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Joan Is Awful is the first episode of Black Mirror Season 6, and none of the series was available for review prior to going live, so I’m having to play catch-up.
The episodes are often hit or miss, but then all three episodes of Season 5 were terrible.
In this one, Joan (Annie Murphy – Kevin Can Fuck Himself) works in HR for tech company Sonicle, so has to do the hiring and firing. She’s clearly also got emotional issues, as she needs to talk to a therapist about how she doesn’t feel like the lead role of her own life story. But then she gets a text from old flame Mac (Rob Delaney – Deadpool 2), who wants to meet up, even though she’s about to marry Krish (Avi Nash).
Settles down to watch some Netfl.., sorry, Streamberry, and amongst what’s on offer, she spots a new drama called Joan Is Awful, with Salma Hayek (The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard) looking identical to her, so it comes across like the Simpsons episode when Homer found his face apparently on the box of some Japanese washing powder.
And I like how one of the other options is Finding Ritman, with Will Poulter as Colin Ritman, his character from Bandersnatch, which was fantastic.
Somehow, this show is mirroring her own life, and even recounting everything that’s happened earlier that day, and then it starts rounding in on itself, bringing Cate Blanchett into play. So, there are elements of Spaceballs in this, with the ‘instant video cassettes’, as well as Inception.
Her life starts spiraling out of control as a result, and it’s amusing that when she goes to see a lawyer about this, they’re played by Lolly Adefope (Everyone Else Burns), while the TV lawyer, later, is played by Wunmi Mosaku (His House), and I have mixed those two actresses up before 🙂
It’s funny when she realises whatever she does is going to be part of the script, so does some ridiculous things, in a way to turn the tables on Streamberry. I don’t want to give spoilers, but this is an interesting idea, even if it doesn’t quite fully work because it’s using tropes used before, and better. Then again, it does take an interesting twist later on.
However, if they did make this sort of ‘awful’ series about everyone on the planet, there’d be no-one watching the umpteenth variation of the show. Even still, I’d like Colin Farrell to play me in a series about my life…
There’s also a post-credits scene:
Joan Is Awful is now available on Netflix.
Score: 6/10
Widescreen ratio: 2.00:1
Director: Ally Pankiw
Producer: Joel Stokes
Music: Aimee Bessada
Writer/Creator: Charlie Brooker
Cast:
Joan: Annie Murphy
Mac: Rob Delaney
Krish: Avi Nash
Herself: Salma Hayek
TV Mac: Ben Barnes
Joan’s Lawyer: Lolly Adefope
TV Joan’s Lawyer: Wunmi Mosaku
Eric: Jared Goldstein
TV Eric: Jaboukie Young-White
Sandy: Ayo Edebiri
TV Sandy: Camirin Farmer
Himself: Michael Cera
Herself: Cate Blanchett
TV Krish: Himesh Patel
Source Joan: Kayla Lorette
Mona Javadi: Leila Farzad
Gainsborough: Rich Fulcher
Sandy’s Pal: Ellen Robertson
Brutus: Luke Beattie
TV Brutus: Paul Gorvin
Dr. Atkinson: Laurel Lefkow
TV Dr Atkinson: Éva Magyar
Source Dr Atkinson: Bea Segura
Mike the Jogger: Steen Raskopoulos
Julian: Max Harwood
Guy in Skillane Legal: Brian Law
Pastor: Anthony Wise
Male Cop: Alex Magliaro
Female Cop: Mujde Ipek
TV Pastor: Mark McKerracher
Streamberry Receptionist: Tessa Wong
Fatima Klaas: Danielle Vitalis
Lucy: Mary Beth Barone
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.