{"id":49460,"date":"2023-06-26T23:51:38","date_gmt":"2023-06-27T04:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=49460"},"modified":"2023-06-30T15:57:14","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T20:57:14","slug":"lets-talk-about-black-mirror-s6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=49460","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s talk about Black Mirror S6"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"border-image alignnone wp-image-49461 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/everyoneawful.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"559\" height=\"279\" srcset=\"https:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/everyoneawful.jpg 559w, https:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/everyoneawful-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 559px) 100vw, 559px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Lately, I\u2019ve been taking a break from doing deliveries and using the time to completely unwind and watch television in my evenings, catching up on several shows that have been on my endless notepad document list of things I want to watch.\u00a0 Where with every series that I catch up on, three more are added to the list, and it\u2019ll probably never come close to being finished.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Regardless, I\u2019m of the type that doesn\u2019t really like to bounce around too much, and once I get locked into a specific series, I pretty much spend every available minute watching that series if I can help it.\u00a0 I\u2019m currently going through <em>Better Call Saul<\/em> (fantastic show, btw), but when I got wind that <em>Black Mirror<\/em> was going to be dropping season 6 soon, I knew that they were going to be an exception that got to jump the queue and interrupt my nightly binges of Saul Goodman.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The good part about seasons of Black Mirror is that they\u2019re short, so there\u2019s not a tremendous time commitment that needs to go to them.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to finish a season in a week, over a binge-y weekend, or for those who have little else in terms of responsibilities, in a night if you\u2019re ambitious.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The bad part about seasons of Black Mirror is that they\u2019re short, and if you\u2019re really enjoying all of the stories, it\u2019s over in the blink of an eye, and just like that you\u2019re back to the same place you were last week; in a world where there\u2019s no upcoming new season of Black Mirror and wondering when it is until the next one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">At five episodes in total, it\u2019s up to quality to determine how good of a season S6 was going to be, and when it comes to Black Mirror, I typically judge them on a three-part criteria, where the overall grade is mostly determined on the aggregate.\u00a0 I judge each episode on: technology, writing and artistry, where the best episodes excel at all of them, where other episodes throughout the series have been up and down in some but not all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">So with all that in mind, let\u2019s talk about Black Mirror S6, and there will probably be spoilers in this diatribe so be warned for all zero people who read my shit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><!--more--><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>#1: Beyond the Sea, episode 3<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">This is obviously the one episode that the series put most of their eggs in, this season.\u00a0 With star power out the wazoo with Aaron Paul, Josh Hartnett and Kate Mara headlining the episode, it\u2019s a good story that does well in all facets of my judging scale, but it\u2019s the technology aspect where they\u2019re at the top of the class of all episodes this season.\u00a0 The writing is solid, but it\u2019s a pretty predictable plot, and doesn\u2019t have any of the real wtf jaw drop plot twists that some fans like me come to expect from the series in general.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Tech: 10<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Writing: 7<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Artistry: 8<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>#2: Joan Is Awful, episode 1<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Rubric-wise, Joan Is Awful isn\u2019t my #1 episode of the season, but on a personal entertainment level, I\u2019d still say it was my favorite episode of the season.\u00a0 It\u2019s a fun and entertaining episode that made me laugh, and not feel all depressed and thinking about my existence like a lot of heavier Black Mirror episodes have accomplished in seasons past.\u00a0 I\u2019m a fan of Annie Murphy in general, but the tech was above average, the writing was entertaining and had a little bit of a twist, and if there\u2019s an episode this season where my mind thinks of when thinking of the season as a whole, it\u2019s this one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Tech: 7<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Writing: 7<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Artistry: 5<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>#3: Loch Henry, episode 2<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Without question, the strongest writing of the season was this episode.\u00a0 It\u2019s funny because it comes up in later episodes or just in discussions about some of the less-popular episodes throughout the series, about how when an episode doesn\u2019t <em>feel<\/em> like an episode of Black Mirror because they\u2019re lacking in something, usually technology, because that\u2019s kind of what the series was built on.\u00a0 But Loch Henry is an interesting case, because it\u2019s an episode that has no advanced technology, or much technology at all to begin with, but it\u2019s still a strong episode based on its strength of writing along with a lot of beautiful cinematography that acts like a brochure for Scotland tourism.\u00a0 As the plot unfolds, it still manages to feel like Black Mirror, even with the handicap in technology, which puts it firmly in the upper tier of the season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Tech: 2<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Writing: 10<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Artistry: 6<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>#4: Demon 79, episode 5<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Literally the only thing that made this a Black Mirror episode is the fact that in the opening credits it said \u201cBlack Mirror Presents.\u201d\u00a0 This episode could have stood alone entirely on its own outside of Black Mirror, but I suppose being slapped with that Black Mirror inclusion is what is going to get people to see this in the first place, because I really can\u2019t say that I\u2019d have sought this out on my own if not.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Taking place on Earth in 1979, the episode has no technology to speak of whatsoever, but the writing is strong with a linear plot with a few twists and swerves to keep things interesting.\u00a0 The stylization of the whole episode is done well, and makes it feel like a piece from the 70s as if I know what it\u2019s like since I was born in the 80s.\u00a0 It\u2019s an entertaining episode in its own right, but it very much falls into that category of \u201cnot feeling like\u201d Black Mirror, which is what drops this to the lower tier of the season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Tech: 1<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Writing: 8<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Artistry: 8<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>#5: Mazey Day, episode 4<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Which brings us to the bottom of the rankings, we have Mazey Day.\u00a0 Not only did this episode not feel anything at all like an episode of Black Mirror, the writing was not particularly thrilling, artistically there\u2019s nothing that stands out or redeems the rest of the episode.\u00a0 Swirling around paparazzi in Los Angeles, there\u2019s nothing at all technological about the story, and as a whole, it almost hurts the Black Mirror brand by having this be a part of the catalog of episodes than it does any benefit.\u00a0 I like Zazie Beetz a lot as an actress, but her participation alone doesn\u2019t redeem what might be the worst episode not just in the season, but in the series as a whole.\u00a0 Needs more analysis.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Tech: 1<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Writing: 4<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Artistry: 2<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">As a whole though, I feel as if the series picked up some steam from the previous season, which swung for the fences with Bandersnatch, and relied more on star power and a short season to carry them through their obligation of making a S5, so it\u2019s nice to see them come back a little bit to their roots and just producing a normal season of individual stories.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">They\u2019ve shown that they can write stories that can still feel like Black Mirror without needing to imagine tech or repurpose the end of the world as being produced by Boston Robotics, which means there\u2019s more left in the tank for future episodes than I would\u2019ve said after the preceding season wrapped.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lately, I\u2019ve been taking a break from doing deliveries and using the time to completely unwind and watch television in my evenings, catching up on several shows that have been on my endless notepad document list of things I want to watch.\u00a0 Where with every series that I catch up on, three more are added &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=49460\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Let\u2019s talk about Black Mirror S6<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[100,83,25,69],"class_list":["post-49460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-comparison","tag-observations","tag-technology","tag-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49462,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49460\/revisions\/49462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}