With a touch of “biting the hand” that feeds you, in this season 6 of ‘Black Mirror’ part of the review of Charlie Brooker has gone to Netflix itself. Well, it’s actually gone to a suspiciously cloned streaming platform called streamberry.
A platform that takes center stage in the first episode of this season, ‘joan is horrible‘. As part of Brooker’s discourse on content consumption, content generated by artificial intelligence and algorithms is directly discussed through this platform.
In a scene at Joan’s (Annie Murphy) house, our protagonist navigates the interface of Netflix Streamberry trying to decide what to watch tonight with her fiancé Krish (Avi Nash). Before discovering that there is a series starring Salma Hayek about Joan’s life, the platform’s menu is full of other series and documentaries.
A little look in which the veteran spectator of ‘Black Mirror’ will have captured more than one reference to other episodes and situations of the Mirrorian universe.
‘Loch Henry’ and ‘Demon 79’
These nods are even to episodes that come later in the season. It is the case of ‘Loch Henry: Truth Will Out‘, a clear reference to the second episode. The documentary is described as “a sleepy lakeside town is rocked by a spate of gruesome murders. Decades later, the once-vacation destination hasn’t recovered.”
Another look at a future episode would be ‘Smart?‘ which is a more than likely reference to Michael Smart, the conservative politician played by David Shields who appears in ‘Demon 79‘, the horror episode of this season 6.
Also striking is the presence of ‘Sea of Tranquility‘, a series that has often been referenced since the very first episode of ‘Black Mirror’. Here we already see that he is a HBO sci-fi western It’s been at least ten seasons. It will not be the only time that we see it referenced in this season since in ‘Mazey Day’ there is also something related to that series.
From ‘National Anthem’ to ‘San Junipero’…
Speaking of the first episode of ‘Black Mirror’, ‘The Callow Years‘ is described as a “fascinating exploration of the rule of Michael Callow”. The character was played by Rory Kinnear in the shocking ‘The National anthem‘. From the documentary we would see his poster in the second chapter of this season.
The Streamberry display also shows ‘Finding Ritman‘, documentary about the protagonist of ‘Bandersnatch’. It is not the only nod to said interactive episode, since it can be seen among the recommendations ‘Mad Mind: The Jerome F. Davies Story‘. Apparently, a documentary about the author of the choose-your-own-adventure fantasy novel they wanted to adapt.
The acclaimed ‘San Junípero’ has a double reference during the season, but specifically on the Streamberry screen we can find ‘Juniper Rising‘. Later in the second episode we discover that a documentary about the place, titled ‘Euthanasia: Inside Project Junipero‘ is among the BAFTA nominees.
Also, it seems that in Streamberry we can see ‘botherguts‘, the fatphobic program of the world of ‘15 million merits‘ (season 1) in which overweight people were mocked. From that great episode also appears ‘Hot Shot‘, the ‘X-Factor’ reality show that is a central part of the plot.
From the last few seasons it also seems that it is available in the ‘Space Fleet’ catalogue, the science fiction fantasy that we see in ‘USS Callister‘ (season 4). We also have a small dose of Miley Cyrus with “On a Roll”, a nod to Ashley O, central character of ‘Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too‘ (season 5).
To finish, we can also see in Streamberry ‘Rowdy and Peanut‘. This time it’s not so much a reference to ‘Black Mirror’ but to another Charlie Brooker creation, ‘El gato caco’. In case there was any doubt, the synopsis talks about the crazy adventures of a cat thief and a guard dog.
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