Black Mirror Season 6 Episode Is About How Terrible Netflix Is For Society
Black Mirror Season 6 will turn Netflix into an evil force that's destroying society.
Ever since Netflix branded its own comedy platform under the title “Netflix is a Joke” it seemed clear that the corporation wasn’t above making fun of itself or letting creators contracted by the streamer crack jokes at their expense. Of course, Charlie Brooker seems to have taken things a step further with the upcoming release of Black Mirror Season 6, which Empire reports will take aim at the streamer with a thinly veiled critique of Netflix’s impact on society. This seems to build on a recent trend of studios allowing themselves to be painted as the bad guys in their own properties, in an effort to read as folksy and relatable to the general public.
Black Mirror season 6 is set to premiere on Netflix on June 15, with a five-episode season said to be one of the series’ darkest yet. The anthology series has long utilized high sci-fi concepts and character-driven stories to explore complex themes regarding humanity and its relationship to advanced technology, often lampooning high-tech devices and modern media in the process. The Season 6 premiere, “Joan is Awful,” appears to take a more modern approach, using a tongue-in-cheek reference to a video streaming service titled “Strawberry” in an obvious attack on the Netflix platform.
Series creator and lead writer Charlie Brooker has explained that he received almost no pushback whatsoever from the streamer regarding Black Mirror Season 6, even though the episode synopsis sounds particularly scathing. The episode follows a woman named Joan, portrayed by Schitt’s Creek‘s Annie Murphy, who learns that her life is being turned into a streaming series, with Salma Hayek playing her in the adaptation. The episode seems to malign Netflix as a farcical and wholly negative leach on the world around it, with detrimental impacts on society and the public at large.
Brooker joked during his interview with Empire about the speed with which Netflix agreed to be parodied in Black Mirror Season 6, expressing that the streamer’s willingness to be in on the joke nearly extinguished his anarchist anti-establishment perspective. This should come as no surprise as a growing trend in Hollywood has seen studios agreeing to take center stage as antagonists in their own properties.
Recently, Warner Brothers have agreed to appear as a villainous organization in projects such as The Matrix: Resurrections, as well as the fourth and final season of HBO’s Barry. The upcoming Barbie film also utilizes the “evil studio” tactic, with Will Ferrell appearing as a crazed Mattel toys CEO, bent on death and destruction in the name of profits. Still, these examples seem to pale in comparison to Black Mirror Season 6’s portrayal of Netflix, which appears to be particularly brutal on the streaming service.
Black Mirror is set to premiere its long-awaited Season 6 on June 15, with a star-studded guest cast including Breaking Bad‘s Aaron Paul, Atlanta‘s Zazie Beetz, and Salma Hayek, as well as a number of other highly talented performers. Netflix subscribers looking to vent some frustrations about the service’s latest crackdown on password sharing may be keen to tune in and blow off some steam regarding their complicated love/hate relationship with the premiere episode.
