Black Mirror's Joan Is Awful Inspired a Pretty Anti-Netflix Meme Wave
Hey Netflix fans who've already checked out Black Mirror season 6, have you already binge-read those terms and conditions?
Warning: the following article contains spoilers for Black Mirror season 6 episode 1
We don't know about you, but the minute we knew that Annie Murphy, Salma Hayek, and Ben Barnes were going to be in a Black Mirror episode in the new sixth season, we were sold. And boy were we not ready for what this show had for us.
Episode 1, titled Joan Is Awful, is immensely on-point. With all of us having fun with AI tools like Midjourney and ChatGPT, Black Mirror rubs the scarily plausible future reality in our faces: what if we all don't really own ourselves, having basically signed off all of our private data?
Black Mirror's Joan, portrayed by Annie Murphy (at least that's what we thought at first...), faces exactly that. Her whole life gets turned into a computer-generated TV show, which gets increasingly meta with each second.
When Salma Hayek (portrayed by, duh, Salma Hayek) steps in, the drama is sprinkled with comedy and even some heist when the two conspire against Streamberry (portrayed by Netflix, we guess) to shut this creepy system down.
The most disturbing thing is that Joan basically allowed Streamberry to do this with her life because she signed their Terms & Conditions without even giving it a read (which is pretty relatable).
And that's exactly why everyone on the Internet who has watched Black Mirror season 6 is currently delving deep into Netflix's Terms & Conditions — and, of course, making memes about it.
It's not like real-life Netflix is going to turn your life into a TV show without you actually knowing about it, right? Right?..
Anyway, better safe than sorry, some fans say. And cancel their Netflix subscription just in case, apparently.
However, some people are not that scared, believing their lives are way too boring to be turned into a dramatic TV show.
Well, and one always needs to keep in mind that one might just be another version of the character...
Alright now, back to memes. Look at how well that Euphoria meme aged.
But seriously, the timing.
"Man, the timing of releasing JOAN IS AWFUL on Netflix, one of the key studios responsible for the standstill in negotiations, while we're in the middle of a strike where AI-generated content is a major point of contention... WILD. Genuinely wild," said Twitter user DrewMcWeeny.
If you want to check out Black Mirror and maybe have an existential crisis or two, season 6 is currently available for streaming on Netflix.