After 4 years, a new season of Charlie Brooker’s anthology series Black Mirror is back. Black Mirror Season 6 premiered on Netflix on 15 June 2023.
Black Mirror is a science fiction anthology series whose standalone episodes usually focus on the human condition and how technology influences us (usually for the worse) down a dark and twisted path.
Black Mirror Season 6 Episodes:
1. Joan is Awful
2. Loch Henry
3. Beyond the Sea
4. Mazey Day
5. Demon 79
The Good
I am a huge fan of Black Mirror and have written a fiction story inspired by the show. The show’s episodes are always thought provoking and tend to be unpredictable in how the plot plays out.
Read: Of The Intercepted Ones. (A Black Mirror inspired story)
The show does not tend to have A lister actors and so I was pleasantly surprised to see Salma Hayek in the first episode Joan Is Awful… Of all the episodes, the opening episode best captures what has been the essence Black Mirror…
A warped reflection of how given sufficient tech, humans will use it to magnify toxic behaviour, as we tend to feed on negative energy, a point also reiterated in other episodes such as where a true crime documentary is made and another where paparazzi hunt for the money shot.
Season 6 of Black Mirror has two episodes that feature a streaming service that is a satire of parody of Netflix in ways that make me want to ask if Netflix agreed to the terms and conditions… it gives the show a sort of breaking the fourth wall sort of vibe.
In season six, the show breaks past the confines of its more traditional premise and the majority of the stories are actually set pre-current technology giving a retro-speculative approach, show creator and writer Charlie Brooker told Tudum that it should be undefinable:
“I’ve always felt that Black Mirror should feature stories that are entirely distinct from one another, and keep surprising people — and myself — or else what’s the point? It should be a series that can’t be easily defined,and can keep reinventing itself,” Charlie Brooker
The final episode presents a new addition to the Black Mirror production, A Red Mirror Film episode which is less tech-dystopia/media-satire and a more supernatural horror crime genre.
The show also has some great soundtracks and I curated a playlist of the songs featured in season 6 of Black Mirror.
Play: Music from Black Mirror Season 6 🎶 🎶
The Bad
Can someone please tell Mr Charlie Brooker its ok to not have each and every episode have some WTF plot twist going on that will have you searching the internet to figure out how you are supposed to feel about what you just watched….
Some of the episodes end up running a little too long to make room for an added twist which the episode could have ended without… And yeah you may need to cue up a light-hearted watch afterwards….
The Ugly
I am still not sure if the Black Mirror world is ready for a reset, granted my top episodes in this show might actually be the ones that were the least technologic/media satire but it didn’t quite feel like what I have to come to associate with Black Mirror..
The show’s creator says he wants to move past the premise that technology is evil… “its not tech that is evil but humans that are weak.“
Lastly, why only 5 episodes…. I have finished watching and wondering what to do with myself.
Final Thoughts
Season 6 has been worth the 4 year wait and I think the episodes track better than previous season. The episode length range from 40 – 80 minutes with some even feeling like short movie projects.
There is no news yet if another episode is coming but the grapevine seems to be suggesting that the next season of Black Mirror just might come out June 2024.
Have you watched previous seasons of Black Mirror and have you watched the new season?.. If yes which episodes stood out for you in Season 6.
Becoming The Muse 
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