This Is the Most Relevant ‘Black Mirror’ Season 6 Episode

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Season 6 of Black Mirror.

After many delays, Season 6 of Black Mirror finally premiered on Netflix, and in true Black Mirror fashion, the anthology series gets as meta as it could with the first episode of Season 6. In what would eventually be quite a daring move by Netflix, “Joan is Awful” scathingly critiques the privacy policy and content laws of its fictitious streaming platform, Streamberry, in a world where privacy in itself has been reduced to a limited notion. At a time when the rapidly evolving technological landscape stands to change the way humans fundamentally function, “Joan is Awful” hilariously maps out the contradictions the advancement will create. In terms of a timeline, the events of the episode feel they are set in some distant time, but fundamentally, the problems that define Joan’s miserable journey throughout the episode have already seeped into human existence in 2023. There are multiple things, which the Black Mirror episode talks about, that make its timely nature all the more relevant, especially considering that the “Joan is Awful” episode is based on a real-life scandal.

Netflix, as a streaming service, is one of the few that continue to function without ads, even though its competitors like Max have a plan with ads for those who wish to save a few bucks. This core policy behind Netflix’s functioning has made the giant all the more dependent on its data collection from its users as it continuously gathers data about user interests. The pivotal aspect of this entire policy is that audiences have limited power here when it comes to choosing the kind of data that can go into the hands of Netflix. Even though Netflix is far from Streamberry in its current form, it definitely has potential. While through Streamberry, the Black Mirror episode tries to achieve great meta-commentary, it becomes tough to ignore the reality behind it. The key remains that the violation of privacy is enabled by consent and not coercion, in reality as well as in the world of “Joan is Awful.”

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Combined with blatant violation of privacy laws, the role of AI content generation (a debate already fueled by Secret Invasion‘s AI-generated opening credits) becomes another theme in the episode. Joan’s (Annie Murphy) discovery that the show based on her life is made by a “quamputer” (or “quam-puta,” as referred by Salma Hayek) which can shoot, edit, and package its own program to create an entire show tailored to the audience’s preferences, becomes the turning point of the episode’s story as Joan realizes that she just has to deal with the quamputer to put an end to her misery. In the wake of the writer’s protest, this take on the AI content generation feels all the more relevant as it exposes the tech’s greatest weakness — the inability to weave original stories (the tech for the near future couldn’t match human imagination, let alone storytelling).

“Joan is Awful” Shows a Concerning Trend in Hollywood

Over the past week, Disney has already faced massive criticism for its use of AI-generated art in the opening credits of its latest television offering Secret Invasion. The Writers Guild of America has already come out in opposition of extensive use of AI-generated writing in the production of films and shows, as studios try to alleviate budgetary concerns. The development of stronger AI will only further fuel this debate in the coming years. In a time when storytellers are fighting for parity in Hollywood against huge corporations, Black Mirror would have failed had it not lent its two cents on the subject. The “quamputer” in “Joan is Awful” is Black Mirror’s way of tackling the subject as it points out the obvious inefficiencies of a technology generating content for human consumption. In one of the most shocking scenes of the film, Joan decides to take a dump (literally) in a church — an event from Joan’s life that gets precisely translated onto the screen without any human consideration. Even overall, the insensitive treatment of Joan, as the “quamputer” keeps picturizing her life for the amusement of Streamberry’s audiences, highlights the underlying problem of a technology that can generate stories for human consumption without any human rationale backing it. The resulting output is one that’s devoid of any consideration for the impact it can create on the society as well as on its individual members.

‘Black Mirror’ Maintains Its Critique of Technology

The episode does not leave it at the ill effects of AI-generated content when it comes to its critique of technology. In the episode, an advanced version of Deep Fake technology is shown to be used to create reel versions of the real-life Joan and Annie Murphy. In what turns out to be a twisted outcome in the end, it is revealed that Joan and Salma Hayek are just reel-life versions of the real-life Joan and Annie Murphy in a television show. The Deep Fake technology’s use had already created debates around the ethical nature of its use early this year when a controversy erupted on Twitch in April. The Black Mirror episode takes it a step further by extending an insight into the dangerous potential of the consensual use of this technology – the potential is limitless. The inability of Joan (and even Salma Hayek) to dictate the usage of their own images is as real a possibility as it can get in the wake of this technology.

Black Mirror has constantly come up with episodes, such as “White Christmas” and “San Junipero,” that critique technology and its dangerous nature throughout seasons, but while Joan’s story is not ground-breaking by any standards or remains as meta as we can expect from Black Mirror, the haunting reality behind this relatively light-hearted Black Mirror episode makes it one that’s far scarier than the intentionally scary ones on this season’s roster. Let’s not forget how the episode eventually points to our own fascination with the private lives of others. We continue to defend our own privacy in the same breath that we comment on others’ choices. There are multiple themes running in the premiere episode of this Black Mirror season that make “Joan is Awful” the most relevant, if not the best.