It's been four years since the last batch of "Black Mirror" episodes, and Charlie Brooker has returned with five stories that aren't quite what we've come to expect from the show. One installment is a "Red Mirror" story, a horror piece with some social commentary, but nothing to do with technology. Three of the five stories take place in the past, or other versions of the past. I liked all of them to some extent, though as usual some are stronger than others. I've ranked them below from best to least.
1. "Joan is Awful" - The most typically "Black Mirror" installment of this series spoofs Netflix itself, imagining what would happen if an ordinary person became the subject of their own, highly invasive tell-all documentary. The excellent use of the guest stars, especially Salma Hayek in prime comedic form, gives this some extra punch. The premise is more existential than usual, more "Twilight Zone" than typical "Black Mirror," but Brooker does raise some good points about privacy, clickthrough agreements, AI generated content, and likeness rights. You can see the ending coming a long way off, but at least it's an emotionally satisfying one.
2. "Demon 79" - This is the "Red Mirror" episode, which plays out like a period British horror movie, set in 1979. Anjana Vasan does a great job playing a quiet, timid immigrant woman, who is tasked with committing three murders to stave off the apocalypse. I just love the whole tone of this, the way that the supernatural elements are mixed into the story, and the way we're kept guessing until the very end. Papa Essiedu playing Vasan's guardian demon, but made up to look like the guy from Boney M, is just delightful. Straight thrillers are pretty hit or miss for me, but this is a good one, and there's also a lot going on here related to the social climate of the UK, which is handled very well.
3. "Beyond the Sea" - I really disliked how the ending to this played out after spending so much time building up a really interesting, nuanced set of relationships among the three main characters. It feels like Brooker went with the least interesting outcome, though it is more in line with the more nihilistic earlier seasons of "Black Mirror." Still, if you lose the last five minutes, "Beyond the Sea" is very close to being one of the best installments of "Black Mirror." It takes a very flawed premise and uses it to explore themes of marriage and toxic relationships with rare intensity. The performances here are so good, it makes me sad we do not see Aaron Paul and Josh Hartnett in more dramatic roles like this.
4. "Loch Henry" - Not much to criticize here, but not much about this stands out either. It's your standard story about a pair of filmmakers putting together a true-crime documentary, where they get more than they bargained for. The shots taken at the true crime genre are very clever, but at the same time the whole thing relies on a couple of big shocks that didn't work too well for me. This is the one episode this year that is totally contemporary and contains no speculative or fantasy elements. And while it does rally against the misuse of media, it's the kind of media that's been with us, in one form or another, since long before the internet age. And that brings us to…
5. "Mazey Day" - A portrait of an unscrupulous paparazzo, played by Zazie Beetz, who is racing to get the first picture of a movie star in deep trouble. If it weren't for the paparazzi element, this easily could have been another "Red Mirror" installment. Again, I don't have too many issues with this episode. It just wasn't as good as the others. I think the execution was the biggest culprit, as the material should have provided plenty of opportunity for thrills and chills on multiple levels, but nothing here really got under my skin.
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