Warning! The following contains SPOILERS for the Black Mirror Season 6 episode "Joan Is Awful." Read at your own risk!
Black Mirror is back with new episodes and a loaded cast for Season 6, and if you expected them to be a positive representation of how the future will improve our lives for the better, well, you probably need to review what this show is about. Those with a Netflix subscription have already delved into the first episode, and they have plenty of reactions to the first twisted tale of the season, "Joan Is Awful."
The story puts Schitt's Creek alum Annie Murphy in the role of Joan, whose life is turned upside down when she sees that Streamberry, a streaming service, made a show starring Salma Hayek that re-enacts and dramatizes real events from her day-to-day life. When Joan attempts to take legal action, she's informed that she already signed over her rights in the terms and conditions of the service, and that Streamberry can use her life story to make episodes instantaneously by utilizing her phone. Ultimately, it's revealed the plan is to roll this program out worldwide and make custom shows for every individual subscriber.
It's a frightening premise, and one that some on Twitter think could actually happen one day. As such, those who were pumped for the new Black Mirror season and saw this episode are making all sorts of jokes online and maybe checking the fine print on all of their apps a little more closely:
Me reading the terms and conditions of Netflix after Joan is Awful #blackmirror pic.twitter.com/pLLLadnboKJune 15, 2023
This episode had me shook, and I'm glad to see that many others are realizing how real the threat introduced in "Joan Is Awful" could be. It's really not that hard to believe companies could develop AI to instantly create shows based on our own lives, and furthermore, convince people to willingly make it legal for them to do so by not reading the fine print in services for which they're signed up. It's a good reminder to keep an eye on those types of things, and it made for a great episode:
WHAT AN OPENER OF A SEASON!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤯🤯🤯Not Black Mirror telling us to read our Terms and Conditions!!!! 😩😩😩#BlackMirror #JoanIsAwful pic.twitter.com/xKGelRhKyPJune 15, 2023
Of course, there's also just plenty of funny memes about the Black Mirror episode itself. One user managed to tie it into one of the most iconic episodes of Euphoria Season 2, and I love the attention to detail with the painted in hair stripe:
Joan is Awful without context #BlackMirror pic.twitter.com/euXzhRAnPcJune 15, 2023
Perhaps the most hilarious thing about Black Mirror's "Joan Is Awful," is that a lot of the episode paints a streamer that is very similar to Netflix as heartless and evil. In the episode, it's even said that the show is called Joan Is Awful because they learned through research that subjects engaged more with the show if it reflected the worst qualities they believed about themselves. That's pretty messed up, and the subscribers are absolutely loving it:
Black Mirror creators being paid huge sums of money to write an anti Netflix story by Netflix only to be streamed by them as an exclusive is hilarious to me, not gonna lie pic.twitter.com/zvZmQRTNbuJune 15, 2023
There are so much great tweets about this episode trending on Twitter, and this is just the first episode of Black Mirror Season 6. I'm sure there will be many more memes to come as viewers make their way through the rest of the season and continue to have their minds blown by the wild twists revealed along the way:
just finished watching the first episode of the new season of black mirror pic.twitter.com/VbrwmkKtImJune 15, 2023
Lady Gaga echoed my thoughts exactly. Wait a second, is that actually Gaga, or did she sign away her likeness for an AI to portray her? This Black Mirror episode has me all kinds of messed up.
Stream "Joan Is Awful" and the rest of Black Mirror Season 6 over on Netflix. Just don't fly through the season too quickly because who knows when we'll get more episodes. And if you've never watched the series before, there are plenty of good reasons to catch up on Black Mirror this summer.
