#black mirror spoilers

[savagegood]

Reader, it has happened already. Less than a month after it debuted, the Black Mirror episode Joan Is Awful has already become the unlikely figurehead of the strike. It's the story of a woman who, at the end of each day, realises with horror that her actions have been folded into a Dropout-style biographical drama, where all her bad traits and regrettable decisions are played out onscreen by Salma Hayek. Except, as the episode goes along, we learn that it isn’t Hayek at all; it’s an AI-generated likeness of Hayek, commissioned by unethical executives working for a monolithic streaming platform. It couldn’t be more timely. A sticking point of the Sag-Aftra strike is the potential that AI could soon render all screen actors obsolete. Chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland laid bare the AMPTP’s so-called “groundbreaking AI proposal,” which holds the potential to wipe out an entire pathway to breaking into the industry, as well as a reliable source of income for many. The reported proposal hinged on the ability for background actors to be “scanned, get paid for one day’s pay” and for that company to “own that scan of their image, their likeness, and to be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation.” It’s a similar line to the one currently taken by the striking WGA writers. Eventually, they claim, technology will advance enough to make an AI-generated script that is indistinguishable from one created by a human. These scripts would be cheap and instant, and – even though they’re essentially composite jobs, made by scraping existing scripts – they would immediately put an entire profession out of work.

fellas, we're really in it (a black mirror episode) now

[rocktheholygrail]

Black Mirror 4x01 || 6x01

[allkinds-oftrash]

Sometimes a love story is between an Indian girlie living in 1979 Britian and a demon who is trying to get her to kill three people to save the world and they end up walking into oblivion together

[vonlipvig]

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!

[be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie]

I hope that cop feels bad for saving the racist politician and causing armageddon. No one ever said Black Mirror was subtle. We let the racists live and we all die.

[ayoedebiris]

ANNIE MURPHY as JOAN BLACK MIRROR | "Joan is Awful”

[helnikskanej]

[yourlocalstarwarsfan]

*spoilers for black mirror episode 2

I think there’s an important message in black mirror’s loch henry episode. Here we are consuming dramatic shows that follow serial killers doing horrible things to real victims. Just like Pia mentioned, we watch to be disgusted and for the thrills and to try to imagine what it must have been like for the victims. However, we fail to see the impact these shows, movies, and documentaries have on people who are still traumatized from the events. 

This episode shows how Davis is still traumatized despite the fame and money and how the producers fail to consider how he might feel about his family’s story being so public and used to drive the entertainment industry. This ep made me think about how we make memes and tiktok videos from the Dahmer series that disrespects the victims both past and present.  

Also netflix should’ve put a content warning before the ep in my opinion

[ninullen]

[sci-fi-gifs]

And the machine man will watch with his heart screaming a million miles above us. Black Mirror: Beyond the Sea

[deyaluv]

spoilers for loch henry from the new season of black mirror ...

im seeing a lot of ppl saying pia's death was simply a callback to the earlier pub discussion where they were talking about how the countryside was dangerous and whatnot... i mean, yeah, but also... this person who was obsessed with exploiting people's horrific deaths for monetary gain, who even sexualized a literal murderer - she ends up dying in one of the most unremarkable, stupid ways anyone could die! tripping and hitting her head on a rock! something she was warned about earlier!

the whole episode was making fun of these true crime fans and content creators who exploit and sexualize victims and murderers, so i think pia's death has a lot more to do with those people's real lives than what you see on the surface. these ppl glom on to stuff thats interesting, lucrative, or even disgusting - but in real life they live unremarkable lives and will likely have unremarkable deaths.

[jessepinkmvn]

Around here, the countryside can be pretty dangerous.

BLACK MIRROR (2011—) 6x02 | "LOCH HENRY"

[nicolethered]

Danny Ramirez as Hector in Black Mirror 6x04 Mazey Day

[girl-bateman]

Black Mirror, “Loch Henry”. 

[jamandstuff]

Black Mirror 6x01 - Joan Is Awful

[be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie]

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.