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Yep, I’m going to taking a look at Netflix’s latest offering of its dark sci-fi anthology show, season 6 (series 6 for those in the UK) of Black Mirror.

And of course I’m going to be issuing a SPOILER ALERT. Actually I’m not going to be presenting extensive plot synopses of the episodes, but still, watch the season first (assuming you’re intending to). 😐

There, now that we’ve got that out of the way, we can go on to the “fun.” I’ve been a fan of the show since the beginning, when it originated in the UK. I first saw the episode “Fifteen Million Merits”, and although I liked it, I wasn’t immediately blown away by it. Then I saw subsequent episodes and then was totally blown away by the show! I am a huge fan of both The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits and was impressed by creator Charlie Brooker’s own take on The Twilight Zone, actually doing a more faithful job than the 3 TZ revival series (although I do actually like the 80s revival of the show).

Now admittedly although I think that seasons 1-4 of Black Mirror and the “White Christmas” and “Bandersnatch” specials are totally brilliant, I wasn’t that impressed with season 5. “Striking Vipers” had the dubious notion of two dudes that enjoyed playing video games together eventually having “cyber sex” in their new, hyper realistic avatars (a man and a woman). I thought that “Smithereens” started out strong but then got bogged down a bit, although I suppose the character of Smithereens CEO “Billy Bauer” was sort of interesting as a quasi Mark Zuckerberg/Jack Dorsey/Elon Musk type of character. And while having a couple of good ideas, as well as Miley Cyrus, “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too” fell flat in my opinion.

Actually I felt that season 6 started out strong with “Joan Is Awful”, dealing with both an amusing but also an unsettling and erie premise. And it was one of those cases where I was trying to figure out what I had seen actress Annie Murphy in, and then I realized it was Schitt’s Creek! 😀

Of course these are all my subjective opinions, obviously other people will have different reactions, etc.

I thought that “Loch Henry” was a decent Black Mirror entry, although it didn’t feature any tech twists and it did remind me partially of the Tales of the Unexpected episode “The Flypaper”, so I could guess in advance where it was headed.

“Beyond The Sea” is a very disturbing episode, and so yes, definitely in keeping with the overall tone of Black Mirror. And initially I was confused because I didn’t realize that it was supposed to take place in an alternate reality 1969. And it was also in keeping with Black Mirror‘s overarching theme of dealing with the ramifications of a near future technology that we are not totally prepared for. And yeah, it did feature actor Aaron Paul (“Jesse Pinkman” from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul) in one of the lead roles, which is always a positive. I also liked the inclusion of the chason song La Mer by Charles Trenet, which alludes to the english language version of the song “Beyond The Sea” and ties into one of the episode’s themes of lovers separated by an enormous distance. The group based on the Manson Family was interesting, but it is true that Quentin Tarantino had just explored this territory in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Oh boy, then we get to the howler “Mazey Day” (in more ways than one)! 😱 Yikes, what was Charlie Brooker thinking?! It starts out pretty good with a paparazzi pursuing a starlet sort of based on Britney Spears going to an exclusive rehab facility. Then comes the “big reveal” and we are presented with another cliched werewolf story! Seriously?! Suddenly the supernatural rears its unearthly head in a supposedly sci-fi series. And to make matters worse, the production/post production team did a total ripoff of makeup artist Rick Baker’s amazing werewolf transformation scene from An American Werewolf in London. Lame, folks! (And this is coming from the “Howling at the Moon” blog. 😐)

To be honest, I couldn’t even get through “Demon 79” entirely. The minute the reveal was of a totally cheezy “demon” who assumes the guise of Boney M.’s lead man Bobby Farrell, yours truly said, “I’m done!” 😕

Now, one thing I could reflect on was that although The Outer Limits was totally a science-fiction series, albeit sometimes a very weird science-fiction series, The Twilight Zone did visit the realms of both science-fiction and fantasy. So I suppose Mr. Brooker could use that as an argument since he has gone on record that he was definitely influenced by TZ. And as someone has pointed out, it is his show (along with producer Annabel Jones).

But yeah, I thought that although the season started out strong it totally took a nosedive (another easter egg!) in the last two episodes. Speaking of easter eggs, yeah there are quite a few in this season. We see a return of the “Quagmire” club from “San Junipero”, streaming service “Streamberry” (similar to the appearance of Netflix in “Bandersnatch”), the TV show “Red Mirror“, “Loch Henry” is mentioned in “Joan Is Awful”, etc. Thankfully though, the song “Anyone Who Knows What Love Is” didn’t make an appearance for once (I sort of liked the song at one time but because of the overplay on the show I now totally hate it). And there were other pop culture references as well, such as The Blair Witch Project (stay tuned for an upcoming blog entry on that), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Sapphire and Steel (actually another one of my favorite fantastical shows), Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress novel, and Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man short story collection among others.

Some people have commented that “Netflix has ruined another great show” and that Charlie Brooker doesn’t have as much creative control over the show as he once did. Huh? He wrote “Mazey Day” and co-wrote “Demon 79” with Bisha Ali, as well as writing the other three episodes for season 6. Actually I came across a comment by some nitwit on IMDB that said that it was a shame that Black Mirror was no longer a family friendly show. WHAT?! Of course in the first episode, “The National Anthem”, the Prime Minister of Great Britain is forced to have sex with a pig! 😱

As other commentators have noted, the tech world has caught up with Black Mirror with AI systems like ChatGPT, Apple’s new Vision Pro goggles, deep fake technology, etc. so the show is in a bit of a quandary. And I’m not sure that Brooker’s answer to the problem by going retro and supernatural is the right one. “Beyond The Sea”’s retro take was cleverly done, but the use of VHS in “Loch Henry” and having “Demon 79” take place in 1979 is literally taking a step backwards which I think defeats the initial premise of the show.