Up to, and beyond, defecation.
Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2023
#30 : Black Mirror
Paapa Essiedu as a disco-singing demon. Salma Hayek Pinault as a hilariously awful version of herself. Josh Hartnett as a creepy, wife-stealing astronaut. All the big names came out for the sixth run of Charlie Brooker’s dystopian anthology series – causing many an existential crisis with its dark themes of humanity and technology. We also had a model-turned-werewolf and kinky Scottish “true” crime. But it was Beyond the Sea – in which Hartnett starred opposite Aaron Paul – that lingered in the mind the most, as we saw two astronauts deal with family, grief and the tech that could create holograms of them back on Earth …
I really liked the early episodes of Black Mirror but haven't really kept up with it since it moved to Netflix, although the ones I've seen there have still been pretty good. So I'm quite happy to catch up with this.
For those of you that haven't seen any of the six seasons or two specials, Black Mirror is what Wikipedia refers to as an anthology series - each episode is a separate story, but they're mostly set in a society which is believable (more or less) but varies from the current day, often due to some technological advance (which rarely improves people's lives). Wiith these things the quality is obviously variable, but the best episodes are very clever - an obvious comparison for me would be Inside No. 9 with less humour but more technology. It started on Channel 4 for a couple of seasons before moving to Netflix - it's fair to say they've got a bit more money now. There are also complaints that it's not as good as it used to be - but that's always the case, isn't it? So how does this season do?
"Joan Is Awful" is an archetypal Black Mirror show where Joan moans to her therapist about how her life is bland and she doesn't have control of it - until she and her fiance stumble across a new show on definitely-not-Netflix which accurately depicts her day. And it's safe to say it doesn't go well, until Joan comes up with an "interesting" way to fight back - it's a good idea done well and has a very pleasing conclusion (stay 'til the very end). It makes some very interesting points around image rights and is also very relevant considering the recent fallout from Baby Reindeer - Charlie Brooker had his prophet head on (again) for this one It's also got quite the cast with Annie Murphy, Salma Hayek (who is very good), Michael Cera, Himesh Patel, Wunmi Musaka, Lolly Adefope, Ben Barnes and Ayo Edibiri appearing - you might not recognise the names but you'll know most of the faces.
"Loch Henry" is a well done creepy tale that you know is going to take a left turn at some point but you just know you're not going to be able to guess where they take it - and no, I didn't come close. It is well done, but it doesn't have that Black Mirror cleverness that I came to expect - it's just a bit of a creepy tale really.
"Beyond The Sea" is a much more back on track with a very clever idea excellently delivered by Josh Hartnett, Aaron Paul and Kate Mara. You know it's not going to end well but it really doesn't end the way you're expecting it to...
"Mazey Day" is just bonkers - it looks very nice, but it feels like they had one idea and ran with it without really considering whether it worked or not.
"Demon 79" is impressively retro with it's an impressive grim 70s Northern vibe to it - quite what the Americans made of it is unclear. Anjana Vasan (last seen in We Are Lady Parts) is very good here as a timid shop assistant visited by Paapa Essiedu (Gangs Of London) who just happens to be a demon disguised as Bobby Farrell from Boney M. So this is obviously bonkers as well, but it's actually quite enjoyable and suspenseful and the two leads have great chemistry - it also has one of the weirdest happy endings you'll have ever seen.
It's all very well shot and looks very good - the retro world of "Demon 79" is particularly good. It definitely all feels very expensive - the series has come a long way from Rory Kinnear having sex with a pig (and that's not a sentence you type very often). Whether the expense is always used effectively or even required is an argument that can certainly had in places, but when it works, it works very well
All in all, I think it's got quite a good hit rate and I enjoyed it - "Mazey Day" is the only one I'd say you're fine missing out on. I mostly enjoyed this but the lack of a thread does make it feel more like five entries on the list rather than one - "Joan Is Awful" was the pick of the crop for me and definitely worth a watch.
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