Charlie Brooker is at it again with a sixth season of everyone's favorite dystopian series. JJ and I are going to watch the first episode tonight.
First episode: Joan is Terrible Spoiler Meh. This episode has Salma Hayek and some woman from some show I've never watched, and it's about a streaming service that makes tailor-made TV shows featuring a fictional version of you, and your life events without your consent (Or do they have consent?). It's definitely an interesting concept, but I don't like how Black Mirror has been adding real life celebrities into their episodes. I liked it better when it was all unknown actors. For example, that episode with Miley Cyrus was hot dog-shit; 1) I fucking hate Miley Cyrus and her dad, and 2) it would have taken the writers maybe five minutes of run-time to establish that this young girl (unknown actor) is a huge pop/ shit music star in that fictional universe, and everyone would have totally bought it. Instead, they probably paid Miley millions, probably cutting into the season's budget drastically. We probably could have had more that five episodes in season five if not for that. What do y'all think? EDIT: One plus was the line "spray hot birria*" made Jungle Julia laugh her fucking ass off. It's some Mexican shit, most of you probably wouldn't understand... *(beeR-E-yah) Roll the "R."
I wasn't too impressed with the new season (havent seen the 2nd episode yet though). I was just having this conversation with my brother. Using super big names kills the vibe of the show. They crammed Under The Sea with A listers and it ended up taking me out of it. I really prefer the great BBC casting which worked out well in Episode 6, Demon, which I think was probably the best of the season. Spoiler Joan is Awful was the only episode that dealt with the perils of technology and for going into production probably year and a half ago almost hit the zeitgeist of AI right on the head. I just didnt like it because it went meta meta and slapstick. Just felt uneven, whole season did really. I think Brooker might have taken the "the real world has been too terrible for the past few years to handle Black Mirror" sentiment to heart. So many scary things AIs and supper computers could become and he has Salma Hayek clattering around in high heels. Under The Sea was set up so well I had high hopes it would be the best of the season and I was breathlessly wondering where it was going to go after Rory Culkin Mansoned Josh Hartnett's family. Then it sunk into a cliched love triangle set up with A list Avataars. The ending didn't seem believable that Aaron Paul would have his wife Kate Mara and child murdered by Josh Hartnett and decide he was just going to grit it out on the spaceship alone with him. What did he have to live for at that point? Why not open all the airlocks and kill both of them? Weird uneven. Mazey Day. This episode was just too short and whatever deeper meaning he was going for with the Twilight Zone werewolf twist was lost on the short run time. Demon was my favorite. Not tech related. Just a quirky dark comedy executed and acted brilliantly by two atypical British actors. For me what the promise of streamers like Netflix could have been if theyd stuck with finding quality producers over the mass content they became (but not parodied well in Joan Is Terrible). Ill report back when I finish episode 2.