Black Mirror: Mazey Day
June 17, 2023 11:02 AM - Season 6, Episode 4 - Subscribe
A troubled starlet is dogged by invasive paparazzi while dealing with the consequences of a hit-and-run incident.
Ah, "dogged", very clever. No, hang on, I mean the other word.
posted by Molesome at 11:54 AM on June 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Molesome at 11:54 AM on June 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
The pay-off for this episode is it's very ending — that the photo of the suicide is the pièce de résistance. All the awful paparazzi shadiness and exploitation is actually justified because everyone will see that photo and the others.
I don't think that's true? I think the pay off is the transformation. I think this story is not exactly pro-paparazzi, and even Bo who the story likes a bit more (and lets live), mainly because of showing empathy at key moments.
I didn't love this episode; because a lot of this is in service to a twist, theres a lot of busy work, and ultimately I don't really care if Bo finds Mazey Day or not. Still I think the final ten minutes are pretty effective. It's not exactly deep stuff, but I think it works fine.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 12:56 PM on June 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
I don't think that's true? I think the pay off is the transformation. I think this story is not exactly pro-paparazzi, and even Bo who the story likes a bit more (and lets live), mainly because of showing empathy at key moments.
I didn't love this episode; because a lot of this is in service to a twist, theres a lot of busy work, and ultimately I don't really care if Bo finds Mazey Day or not. Still I think the final ten minutes are pretty effective. It's not exactly deep stuff, but I think it works fine.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 12:56 PM on June 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
Bonus points for including a Thomas Guide in an early/mid-2000s episode set in LA.
posted by LionIndex at 1:48 PM on June 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by LionIndex at 1:48 PM on June 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
It was pretty late last night when I decided to watch something, so I decided to watch this, the shortest episode of the new season.
Maybe it's not peak Black Mirror, but I enjoyed the hell out of it, and loved both the twist and the end payoff. I thought it was an efficiently presented story, and with all of the content packed into the episode, it felt to me to be longer than its 40ish minute runtime. Also, it has haunted me today while I've been doing yardwork, and that's pretty much what I hope for and expect from an episode of Black Mirror.
posted by vverse23 at 2:20 PM on June 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
Maybe it's not peak Black Mirror, but I enjoyed the hell out of it, and loved both the twist and the end payoff. I thought it was an efficiently presented story, and with all of the content packed into the episode, it felt to me to be longer than its 40ish minute runtime. Also, it has haunted me today while I've been doing yardwork, and that's pretty much what I hope for and expect from an episode of Black Mirror.
posted by vverse23 at 2:20 PM on June 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
“I don't think that's true? I think the pay off is the transformation.”
I'd agree with you except that Booker absolutely did not have to end with Bo framing her photograph of Mazey's suicide. They don't show the suicide itself, which is a relief, but that's immediately followed by the shock of Bo being sure to get the photo. And, crucially, in my opinion, the show effectively made the case for the necessity of Bo taking that photograph.
The earlier photographs were arguably a public service and therefore ethnically justifiable. But the suicide photo cannot be justified on any basis other than prurience.
You'd think that would mean that we'd question Bo taking that photo, but Booker is rightly more interested in the social conditions that make it impossible for her, that particular person in that particular situation, to not take that photo. Every named character is morally compromised from start to finish. Taking that photo was reprehensible, but Bo being monstrous is arguably no more her choice than it was Mazey's to literally become a monster.
I'd like to mention to those who don't already know that paparazzi originates from the character "Paparazzo", a photographer of celebrities, in Fellini's La Dolce Vita, one of my very favorite films. It's pretty cool that the ethics of this kind of photojournalism were explored in a film (as part of the larger matter of the unreality of celebrity), which actually was subsequently reified by referring to these photographers as paparazzi in real-life, which is then followed over the years by fictional portrayals of paparazzi that hinge upon how the celebrity industry is distorting to the point of depravity. Time is a flat circle.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 5:15 PM on June 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
I'd agree with you except that Booker absolutely did not have to end with Bo framing her photograph of Mazey's suicide. They don't show the suicide itself, which is a relief, but that's immediately followed by the shock of Bo being sure to get the photo. And, crucially, in my opinion, the show effectively made the case for the necessity of Bo taking that photograph.
The earlier photographs were arguably a public service and therefore ethnically justifiable. But the suicide photo cannot be justified on any basis other than prurience.
You'd think that would mean that we'd question Bo taking that photo, but Booker is rightly more interested in the social conditions that make it impossible for her, that particular person in that particular situation, to not take that photo. Every named character is morally compromised from start to finish. Taking that photo was reprehensible, but Bo being monstrous is arguably no more her choice than it was Mazey's to literally become a monster.
I'd like to mention to those who don't already know that paparazzi originates from the character "Paparazzo", a photographer of celebrities, in Fellini's La Dolce Vita, one of my very favorite films. It's pretty cool that the ethics of this kind of photojournalism were explored in a film (as part of the larger matter of the unreality of celebrity), which actually was subsequently reified by referring to these photographers as paparazzi in real-life, which is then followed over the years by fictional portrayals of paparazzi that hinge upon how the celebrity industry is distorting to the point of depravity. Time is a flat circle.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 5:15 PM on June 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
I was thinking all the way leading up to it about how she might need that photo to prove her innocence in the killing of a celebrity, especially after she really did shoot her with that gun just minutes earlier (and since everyone else is dead, too -- someone in the background by a stray bullet from that very gun, even). But the slowww raising of the camera into frame after the long pause made clear it was meant to be a gut punch turn of the screw, at which point I think I kind of smirked at the screen for it not having anything else to tell us.
Which is to say, I agree with Ivan F: "We know. We already knew; you didn't really need to tell us."
(Maybe it gave us something a little bit extra by having the celebrity explicitly nod, as if to give the gift of that last photo, as if to say she knows her place in the machine, even now? But...I'm not sure that's interesting enough to carry this.)
(One last thing: a close shot of a water glass before the last big action scene was a Jurassic Park homage, but unless I missed it I don't think the water vibrated?)
posted by nobody at 5:55 PM on June 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
Which is to say, I agree with Ivan F: "We know. We already knew; you didn't really need to tell us."
(Maybe it gave us something a little bit extra by having the celebrity explicitly nod, as if to give the gift of that last photo, as if to say she knows her place in the machine, even now? But...I'm not sure that's interesting enough to carry this.)
(One last thing: a close shot of a water glass before the last big action scene was a Jurassic Park homage, but unless I missed it I don't think the water vibrated?)
posted by nobody at 5:55 PM on June 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
Ivan Fyodorovich: "And, crucially, in my opinion, the show effectively made the case for the necessity of Bo taking that photograph."
I agree with everything you originally said about it being a very heavy-handed gut punch, but I don't really understand the argument that the show is advocating for Bo's decision.
I admit that when Mazey asked to be shot, I was practically yelling at the screen for Bo not to put her fingerprints on that gun, but once the scene played out I figured that wasn't really the angle. I don't think that she hands Mazey the gun because she wants to make sure that she isn't blamed for this weird diner massacre.
The older dude with the stupid hat was a cautionary tale at the beginning of the episode — not only unbothered by the ethics of his job, but actively picking fights about it — yet Bo's transformation into that douchebag was well on its way even before we knew what genre this episode was. Bo thought she had grown a conscience, but she learned instead that she just had a price. All the massacre did — arguably — was accelerate the process.
All that said, I'll point out that supernatural aspect of this episode works against the morality play. Bo sees a human being chained to a bed and tries to do something kind for another human being, unlike her asshole colleagues. She's “rewarded” for it by inadvertently causing the deaths of seven people and one werewolf. I'd turn into a nihilist, too.
posted by savetheclocktower at 10:15 PM on June 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
I agree with everything you originally said about it being a very heavy-handed gut punch, but I don't really understand the argument that the show is advocating for Bo's decision.
I admit that when Mazey asked to be shot, I was practically yelling at the screen for Bo not to put her fingerprints on that gun, but once the scene played out I figured that wasn't really the angle. I don't think that she hands Mazey the gun because she wants to make sure that she isn't blamed for this weird diner massacre.
The older dude with the stupid hat was a cautionary tale at the beginning of the episode — not only unbothered by the ethics of his job, but actively picking fights about it — yet Bo's transformation into that douchebag was well on its way even before we knew what genre this episode was. Bo thought she had grown a conscience, but she learned instead that she just had a price. All the massacre did — arguably — was accelerate the process.
All that said, I'll point out that supernatural aspect of this episode works against the morality play. Bo sees a human being chained to a bed and tries to do something kind for another human being, unlike her asshole colleagues. She's “rewarded” for it by inadvertently causing the deaths of seven people and one werewolf. I'd turn into a nihilist, too.
posted by savetheclocktower at 10:15 PM on June 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
It seems strange to me that we haven’t really addressed that this is the first Black Mirror episode that’s fantasy and not science fiction? I know a lot of Black Mirror episodes present technology as if it were magic, but is this not the first one that abandons the pretense of realism?
I’m cool with Black Mirror transitioning from “technology is ruining us” to “our relationship with media is ruining us,” but this felt like too much of a leap.
posted by ejs at 10:23 PM on June 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
I’m cool with Black Mirror transitioning from “technology is ruining us” to “our relationship with media is ruining us,” but this felt like too much of a leap.
posted by ejs at 10:23 PM on June 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
IDK, a camera is a black mirror too, it doesn't feel like a stretch to me. Black Mirror's has always had a strong line of media being terrible I think.
This is by far the worst-rated episode of the season on IMDB (it goes 7.7, 7.5, 7.7, 5.4, and 7.1). I can see why, though personally I didn't feel strongly enough about any of these episodes. I like Black Mirror well enough. It's fine and sometimes sharp.
It was very predictable that Bo would raise that camera up into frame. She won't kill Mazey, like Mazey asks, but she will give her the gun and take pictures of the suicide. I think she did it for all the reasons; for money, for an alibi, and for moral cowardice too. She was ready to go back to being a spectator.
posted by fleacircus at 12:36 AM on June 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
This is by far the worst-rated episode of the season on IMDB (it goes 7.7, 7.5, 7.7, 5.4, and 7.1). I can see why, though personally I didn't feel strongly enough about any of these episodes. I like Black Mirror well enough. It's fine and sometimes sharp.
It was very predictable that Bo would raise that camera up into frame. She won't kill Mazey, like Mazey asks, but she will give her the gun and take pictures of the suicide. I think she did it for all the reasons; for money, for an alibi, and for moral cowardice too. She was ready to go back to being a spectator.
posted by fleacircus at 12:36 AM on June 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
IDK, a camera is a black mirror too
Oh, I just realized that black mirror refers to a blank phone screen, I guess? Your comment clued me in for the first time, thanks!
posted by grog at 8:06 AM on June 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Oh, I just realized that black mirror refers to a blank phone screen, I guess? Your comment clued me in for the first time, thanks!
posted by grog at 8:06 AM on June 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
What with like a million photos from different cameras in situ at the crime scene, I never thought Bo needed the photo for an alibi. She'd already (mortally?) shot Mazey, anyway. The photos and the victims' injuries and Mazey's condition make this as unambiguous a case of werewolvism as it could be.
I mean, in the real world many or most people (like me) would still refuse to believe despite all this evidence. But, as far as that goes, that's not persuasive to me because I feel certain there's never been evidence like this in the real-world. It's like, what if Santa Claus is real? Well, we're never going to have to face this possibility in the real world, just like we're never going to have to seriously evaluate the evidence for werewolvism.
So I don't feel obligated to imagine how this would actually play out such that Bo would, despite all the evidence, feel she has to take that photograph in defense of her innocence. Within the narrative, the show's given us every reason to believe that the existence of werewolves was just conclusively proven. Those photos couldn't be worth a million dollars if hardly anyone believes they're authentic.
Also, of course, if all of this other evidence wasn't enough to exonerate Bo of any accusation of murder, then taking that last photograph couldn't have helped much, anyway. If authorities believe this was all faked then that that final photo would just be another among many things that were somehow convincingly faked.
Given this, Bo took must have taken that photo for its intrinsic value. Sure, in real life I'd never say Bo was 'forced' to take that photo. I'd hold her accountable for the exploitation. But it makes more sense to me to interpret her behavior in the context of what Booker is trying to call our attention to and criticize. I feel it's clear that Booker wants us to equate Bo's monstrous exploitation with Mazey's monstrous transformation and killing — this all had to go this way because that's the way the world is. The innocent are corrupted by our uncontrolled appetites.
I guess it's to Booker's credit that even the episodes I'm most critical of nevertheless motivate this much consideration from me. I've thought this show is overrated and Booker is like Lars von Trier in that they combine a very manipulative prurience with ostensive social commentary in such a way that we're encouraged to forget how heavy-handed and gross they often are. I've felt compelled to engage more extensively with von Trier's films than I think is warranted. Same with Booker. The diamonds amidst a lot of hackish stuff make it hard to resist. But I think the crap still stinks. Those diamonds, tho!
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 11:03 AM on June 18, 2023
I mean, in the real world many or most people (like me) would still refuse to believe despite all this evidence. But, as far as that goes, that's not persuasive to me because I feel certain there's never been evidence like this in the real-world. It's like, what if Santa Claus is real? Well, we're never going to have to face this possibility in the real world, just like we're never going to have to seriously evaluate the evidence for werewolvism.
So I don't feel obligated to imagine how this would actually play out such that Bo would, despite all the evidence, feel she has to take that photograph in defense of her innocence. Within the narrative, the show's given us every reason to believe that the existence of werewolves was just conclusively proven. Those photos couldn't be worth a million dollars if hardly anyone believes they're authentic.
Also, of course, if all of this other evidence wasn't enough to exonerate Bo of any accusation of murder, then taking that last photograph couldn't have helped much, anyway. If authorities believe this was all faked then that that final photo would just be another among many things that were somehow convincingly faked.
Given this, Bo took must have taken that photo for its intrinsic value. Sure, in real life I'd never say Bo was 'forced' to take that photo. I'd hold her accountable for the exploitation. But it makes more sense to me to interpret her behavior in the context of what Booker is trying to call our attention to and criticize. I feel it's clear that Booker wants us to equate Bo's monstrous exploitation with Mazey's monstrous transformation and killing — this all had to go this way because that's the way the world is. The innocent are corrupted by our uncontrolled appetites.
I guess it's to Booker's credit that even the episodes I'm most critical of nevertheless motivate this much consideration from me. I've thought this show is overrated and Booker is like Lars von Trier in that they combine a very manipulative prurience with ostensive social commentary in such a way that we're encouraged to forget how heavy-handed and gross they often are. I've felt compelled to engage more extensively with von Trier's films than I think is warranted. Same with Booker. The diamonds amidst a lot of hackish stuff make it hard to resist. But I think the crap still stinks. Those diamonds, tho!
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 11:03 AM on June 18, 2023
Ivan Fyodorovich: "But it makes more sense to me to interpret her behavior in the context of what Booker is trying to call our attention to and criticize. I feel it's clear that Booker wants us to equate Bo's monstrous exploitation with Mazey's monstrous transformation and killing — this all had to go this way because that's the way the world is. The innocent are corrupted by our uncontrolled appetites."
I can't recall examples off the top of my head, but it's a familiar enough character arc: the man-versus-self conflict where the protagonist loses. Sometimes a character shouts down the better angels and becomes the thing they despise.
If an author writes a story in which someone makes a choice that will destroy them, I don't think that author is necessarily making a statement larger than the circumstances of that one person. There have been so many episodes of this show now and I doubt that they reveal a consistent worldview when taken all at once.
Let's put it another way: I think you think that the final moment is what the story was working towards. Whereas I think that the werewolf reveal was what the story was working towards, and everything after that was as elegant a dénouement as could be extracted. I think Brooker needed an ending.
posted by savetheclocktower at 11:14 PM on June 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
I can't recall examples off the top of my head, but it's a familiar enough character arc: the man-versus-self conflict where the protagonist loses. Sometimes a character shouts down the better angels and becomes the thing they despise.
If an author writes a story in which someone makes a choice that will destroy them, I don't think that author is necessarily making a statement larger than the circumstances of that one person. There have been so many episodes of this show now and I doubt that they reveal a consistent worldview when taken all at once.
Let's put it another way: I think you think that the final moment is what the story was working towards. Whereas I think that the werewolf reveal was what the story was working towards, and everything after that was as elegant a dénouement as could be extracted. I think Brooker needed an ending.
posted by savetheclocktower at 11:14 PM on June 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
Brooker.
posted by yonega at 12:52 PM on June 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by yonega at 12:52 PM on June 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
It's really weird how we can just not see a letter if we don't think it's there.
That's true about most anything, I expect. Keys, a haircut, racism.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 1:14 PM on June 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
That's true about most anything, I expect. Keys, a haircut, racism.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 1:14 PM on June 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
I think people are taking the TV show that had a prime minister fuck a pig in its first episode much more seriously than intended.
Brooker is a delightfully silly guy, and I more and more think this series of Black Mirror is just him saying "But I'm Charlie Brooker! That guy that did TV Go Home and Nathan Barley and Screen Wipe, and helped birth Philomena Cunk and Barry Shitpeas! I'm not a prophet, I'm just a very naughty boy!"
I really enjoyed this episode, it's 3 for 3 for me so far (I had to skip the 80 minute episode, as yet to find an 80 minute slot in which to watch it).
posted by chill at 11:56 AM on June 25, 2023
Brooker is a delightfully silly guy, and I more and more think this series of Black Mirror is just him saying "But I'm Charlie Brooker! That guy that did TV Go Home and Nathan Barley and Screen Wipe, and helped birth Philomena Cunk and Barry Shitpeas! I'm not a prophet, I'm just a very naughty boy!"
I really enjoyed this episode, it's 3 for 3 for me so far (I had to skip the 80 minute episode, as yet to find an 80 minute slot in which to watch it).
posted by chill at 11:56 AM on June 25, 2023
It's fun to analyze things though.
posted by fleacircus at 5:31 PM on June 25, 2023
posted by fleacircus at 5:31 PM on June 25, 2023
lol, man this episode.
This has the feeling of... Brooker wanted to do a werewolf pastiche for YEARS now... and each season they could never get a script to a point it was good enough to get produced... and then finally this season they run out of better ideas and decide to give up and finally make the werewolf story.
posted by midmarch snowman at 11:40 PM on June 25, 2023 [4 favorites]
This has the feeling of... Brooker wanted to do a werewolf pastiche for YEARS now... and each season they could never get a script to a point it was good enough to get produced... and then finally this season they run out of better ideas and decide to give up and finally make the werewolf story.
posted by midmarch snowman at 11:40 PM on June 25, 2023 [4 favorites]
I'm mostly left curious about why local law enforcement is issued silver bullets.
posted by flabdablet at 10:13 AM on July 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by flabdablet at 10:13 AM on July 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
"Supermassive Black Hole" will always be the Vampire Baseball scene from Twilight to me, so I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised when this turned out to be some kind of goofy riff on Ginger Snaps. This episode incredibly doesn't work for me, but it's entirely because of my preconceived notions about what genre this show is. Once Mazey Day turned into a werewolf, I kind of checked out emotionally, because I was sure this was all a holodeck hallucination or something. The idea of werewolves being real on this show is like if a chupacabra suddenly appeared on an episode of And Just Like That. Like, I know Black Mirror isn't reality, but I take it for granted that it's at least trying to seem vaguely plausible within a set of logical presumptions and limits.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:44 PM on July 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:44 PM on July 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
some kind of goofy riff on Ginger Snaps
Given Brooker's age, more likely it was An American Werewolf in London, maybe also influenced by The Company of Wolves.
posted by biffa at 8:49 AM on July 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
Given Brooker's age, more likely it was An American Werewolf in London, maybe also influenced by The Company of Wolves.
posted by biffa at 8:49 AM on July 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
Is this the first supernatural Black Mirror episode? I think this and the Demon episode from this season are the only ones to veer into this territory.
posted by Julnyes at 10:14 AM on July 20, 2023
posted by Julnyes at 10:14 AM on July 20, 2023
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The pay-off for this episode is it's very ending — that the photo of the suicide is the pièce de résistance. All the awful paparazzi shadiness and exploitation is actually justified because everyone will see that photo and the others.
It's undeniably a punch in the gut and makes his point emphatically — but I absolutely cannot stand art that hits me in the head with a brick to make sure I understand that the author thinks what they're saying is important. Especially when what they're saying is far from a revelation.
We know. We already knew; you didn't really need to tell us. You certainly didn't need to make it an assault.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 11:22 AM on June 17, 2023