In Black Mirror Season 6, Netflix takes the user data and true crime jokes on itself

Black Mirror started out as a tech satire but has since then, gone on to incorporate an interactive movie, an episode featuring a Miley Cyrus musical number and now with its latest season, even traces of supernatural horror. While Black Mirror’s earliest seasons are still held pristine among its audiences, the Netflix anthology’s latest season has amped up its self-awareness. 

As is the case with every Black Mirror season, each of the Season 6 episodes incorporates a fresh new storyline supported by a star-studded cast. But a recurring theme throughout the season is the streaming service Streamberry, an obvious parody of Netflix. But this parodying is more than friendly fire by showrunner Charlie Brooker who has somehow managed to take deeper digs at Netflix’s future potential at exploiting society. 

“Joan is Awful” introduces us to Streamberry (AKA Netflix)

The first episode Joan is Awful stars Schitt’s Creek’s Annie Murphy as the titular awful protagonist, a woman burdened by her professional and personal life. But when she finds that Streamberry has made a show on her life, accurately presenting Joan’s innermost thoughts and everyday actions. If the real-life Joan takes a dump, so will the Streamberry version.

The fact that Joan is being played by Salma Hayek (who appears as herself) doesn’t help Joan’s case further, as more and more people are intrigued to stream this Truman Show-like scenario. But the catch is that Salma Hayek herself is unaware of this show as she had just sold her likeness to the streaming service that exploits her AI-generated versions as much as they want. 

While Joan is Awful might not shock audiences towards the end, it is amusing to note the technology that Brooker attempts to understand here. The episode directly references the abilities of actual streaming services to collect user data that allows them to monitor these viewers. At most times, we might actually give our consent to get our data collected as we humans have mastered the skill of skipping past long terms and conditions agreements. Salma Hayek in the episode is one such human. As is Annie Murphy. 

At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, Brooker is attempting to reveal how our phones can hear our data, how our laptop cameras can be hacked into, how deepfake technology can be exploited, and ultimately, how future writers can be replaced by AI-generated retellings of human lives. The Writers Guild of America strike has opened up the conversation on AI softwares replacing the physical writers’ room for any show.

But fortunately for the protesters and human writers, Brooker has some good news for now. He admits that he did try to use ChatGPT to write a new Black Mirror episode. 

The result was “sh*t” as he revealed in an interview with Empire magazine. He also added that the software had merely gone through the synopses of multiple Black Mirror episodes and presented him a mishmash of everything. As he puts it, “There’s no real thought involved here.” 

And yet, unlike a simplistic man vs machine story, Joan is Awful doesn’t feature AI as the villain. AI is just a tool at the hands of Streamberry execs who actually run the game, hypnotising the audience with exploitative content. 

Joan is Awful is way more light-hearted and satirical than the average Black Mirror episode. That’s perhaps because if Brooker walked on darker territory, Netflix itself might have replaced him with ChatGPT! 

But it is the second episode that delves deeper into the exploitation potential of OTT platforms. 

Is “Loch Henry” Netflix’s criticism of its own true crime originals? 

While the opening episode Joan is Awful pokes fun at Streamberry and its content-generation methods, it is the second true crime-centric episode Loch Henry that might come off as the biggest roast on Netflix which also serves as the home of many true-crime documentaries. 

ALSO READ: From Burari to Butcher of Delhi, why do Indian viewers love bingeing on true crime documentaries?

Loch Henry starts off in the titular sleepy town in England that is haunted by a grim house; this house bore witness to a string of brutally violent sex crimes. But once the killer was nabbed, life went on as usual in the town that only got sleepier. Tourists are also at an all-time low. It’s only when two young filmmakers arrive, that the violent history of Loch Henry is revisited. 

Also, it is worth mentioning that one of these film students is the son of the cop who investigated the Loch Henry murders (and later died due to his investigation there). His romantic and filmmaking partner sees the town’s history as a perfect opportunity to craft a true-crime documentary from scratch. 

And if you think from her perspective, you do have everything to start with. Your boyfriend and his widowed mother have been personally traumatised years after the Loch Henry killings. You are living under the same roof with these two “sources”. Perfect!

While the boy is still a bit unnerved, his mother is more than willing to get in front of the camera and talk about her trauma. Before Brooker reveals a final plot twist, his story also finds the two budding directors discussing among themselves how Streamberry can be a perfect streaming home for their documentary. 

And that is what happens. Streamberry doesn’t seem to care about the lack of experience of the directors or if the documentary includes some true crime cliches or if it is made without much regard for victims of the crimes. As long as the documentary is about a brutal crime and has enough archival footage for shock value, Streamberry will acquire it. 

It would be worth noting what Netflix execs personally think about Loch Henry!

Apart from churning out wildly-popular and highly-profitable streaming content, Netflix also produces fictional dramas inspired by true crime, the most popular example being Ryan Murphy’s Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. With each episode graphically focusing on the victims of the titular serial killer, Monster also received a lot of backlash with the victims’ families alleging that they were hardly ever consulted in the making of the show (or were too traumatised to open up to Murphy). Monster eventually ended up being interpreted as torture porn by many audiences after this claim. 

Has Netflix done anything about it? Well, the Canadian streaming giant greenlit a second season of Monster that will feature more killers and their reign of terror this time. Is Loch Henry Netflix’s subtle response to their criticism? If it is indeed the case, then it is admitting to its exploitative tendencies in the true crime genre! Charlie Brooker has taken digs at Netflix with Netflix further airing it. 

It's only ironic that Netflix has renamed its UK and Ireland Twitter account as Streamberry and even formed a parody website of the same name.

Is Netflix the next Big Brother? 

Netflix’s admittance of exploitation can come off as good-natured self-aware humour for some viewers. But it also shows how Netflix has the last laugh. Criticise the streaming platform as much as you want, but the company is still ready to show its might, even if it is through one of its earliest originals roasting it. 

If not Netflix, another OTT platform might replace it with a Big Brother-like presence, dominating our tastes and controlling our lives like what happens in Joan is Awful. Our personal data is already under threat with tech-users concerned about digital safety even if WhatsaApp promises them end-to-end encryption. A scene from the 2016 biopic Snowden that shows Edward Snowden frantically covering his laptop camera as he is about to indulge in sex comes off as a relatable fear for many in this generation. You get the gist. 

From the start, Black Mirror has been attempting to question or address such tech fears. Now, with the latest season, Brooker is clearly running out of creative juice (the last two episodes can be a bit convoluted) but his questioning nature has now reached Netflix itself. Who knows what another season of Black Mirror entails!

Yes, Netflix isn’t doing the best business and it is also going through mass lay-offs but if anything can be deduced from Black Mirror Season 6, it is that Netflix is ready to take the jokes on its business strategies. Talking about lay-offs, Joan is Awful opens with an awkward scene between Joan and an employee whom she casually fires. Call it an overanalysis but is Netflix even satirising its job firings now?