi, Drama; Air Date: Jun 15, 2023; Network: Netflix; Do you think we mischaracterized a critic's review?
Jun 16, 2023 · Black Mirror Season 6: Every Episode, Reviewed If real life and Black Mirror have reached some kind of bizarre convergence point, what is left for the show to say about our future? By...
