Black Mirror is back on Netflix with its sixth season, and it is doing its job of holding up a mirror (pun intended) to our increasingly tech-dystopian society. The show has always explored various genres and connected them to the rise of technological advancements that stunt human growth.
The show, in its essence, is a cautionary tale, and this time it has brought another meta and exciting story- ‘Joan is Awful.’
Season 6 of Black Mirror begins with the episode ‘Joan Is Awful,’ and it’s one of the most meta episodes the acclaimed show has ever done. We meet Annie Murphy’s titular Joan Tait, a tech CEO who feels her life has been stuck in a rut.
One night, she and her fiance watch a new TV show called ‘Joan is Awful’ on a streaming site called Streamberry. To her horror, Joan finds out that the show is based on her life, and star Salma Hayek is the one playing her. So what’s going on?
Joan Tait discovers that the streaming service, Streamberry, has made a show on her life by exaggerating it, called ‘Joan Is Awful.’ As expected, she considers it embarrassing and humiliating. But she can’t do anything since she signed the Terms and Conditions without reading them when she signed up for the service.
However, in the end, she does manage to destroy the server and, in the process, learns that there’s a multiverse full of Joans she killed. The episode is a meta-commentary on the rising use of AI and the corporate greed of streaming services.
Netflix’s Black Mirror Joan Is Awful Ending
In the end, Joan gets tired of being the subject of a TV series she never signed up for. So she takes extreme measures to stop the show. Joan eats burgers, drinks laxatives, dresses up as a cheerleader, crashes a church wedding, and defecates in front of everyone.
This makes Salma Hayek want to be disassociated from the show because when the next episode airs of ‘Joan Is Awful,’ she will be the one who will have to do those embarrassing things.
But just like Joan signed up for Streamberry without reading the Terms and Conditions, and now she can’t back out, Hayek, too, signed a contract and now can’t leave. However, now that both of them are in the same boat, they decide to team up and save themselves from the travesty they find themselves in.
Hayek and Joan decide to destroy the servers of Streamberry. So the celebrity quickly gets into the Streamberry company building because she’s a star and then brings Joan in.
They successfully reach CEO Mona Javadi’s office and learn that the server’s core is called a quamputer. Our duo enters the quamputer room and meets Michael Cera, the assistant in charge.
Cera tells them that the servers contain a whole multiverse of billions of digital souls. Joan discovers that there are almost infinite versions of herself played by other celebrities. However, here’s the kicker- Salma Hayek didn’t actually play/ act as her.
It turns out the only way Streamberry could push out episodes of ‘Joan Is Awful’ so fast was by using AI and CGI. Only Salma Hayek’s face and body were used as models for the AI to emulate. Eventually, Joan does destroy the quamputer. So they succeed in stopping the madness, and the plans behind the creation of ‘Joan Is Awful.’
Netflix’s Black Mirror: Joan Is Awful Explained
The ‘Joan Is Awful’ episode works on multiple meta-levels. For one, Joan has no control over the production of the ‘Joan Is Awful’ show because when she signed up with Streamberry, she agreed to the Terms and Conditions of the platform. These Terms and Conditions stated that she was essentially signing over the rights of her life to the company.
This point will hit home hard for many because many don’t read any site’s Terms and Conditions before signing up on them. As a result, most of us have unknowingly given mega companies access to much of our private information.
What’s interesting is that Streamberry is a direct meta-reference to Netflix, where the show Black Mirror is streaming. Is the show also telling us to read Netflix’s Terms and Conditions before signing up? Yes, probably.
Another point the episode brings up is the rising use of AI and CGI. The threat of AI is real and has become an important talking point in our lives. Many pundits have predicted that actors might not be needed in the near future because AI will be able to create entire films on its own. While the tech is in its nascent stage, people are seeing what it is capable of. Recently, a picture of Tom Cruise and his stunt doubles went viral that many thought was real.
But actually, it was AI-generated. So the tech is progressing at a fast and unregulated pace right now. It’s also interesting that the creators of Black Mirror don’t seem to consider any of Joan’s digital variants as natural or human. This is probably why the titular character doesn’t ponder too much upon the death of most of them.
The episode also highlights the unending corporate greed that discards any notions of morality. No one at Streamberry even thinks that the show is a gross invasion of Joan’s privacy and is humiliating for her. What’s also shocking is that Mona explained that they used the word ‘awful’ in the title because negative connotations bring in more viewers.
Overall, Joan Is Awful was another successful Black Mirror episode that brought to the forefront the current tech issues that people should be paying attention to. So what are your thoughts on the Black Mirror season 6 episode Joan Is Awful?
Was it entertaining? Or did you feel it was too bogged down by the plot and was ultimately confusing? Were the points the episode made relevant?
Let us know in the comments below.
