UPDATE! REBLOG THIS VERSION!

SALMA HAYEK — BLACK MIRROR 6.01 Joan Is Awful

Something about Joan is Awful and the digital age… stealing from people to create faster content… creating deepfakes that actually ruin lives… having no control over your image… people… creating a system of exploitation to avoid creating your own content and paying writers… capitalism thriving on negative self image… people doing whatever they want without your consent… telling you this is what you signed up for with your fame/gender/sexuality…

Much to think about

no idea where these came from, but letterboxd has comic book posters up for the new black mirror episodes!

edit: the artwork is by butcher billy!

I do respect that black mirror started it's season with a solid destroy ai deepfakes with an axe.

joan should have just kissed a girl and her show would have instantly been cancelled

me defending my blorbo who everybody hates

Black Mirror Season 6

Black Mirror 6.01 “Joan is Awful”

man i forgot how much fun it is to watch a black mirror episode for the first time

– Have you not seen Joan Is Awful? – No, but it's on my list.

Joan Is Awful (2023) dir. Ally Pankiw

Oh how i missed that fucked up emptyness and numbness you get after watching a Black Mirror episode

Black Mirror 6x01 - Joan Is Awful

Lol I saw someone say that Mazey Day had no message. YOU'RE GONNA SAY THAT?? ABOUT THE MOST OBVIOUS ONE?? IN A POST PRINCESS DIANA'S DEATH WORLD? POST THE FREE BRITTANY MOVEMENT?

Even ignoring the paparazzi are demons and turning celebrities into objects to be objectified and commodified (which is a very common Black Mirror concept) is bad message, there is the more general throughline of the season that I think Mazey Day was heavy handed on.

Pairing the paparazzi commentary and the true crime commentary from Loch Henry, it's hard not to see what we are repeatedly told. They tell us directly several times that bad things sell more than positive things. Mazey Day was that times 1000, and planted into a supernatural take on our world (the spectacle of Mazey's transformation made worse by the paparazzi interference, honestly not a bad twist for such a message). The through line of bad things being of higher value was VERY strong this season. The direct question from the interviewer; why is Joan is Awful called Joan is Awful, why so negative? And the fake Netflix producer answers; because people find good things less believable, and negative shows make them transfixed in horror. Pia says to Davis in Loch Henry, the question is how could someone do something this awful? How could something like this happen? People have to watch to try to figure it out. She can't stop watching the tape of Davis' parents torturing their victims even when stopping earlier could have potentially saved her life. Mazey Day is the same concept, but more direct. Hector says several times how much a shot would be worth, and the prices get higher and higher depending on how horrific the situation is. And in the end, even after acting like she cared and was different than all the other paparazzi, Bo still takes the shot of Mazey as she kills herself. Even Mazey seems to accept this is what has to be done in her final moments.

I understand why people are having an aversion to the supernatural twist, although I personally really enjoyed it as like I said, it ratchets up the impact of the message. We get to see in gory glory the ruin these people have on Mazey's life, right away, whereas in real life it takes years of damage. Even Bo, who thought she was helping, doesn't know Mazey or her situation, which is instantly proven to us. Her interference resulted in all of the deaths that followed, and ultimately Mazey's. The "crackpot holistic medicine" doctor might have been able to help her. He had instilled some hope, saying they would take it one day at a time. If they had all left Mazey alone, this might have been able to happen.

My favorite part of watching Black Mirror is being totally blown away and thinking they’ve outdone themselves again just to try and see what other people thought and seeing nothing but how the new season blows and every new episode sucks and the show hasn’t been good since s2 but theyll keep watching ad infinitum just to make sure it keeps sucking 🫥