Note: This is mostly a rough draft of venting, not a magazine-ready piece, and I wish I wasn’t writing it. Seeing my favorite show destroyed before my eyes, I finally get why Star Trek/Wars, or GoT people have been so upset in the past. Yes TV is TV. But it really feels like a Van Gogh has been painted over. BTW Seasons 1-5 are still highly recommended.
Black Mirror does not have a season 6 as far as I’m concerned. Instead of the entire freaking theme: tech enabled humanity taken to its terrifying conclusion, the writers hacked episodes like a procrastinating 10 year old doing a lame book report, not having read the whole book.
Ideas. We need ideas. Ok, so like imagine you’re watching Netflix (I’m watching it right now to procrastinate from writing new shows.) But. Instead of that: Netflix is watching you! We need a magic machine that makes this fit into our preposterous idea. I know, we’ll throw in the word quantum! I hear smart people say that all the time to seem smart.
This literally is episode 1: Joan Is Awful.
Some basic observations on the other episodes follow. In episode 6, Slayer 79, The idea of a demon is against the whole show’s thesis. Humanity extended should be the demon, which is far scarier, because instead of a lurking monster, we have our neighbors to fear. In episode 5, Mazey Day, the werewolf angle doesn’t end in sci-fi (drug induced hallucination / simulated consciousness, as in Playtest or Men Against Fire from Season 3). The protagonist being gifted the camera indicates it’s a permanent ending with consequences, and therefore is fantasy: not sci-fi. Black Mirror does not do this.
The writers have clearly seen one episode and completely misunderstood it. It occurred to me I could guess which one they watched, based on the terrible episodes the created, so I have a theory:
I’m betting they saw the strange, and perhaps not best Be Right Back, and White Bear, episodes one and two of season two. The farmhouse in Loch Henry resembles closely the Be Right Back setting. In White Bear, we have a frightened female protagonist, being not just chased, but observed, indifferently, as if it’s a zoo.
Perhaps instead of sticking it out to the brilliant ending, which makes sense of it all, they tuned out and assumed it was a quirky horror B movie, much like Mazey Day (fantasy horror) or Lock Henry (crime thriller) of so-called season 6; both featuring the White Bear like female lead in distress.
This would mean they quickly lost interest after sampling a couple season 2 shows. Apparently they thought the show would be better if they murdered its theme and wrote American Horror Story instead. (They clearly didn’t stay on the train until season 3, which has especially exceptional storytelling.) Regardless of this theory, the writers totally missed the point.
There is only one new episode approaching what Black Mirror is supposed to be. It’s the only one I haven’t mentioned so far. Beyond the Sea. I’m not even going to criticize it. I’ll just give it an A for effort, because at least it tried to be in the spirit of why this used to be my favorite show. Actually it still is, I’m just going to pretend it ended at season 5.
-Derek Tee
