"Black Mirror 6" only watched one episode and got several goosebumps
June 19, 2023 | Issue 3271
After four years of absence, the sixth season of "Black Mirror" (hereinafter referred to as "Black Mirror 6") was finally launched on Netflix on June 15.
As a black science fiction drama that reflects on the hidden relationship between humans, media and technology, the story level and core expression of "Black Mirror 6" are still online. Streaming media, Internet big data thieves, AI creation, metaverse... The first episode gathers the hot topics in the field of science and technology, and then presents them in a comical and exaggerated way, which makes the audience think about it with great fear.
At a time when sci-fi dramas generally fall into the creative trap of special effects being more important than stories, the appearance of "Black Mirror 6" is a surprise.
As a poetry anthology drama with a shared theme and unrelated stories in each episode, the story quality and production level of "Black Mirror 6" surpassed the previous season (6.9) with a low rating, and the current Douban score is stable at 7.5.
The season of "Black Mirror 6" has a total of 5 episodes, and the screenwriter's style has not changed. After watching the first episode, the hanging heart was put down, and everyone can boldly rush what they want to watch. (The following contains spoilers)
stare
The title "Black Mirror" is very interesting.
This is the mutual gaze of humans and technology, and all "gazes" are regressive. In Hollywood movies, a common gaze structure is "men watch, women watch." In this drama, the protagonist from the subject of "gaze" to the object of "being gazed", and the events that occur because of breaking the existing "gaze structure", constitute the basic narrative grammar of the first episode.
The heroine Joan (played by Anne Murphy) is an ordinary woman, and we will call her "Joan One" for the time being. One day Joan One was surprised to find that the plot of an online drama "Bad Joan" was exactly the same as her real life, and the protagonist Justice was herself - but played by Oscar actress and famous Mexican actor Salma Hayek, we call "Joan II".
Joan One's name, hairstyle, bad things at work, and complaining about current and private dating exes with a psychologist have all been reproduced by the show on the "Streamberry Body" platform (which can be seen as a parody of Netflix).
Watch the drama well, but I have become the protagonist who is stared at, and my private life is broadcast live for the public to see. Who doesn't collapse in this?
Qiong No. 1 also found that what he did, the TV series would be performed, he had nowhere to hide, and the TV series had no creative bottleneck at all. In vain, Joan decides to break this established gaze structure: a trumpet at a church wedding in full view.
This is an important turning point in the story development of the first episode, and it is also the most visually striking scene of the first episode.
This trick is disgusting, but it works. Unable to accept that his digital image was used in this way, Joan II took the initiative to find Joan One, and how the two joined forces to counterattack the perpetrator Flowberry Company. Breaking this established gaze structure is where the energy of episode 1 lies.
But the most goosebumps reversal is that in the control room on the top floor of the Streamberry Company, they find that the story of Joan One is fully presented on the screen - Joan One is not the original Joan, she has the next level, we can call her "Joan Zero". Joan Zero is the original Joan who lives in the real world. The daily life of Qiong One is only a replica of Qiong Zero.
Horror and anxiety
The look and feel of "Black Mirror 6" is undoubtedly terrifying. We often say that the difference between horror movies and thrillers is that the threat of horror movies comes from outside, so horror movies are often associated with supernatural forces. And the threat of thrillers often comes from within, such as within society, daily life, etc., not supernatural forces.
The inherent story world view of the "Black Mirror" series is that human-machine technology has become popular. In this setting, the threat from technology is not a supernatural force, but a real threat within society.
The people in the play are terrifying. Joan One's fear of being stared at doubled instead of alleviating after finding a lawyer for advice. Joan One was told that Salma Hayek, the actress who played herself, did not actually shoot the show, but was automatically generated from digital images collected by the streamberry body.
What's more, it's not illegal to do so, because from the moment she registers on the site, she automatically signs the agreement to have her data collected, even though she doesn't know it.
Outside the play, we are also terrified. The fear of strict monitoring of personal privacy by Internet big data, the fear of being forced to bear the gaze of others, and the fear that personal will cannot dominate life are all expressed in this drama in an exaggerated, funny and dramatic way.
In the first half of the year, the hot events of AI writing and Hollywood screenwriters' strikes are vividly remembered, and the monitoring of user privacy by streaming media has become more and more rampant. Ironically, the show was also made by streaming leader Netflix.
At a time when emotions have become the keywords of popular film and television works, "Black Mirror 6" really grasps the audience's emotions clearly.
【Text/Time 1】