Black Mirror season 6: exploring Netflix’s sci-fi anthology, one episode at a time – The Verge

Black Mirror’s ‘Joan is Awful’ shits all over the future of streaming

2023-06-17T09:00:00-04:00

Annie Murphy gets a little filthy and very funny as she fights for a better future for streaming. | Photo by Nick Wall / Netflix

Right now in Hollywood, the screenwriters of the Writers Guild of America are on strike. And one reason they're on strike is the fear that AI will take their jobs, churning out mediocre content quickly and cheaply that helps streamers' bottom lines even if it doesn't contribute much culturally speaking. (Disclosure: The Verge's editorial staff is represented by the Writers Guild of America East.) Actors have also announced an intent to strike, and one reason is their desire to preserve the rights to their own likenesses, so streamers can't build digital facsimiles that do all the work with none of the pay. Directors are voting on their own c …

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Black Mirror’s ‘Mazey Day’ is a brisk, bloody bite of celebrity crisis

2023-06-16T12:35:13-04:00

As Black Mirror episodes have continued to balloon to the size of full-blown movies, season 6's "Mazey Day" is almost refreshing: it's a compact 40 minutes that rushes by in a fit of flashing lights. It's a story about celebrities and their unhealthy and often dangerous relationship to the press - the paparazzi, in particular. It's fun but, because it moves so quickly, its premise ultimately isn't explored with much nuance.

"Mazey Day," from director Uta Briesewitz, is about two characters living in parallel who inevitably clash. To start, there's Bo (Zazie Beetz), a paparazzi living in LA who is starting to question her place among her see …

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Black Mirror’s ‘Loch Henry’ can’t decide whether to indulge in true crime or critique it

2023-06-16T10:34:40-04:00

Davis (Samuel Blenkin) and Pia (Myha’la Herrold) in “Loch Henry.” | Image: Netflix

Black Mirror is known as a series about the dangers of technology, but it's often more specifically about the corrupting influence of entertainment. Spectatorship makes us cruel, the show suggests over and over, turning other humans' real pain into fodder for our own amusement. The sixth season episode "Loch Henry" fits into this dynamic but in a way that feels surprisingly anemic, neither exploring the potential ugliness of its premise nor developing characters who transcend it.

At the beginning of "Loch Henry," Davis (Samuel Blenkin) is a film student returning home with his girlfriend Pia (Myha'la Herrold). It's supposed to be a brief st …

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Black Mirror’s ‘Beyond the Sea’ is a slow-motion tragedy in the depths of space

2023-06-15T14:00:00-04:00

Aaron Paul as Cliff in “Beyond the Sea.” | Image: Nick Wall / Netflix

"Beyond the Sea" is the rarest breed of Black Mirror episode: the kind driven by empathy. Carried by a cast that includes Aaron Paul, Josh Hartnett, and Kate Mara, it's equal parts character study and Twilight Zone creeping horror - a story focused less on the series' typical social commentary than on three people whose impossible situation leads to an inevitably tragic end.

The episode is set in an alternate 1969 where two astronauts are midway through a six-year mission. Although their bodies are stuck in a cramped spacecraft, they spend most of their time inhabiting a pair of lifelike telepresence "replicas" on Earth. David (Hartnett) ma …

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Black Mirror’s ‘Demon 79’ is a stressful slice of supernatural horror

2023-06-15T13:17:33-04:00

While Black Mirror started out as a series exploring the myriad terrifying ways technology could impact our lives, it has since grown into a more general genre anthology. It's nice when episodes have that techno focus, but it's no longer a necessity. Case in point: "Demon 79," a season 6 story that's pure classic horror homage. Its premise wouldn't be out of place in a collection like Tales From the Crypt or Cabinet of Curiosities. But don't let the lack of Black Mirror-ness dissuade you - this episode is a blast of Hitchcockian scares with just the right kind of twist.

"Demon 79" - which was directed by Toby Haynes and written by Ms. Marve …

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Black Mirror’s sixth season hits Netflix on June 15th

2023-05-31T09:58:18-04:00

Black Mirror's sixth season will land on Netflix on June 15th. The streamer revealed the release date in a new trailer on Wednesday, which gives us a more detailed look at what to expect from the mind-bending series, as opposed to the teaser we saw last month.

The upcoming installment will consist of five new episodes, including one where a woman realizes that a streaming platform that looks - and sounds - a lot like Netflix created an adaptation based on her life. This particular story is called "Joan Is Awful" and stars Schitt's Creek's Annie Murphy as well as Michael Cera and Salma Hayek.

Black Mirror Season 6 premieres June 15 on Netfl …

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Netflix’s sixth season of Black Mirror will be out in June, and here’s the first teaser

2023-04-26T11:50:22-04:00

We knew a sixth season of Netflix's Black Mirror was on the way, but now, we know a lot more about it: a new teaser trailer shared Wednesday reveals that the season will be out in June and features big actors like Aaron Paul, Kate Mara, and Salma Hayek.

In a blog post, Netflix is promising that the season will be the show's "most unpredictable" yet. The company isn't saying why that is just yet, but a quote from Charlie Brooker, the show's creator, sheds a bit of light on what you can look forward to.

"The stories are all still tonally Black Mirror through-and-through"

"Partly as a challenge, and partly to keep things fresh for both me and …

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Black Mirror’s coming back for a sixth series

2022-05-16T09:50:48-04:00

Will Poulter as Colin Ritman. | Image: Netflix

No matter how much time passes between Black Mirror's seasons, the series always manages to feel just as unsettlingly prescient as when it first began airing. It isn't exactly surprising that Netflix is working on yet another installment of the tech-focused dystopian series, but it seems as if our next taste of Black Mirror's going to be a little different than what we've seen before.

Variety reports that Netflix has greenlit Black Mirror and is currently in pre-production for its sixth series - the details for which are largely being kept quiet. Unlike the interactive Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and fifth series that came before it, Black M …

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