Black Mirror
6×01: “Joan is Awful”
Directed by Allie Pankiw
Written by Charlie Brooker

* For recaps & reviews of previous Black Mirror seasons, click here.
* For a recap & review of 6×02, click here.
Joan (Annie Murphy) works at a place called Sonicle. She’s preparing to let an employee go. Not a pleasant experience, though much more unpleasant for the employee, Sandy (Ayo Edebiri), especially when she’s just recently put a deposit down on a new apartment. Joan tries to do her best corporate comfort act, but it’s not much actual comfort for Sandy, who’s also escorted out by security. She then accidentally drops her vape cigarette off a balcony and hits Sandy in the head.
We see Joan go to her therapist. She talks about her life and not being quite content. She doesn’t feel “like the main character” in her own life. At a restaurant we hear that old Black Mirror classic: “Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)” by Irma Thomas. Joan’s there to meet her old boyfriend Mac (Rob Delaney). He wants to get back together, yet she’s engaged to Krish (Avi Nash). He tries to convince her they’d be great together despite their previous failed relationship. They still kiss sitting right there at the table anyway. But Joan thinks it’s a bad idea and leaves.

That night, Joan and Krish turn on Streamberry to find something to watch. They flick through the latest streaming movies and shows. Suddenly they come upon a show called Joan is Awful and the main character, Joan (Salma Hayek), looks exactly like Joan. Kind of weird, and a little creepy. Krish thinks they should watch it but Joan’s reluctant. They decide to give it a shot and the show mirrors Joan’s life uncannily. There’s actually another Krish (Himesh Patel). Joan uses the same toothpaste as the real Joan. The bedroom looks the same. We even see the recreation of Joan receiving a text from her ex like the real Joan did earlier that day.
Other people see Joan is Awful on Streamberry, from Joan’s co-worker Eric (Jared Goldstein) to the fired Sandy to ex-boyfriend Mac. The uncanniness continues with every step of Joan’s day recreated on television. Joan assumes it’s a prank somehow by Krish; everything she did throughout the day is right there in an episode. She starts to hyperventilate, nearly having a full-on panic attack while the episode keeps playing. Everybody’s confused, not just Joan.
“Oh, my god, they‘re making me look like a monster,” Joan says. She also now realises everybody else can see this; it’s not just a prank on her Streamberry. We see the episode move to the therapist’s office, as Joan talks about Krish being “very vanilla” versus having wild sex with Mac when they were together. And, of course, the episode eventually gets to the restaurant meet between Joan and Mac; TV Mac is played by Ben Barnes. It creates a real awkward conversation for Joan to have with Krish. He decides to leave for the night and catches a glimpse of TV Joan kissing TV Mac to make everything worse. It’s all echoed on the television in the Joan is Awful episode, as Krish and TV Krish both leave the two Joans alone at home.

The next day, Joan starts getting critiques of her personality from people who’ve watched the show. A man on the road, who’s usually nice, says “Shame on you” when he sees Joan pulling out of the driveway for work. The whole Sonicle building is talking about the show. Worse, the show has technically broken an NDA that Joan signed, and so she’s being ousted from the company. Later, it all appears dramatised on Joan is Awful for everybody to watch. Joan goes to see her lawyer. There’s not much legal recourse. Problem is that Joan signed the Terms and Conditions from Streamberry without reading them. And now Streamberry can legally use Joan’s life for their entertainment fodder. Salma Hayek is similarly not actually involved; her likeness is used in the show because Hayek gave permission for Streamberry to do so. Every potential option Joan can think up to try getting at Streamberry has a roadblock; nothing can be done.

An emotional Joan goes to see Mac and they fall in bed together. Mac has performance anxiety since this is “all so public.” He worries about how it’ll be portrayed on television: “I didn‘t agree to be a public figure.” Neither did Joan. She goes back to watch more of the show, as the TV Joan goes on about wanting to sue Cate Blanchett, who, in the show within the show, plays TV Joan.
Something occurs to Joan. She starts eating lots of burgers until she wants to puke. She then drinks some rapid action laxatives. She dresses as a cheerleader with a penis drawn on her forehead and goes to a wedding where the laxatives finally take effect. She shits all over the place then gets arrested. This, as per plan, makes Ms. Hayek very angry about her “anus doing the shitting.” She doesn’t like the deepfake stuff involved with her image rights, and her lawyer says there’s nothing to be done. “Doesn‘t my asshole have any rights?” Salma asks. Apparently not!
Salma goes to see Joan. After a little bit of arguing they come to common ground. Neither of these women can do anything about what’s going on. Salma says that the real enemy is Mona Javadi (Leila Farzad), the head of Streamberry. Joan suggests they “bring down the system.” Can they physically destroy the Streamberry servers? They can at least get access to them by using Salma’s celebrity status.
Off Ms. Hayek goes to the Streamberry headquarters. She gets access to a private bathroom, which lets her further inside the place. Mona hears that Salma’s in the building and orders her to be tossed out. She’s busy doing an interview about Joan is Awful and the “quantum computer” that creates these types of AI-generated shows. Everyone will have their own Streamberry show eventually, like the reporter Fatima (Danielle Vitalis) being surprised with a glimpse of her own series coming soon.

Meanwhile, Salma gets Joan into Streamberry HQ and they head for the servers. They interrupt a computer tech, Beppe (Michael Cera), who reveals that Joan is not “the original Joan.” She’s just “a Joan.” There’s actually a “source Joan.” She’s actually just a variant of a character played by the actress Annie Murphy. Beppe explains they’re in a show currently, they’re all playing parts in a “fictive level.” A never ending loop of fictional realities. Even Salma is not herself, either. None of them are in reality.
Salma and Joan get to the server, but Joan wonders what will happen to all the “simulated souls” believing they’re real. If Joan destroys the server then they’ll all, technically, die, because their fictive reality will cease to exist. Yet Joan realises she’s only there because the real Joan must’ve been there at some point, too. She destroys the server and melts back into herself, just as Salma becomes the real Annie Murphy. The fake reality’s been undone. The real Joan goes back to her life at a new job, going to therapy, and generally living genuinely. She finally feels like “the main character” in her own life. She’s also on house arrest. She can go to work but she has to wear an ankle monitor. And she’s still friends with Annie, too.