Always read the terms and conditions. I don’t doubt that your eyes saw that sentence and immediately rolled in the back of your head. “Do you know how long those things are?” I’m aware, as everybody with a smart device or service has mindlessly signed these things. They are dreg to get through – especially considering the legalese language put throughout the documents. Have you ever taken a step back and considered everything you’re giving up as a cost to accessing the vast media at your disposal daily? It’s almost spooky to think about and something the sixth season of Black Mirror tackles immediately with “Joan Is Awful.”
Joan Tait (Annie Murphy) is not entirely awful, as the title may hint, but she has her flaws. The episode begins with a day-in-the-life feel through Joan’s daily routine. She gets breakfast from her faithful husband Krish (Avi Nash) while discreetly hiding her phone and raps along to Saweetie as she goes to her job as a tech executive. But this day is not just an ordinary day. For starters, she coldly fires a colleague and friend named Sandy (Ayo Edebiri) because the board wants to and meets up with an ex named Mac (Rob Delaney) even though she knows it’s the wrong thing to do.
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All of this stems from a talk with her therapist – between the husband she finds a little boring, the job where she feels like she’s in between the higher-ups and co-workers, and the overall monotony of her life, Joan doesn’t feel like she’s a “main character.” Like many couples, Joan and Krish turn on the streaming service Streamberry (Black Mirror’s Netflix equivalent) to find something to watch. Much to Joan’s dismay, there is a new show on the service called Joan Is Awful, and it recounts all the days’ events with Salma Hayek playing her in a “dramatic” reenactment.
How could something like this even happen? Well, it stems from the extensive technology around us and is nestled into our daily lives. Director Ally Pankiw and writer Charlie Brooker try to meet these classic Black Mirror themes with humorous intentions stemming from both the performances of Murphy and Hayek. It’s a joy to see Murphy as Joan navigates, seeing the private follies in her life play out with a famous actress at the helm. But even with the laughs are some serious issues where Brooker feels like he’s taking on the platform his series has been on for all of its six seasons.
With the ongoing writer’s strike, there’s the contentious topic of artificial intelligence and how it will be used to generate content. Interestingly enough, Streamberry has a supercomputer at their disposal to develop all sorts of “awful” content based on regular citizens other than Joan and a CEO whose eager to deploy it. This very fight is happening right now as studios are looking to churn out content disregarding the need for human ingenuity and emotions that make these projects complete. Netflix itself has also been called an endless black hole of weekly.
Things take a turn for the ludicrous as Joan looks to punish the company (and Salma!) for their perceived co-op to turn the transgressions of her life into a Truman Show-like form of a reality show that she wasn’t aware she consented to. Here is a regular person and world-famous actress finding out we are all bound to the same clauses and skirting of ethics in the name of the almighty dollar. The episode starts to fall apart once the conclusion begins – playing a world within a world game where the real Annie Murphy comes into play. It gets a little convoluted and confusing – temporarily stealing the episode’s effect.
What would stop Netflix or any streaming service from putting the data out of our microphones for the subsequent ratings? At the rate, generative technology is being brought into creative spaces might not be far off. (it’s already happening). Is it too late to reverse course? This might be where Black Mirror cannot stop the runaway train.
