What is the Black Mirror? It’s your phone when it’s turned off, or your monitor when it’s unattended. Most of the time, it’s brightly lit and if you’re reading this now, then you’re currently looking at it. It’s an abyss, and sometimes it stares back at you. As for the Black Mirror TV series, think of it as a modern-day Twilight Zone without the redemptive stories. This show presents social media and technological horrors that can make your skin crawl with very few fantastical touches. But as you can see in the first full trailer for Black Mirror season 6, this is a series where reality is subjective at best.
In the first episode of the season, Joan is Awful, a woman named Joan (Annie Murphy) discovers that Streamberry (clearly an alternate take on Netflix itself) has a new series called Joan is Awful that is apparently based on Joan’s life, with Salma Hayek starring in the show within the show. It’s not clear if this is a coincidence or if someone Joan knows is using their Hollywood connections to get back at her. But it’s ruining Joan’s life and her reputation. Michael Cera, Himesh Patel, Rob Delaney, and Ben Barnes co-star in the episode.
Breaking Bad and Westworld veteran Aaron Paul is also starring in an episode this season, which is called Beyond the Sea. Josh Hartnett, Kate Mara, Auden Thornton, and Rory Culkin co-star in the story, which features Paul as a very troubled astronaut. However, Paul’s companion on his outer space trip seems even more disturbed than he does.
The remaining three episodes of the upcoming season are Loch Henry featuring Samuel Blenkin, Myha’la Herrold, Daniel Portman, John Hannah, and Monica Dolan, Mazey Day which stars Zazie Beetz, Clara Rugaard, and Danny Ramirez, as well as the horror-movie tinged Demon 79 which has Anjana Vasan, Paapa Essiedu, Katherine Rose Morley, and David Shields in the leading roles.
All five episodes of Black Mirror season 6 will premiere on Netflix on June 15.
