We welcome to podcast joint host hoho Is. He discusses the rimming Netflix original
series Black Mirror. Now Here. He is for broadcasting from the Codess Studio.
Welcome to Black Mirror Podcast. Dan, as always, I'm your host.
He so, Hi, y'all's doing I hope you're doing good? I
really do. Today we are starting season six with episode one titled Joan is
Awful? Is she though? Is she awful? Or is she kind of
being set up? No? No, let's let's let's let's let's be the
judge of this one, you know. But first I do have some stuff
I want to talk about at the end of the episode. But before we
do all that warning spoiler alert, we are going to be talking about the
episode, some of the stuff that happens in it, of course, you
know, So if you have not watched the episode yet, head on over
and check that out and they come on back and then let's, uh,
let's talk about it. So Joan is Awful? Now, I had a
lot of expectations going into this one. I really did, because after season
six, or I'm sorry, after season five, you know, I was
I was looking up if they were going to do a season six how far
away we are with it, you know, all that good stuff. And
one of the things that I had heard through the arts, you know,
some of the articles that I was reading was that they were bumping up production
value, and boy, howdy did they ever. You know, not just
with the quality of the show. Everything is self put it. I mean,
it was the depth of the plot in this when some of the stuff
that they were talking about was just whoa, you know, I mean,
it definitely definitely was on another level as far as I was concerned. You
know, they did a good job with it. So let's go ahead and
get into this. So the episode starts out. You got a Joan that
is, you know, going through her morning routine, you know, going
through her day just like anybody would. Hops into her car, she's heading
to work. She's jamming to some music. I don't know about you,
but I do that as much as I possibly can. I'm always jamming to
some music. You know. She gets to work, you find out that
she's you know, low low level management, you know, and she she's
got to do a dirty deed, right, you know, she's got to
do a dirty deed. And at this point I'm gonna be honest with you.
I I felt for Joan. I really did, because I've been low
level management and I know what it basically consists. You know, you're tasked
with doing the things that upper management just don't want to do, that don't
want to deal with. You know, you're a glorified pon. You have
more responsibility, you don't really have a lot of pay, but you really
don't have much power either, because again you're just doing what somebody else doesn't
really want to do. So on that aspect, I felt for him,
you know, I really did. You know. And as she is preparing
to terminate somebody, she gets a message from a guy by the name of
Max, and you know, hey, I'm in town. I'm going to
be at this place. You know, hey, let's hook up. She
agrees to it. She does, indeed, she know, she terminates the
goal she's supposed to. She then goes to see her therapist after work,
and she's having a conversation and she's talking with her therapist and you know,
now there's a couple of things in here that I'm wanting to talk about.
Okay, you know, first as with her relationships, Okay, talk with
a therapist. She's very much glorifying her relationship with her ex. And she's
I guess you can say, displeased with how things are going with her current
boyfriend, you know, and her current boyfriend is most definitely it's a rebound.
How can I say that? Well, think about it. You know,
where Max was spontaneous and experimental and you know, passionate and you know,
just spontaneous. You know, her current was none of that, you
know. And again she's glorifying this relationship. And you know, she acknowledges
that there was bad things that happened in that relationship. Obviously she she dumped
the guy, but you don't really get that feeling that a lot of time
has passed, you know, and definitely not enough time that you know,
Max has changed in any significant way, or at least I don't pick up
on that. And oh sorry, you know that I don't. I don't
pick up on that whatsoever. And you know, so it's like, okay,
look, you're glorifying your relationship with Max, you acknowledging the bad but
you know, it's like you left the guy for a reason, right,
So I mean, obviously the time when you were in the relationship, it
was bad enough for you to leave, don't forget why you left them in
the first place, and maybe keep the rebound is the rebound or you know,
what have you? If not? No, no judgment to anybody,
you know, not judging. It's one of the things I get it,
I really do. Just exploring the psychological aspect of it, because that,
for me, that's intriguing why people do some of the stuff that they do,
you know, it's it's it's intriguing to me. But then she continues
talking about her own life and that she doesn't really feel as though she's the
one controlling it, you know, not that there's somebody else controlling your life.
It's just that she's not the one that's really making the decisions, you
know, like she's not the pilot of her own plane, she's not the
driver of her own car. She's just going through life and going through the
motions, you know, just going with the flow. You know. She
she's in the boat, sure, but she's not really at the helm.
It's just going wherever the waves take her, right, you know that.
And that's that's kind of how she feels. And she's asked by her therapist,
do you want to take control and I'll know about you. But I've
definitely, you know, had those that going on in my life. Sorry,
I had to take a drink, but I've definitely had that going on
in my life, you know, just feeling like I'm just going through the
motions of life, you know, like I'm not really the one that's making
the decisions. I'm just in the boat on the ocean, going wherever the
wind and the waves take me. Has that ever happened to you in life?
You know, just going through the motions, not really feeling like you're
in charge, just going through the motions. And I don't I don't know
if that's a good feeling or a bad feeling. I mean, for me,
I was kind of indifferent about the whole thing, but I don't know,
maybe your experience with it was a little different. Let me know.
And after her time with her therapist, she goes and meets Max. It's
not the best of reunions. Max was wanting something that apparently Joan really wasn't
offering, you know, and Max was a little upset about that. You
know, it's like why did you come here? You know, type of
a hey, you know, if you didn't come here wanting this. Then,
why in the world did you even show up in the first place?
Type of thing, you know, And then she gets home to her boyfriend
or fiance I honestly don't remember. And this is where things gets interesting.
You know, they meet or I'm sorry, they eat, They meet,
they eat. You know, they're sitting down and they're watching Netflix. Now
I wasn't called Netflix. It was called something else. I'm stream Berry,
but it was Netflix. Come on, you've seen it. It was Netflix.
They're watching that. Hey, let's watch this. I don't really feel
like watching that. Well, let's watch this. Na I don't really feel
like watching that either. We just got done watching this, and that's a
lot like this. I don't Let's watch something different. Hey, Jana is
awful. Let's wow. That's your name? H wow. That that hairstyle
is kind of like kind of like yours, you know. Let's huh.
I'm interested. And as they're watching this episode, Joan is awful. She's
huh. That's how I started my day. This is I don't think I
like this. That's the song I was listening to on my way to work.
That's where I work. This is how are they? What's going on
here? Text? Message from Max. Oh crap, my current boyfriend just
seen that they're embellishing. That's that's not how it actually happened. Uh huh.
They fight, They argue, he's coming out? Is that really how
you feel about me? You know, whenever they were in you know,
whenever she was talking with a therapist, And of course he leaves, he's
upset. Duh, I would be too, Hey, you know, what
do you expect from the guy. Now, obviously she didn't want any of
this to play out the way that it did, you know. But the
next day she goes, she goes into work. She basically finds out that
everybody in her life watch this show. Everybody did the words out. Holy
crap. She gets to work. The first thing that happens is she gets
fired from her job. The board is in agreement. You technically violated your
nondisclosure agreement. You're terminated. You're done here. Then she goes it,
talks to her lawyer, and this is where things get a little bit more
interesting. She talks to her lawyer, She's like, hey, you need
to do something about this. He plops down this big old stack of papers,
like an inch inch and a half thick, It's like, have you
ever seen you know, I can't do anything because of this. I've never
seen this. Well you did, but you've probably never seen an imprint before.
Remember the terms of service agreement that you just clicked okay too without even
reading. That's what this is. Guess what It says that they can do
whatever they want to when you agree to it. Well, I didn't agree
to I didn't think they were going to be doing this, Like, well,
but there's nothing I can do. This terms of service agreement is it's
ironclad. They covered all their bases. Well, how did they even get
this? They're listening to your conversations. They're using people's phones to record everything,
video, audio, what you know, geo location in a whole nine
yards? And has this ever happened? Like I know this has happened to
me. I can't be the only one I hear people talking about this,
you know. I mean, let's just say you're you're with your friends and
and you're talking with your buddy about this pen. And this pen is amazing.
This is the best pen I've ever known. It's smooth, it's it's
it's clear, it's dark, it's it's amazing. In your hand, it's
just it walks, it talks, it choose tobacco in the spence And next
thing you know, you know, you open up Facebook, you open up
YouTube or whatever your social media of choice is, Instagram, whatever, And
the next thing you know, you see an advertisement for that very pen that
you were just talking about with your buddy. You've not even searched this yet,
You've not even gone shopping for this thing yet, you get an email
from Amazon. Hey, by this pin you were just talking about. I
mean, creepy, right, But that's the society that we're living in now
that this is the stuff that's happening. Right, we click that terms of
service agreement and we give them access to all this stuff, and what if
this is the way they choose to exercise what you agreed to in the terms
of service agreement. Now, I mean, for most people it's it's a
it's a whatever. You know only whenever something is bad and annoying is it
even going to be something you think about? But you know, it's like
I know, at least for me that I don't really think about it in
my day to day. I mean, like, yeah, in the back
of my head, I know what's happening. You know, I know I'm
being recorded, but know it doesn't basically affect me in my day to day,
so it's nothing that I think about. Is this something that that you
think about? You know? Is this something that bothers you? You know,
have you taken measures to ensure that it doesn't happen? I mean what
measures can you take? I mean, I carry my smartphone with me most
places, you know, I mean does it bother you? I don't know.
And she has the idea that, well, if I can't go after
Netflix for this, maybe I can go after sal Mahiac because I mean,
she's the one that portrayed me and this was isn't this defamation a character?
And basically her her lawyer goes, well, I mean I guess she could
Suewer if it was her, But this whole thing was done using CGI,
so I mean it was just her likeness, so it wasn't actually sell mahaic.
I mean, you know, Netflix can use can use her likeness to
do whatever they want to sell Mahaiak may not like it, but there's nothing
they could she could technically do about it, you know. So you know
that night, she's watching the episode of that day, and she gets this
look on her face. Right, she gets this look and it's like,
huh, she had an idea and this is going to be good. So
the next morning in all Man, she comes in to her house with bags,
like two bags of hamburgers from her favorite fast food joint. You know,
name your favorite hamburger from your favorite fast food joint. She's got like
five, six of them. I don't even remember. It was a lot.
And after she chow's down and it eats as many as she could possibly
eats, she opens up a bottle of something liquid gold. I say that
it's a bottle of x lax a laxative. I don't remember exactly what it
was. It doesn't matter. She and she just starts drinking, guzzling this
bottle of laxative. I mean she drinks like what a third of it?
Oh, holy crap, you know. And then she she gets in her
car, she takes off. She's going down the road, and you know,
you see her lifting a thing lipstick up to her lips. No,
she goes higher than that. She's going up to her forehead. What is
she doing? I don't know, because then it cuts to another scene where
she is breaking. You know, she's opens up the doors and goes into
a room like a cool aid man through a brick wall, and she's spouting
all kinds of crap. She's wearing a cheer litter outfit, she's got her
hair in pigtails, and wouldn't you know, she she busts into a church,
not during a regular church service, they're doing a wedding. She's spouting
all kinds of crap. Next thing you know, she kind of halfway bends
over and she's getting this push look on her face. And then the damn's
break open and the fondue fountain is in full effect. Oh boy, howdy.
I felt so bad for the floor. I felt bad for the janitor
that had to clean it up. I felt bad for I felt bad for
her under bridges. I felt bad for the people that were behind her.
I felt bad for everybody. This was so bad I could smell it.
I was like, oh boy, howdy, that's gotta be nasty. Oh
mercy, mercy, mercy, Oh boy howdy. And of course, you
know, she does this for the shock factor, just to get Salama Hike's
attention, because Jones like, I'm a nobody. There's nothing I can do
about this, but salmahiak, maybe she can get something done. And Samahik
goes to her attorney and basically gets told the exact same thing that Joan did.
Hey, you have this terms of service agreement. It is iron tight,
it is watertight, it is airtight. There at just there's nothing I
can do. You gave them permission to use your likeness. They used it.
There's nothing I can do just because you don't like the way they used
it. She's obviously unhappy with this. She fires a lawyer and then she's
like, fine, I'm going to go talk to Joan. I'm going straight
to the source. If I can't talk to them, then I'm going to
talk to her and say stop it. You're making me look bad, right,
And Joan's like, man, I just I just wanted this to stop.
I don't like this. I don't like my life being portrayed like this.
And she was like, well, I don't like you doing what you're
doing either. No, the bad guy is netflix here. Well what can
you do? Well? Nothing the heck am I going to do it?
You know they're doing on this to a computer, a computer at it's probably
with their headquarters. Well, let's go to the headquarters. How the heck
am I supposed to get in there? What do you mean how are you
supposed to you know, well, we don't get in, you get in?
Well, how am I supposed to get in? And I'm thinking because
you're sounding a fucking hyak. And at the same time I'm thinking it,
Jane goes because you're sounding fucking hyak, and I'm might called it. I
did too. I was like, that's exactly what she's gonna say. That's
what she said. I got a kick out of that part. I really
did. I thought that was that was hilarious. You know, the comedy
factor on that was high. It was cool. They get into the building
there there breaking sneak in however you want to look at it, and they're
overhearing there overhearing the CEO or president or whoever the person is talk with a
reporter about about Jonah's awful, and it's like, you know, how how
is this possible? It's when no, no, no, they're talking about
why awful? Why not amazing or something like that, and the presidency person
was like, well we tried that, but focus groups that just didn't really
play out. People weren't really interested, you know, so we went with
awful. We went with you know, the more selfish nature of things.
And that's how we how we decided to go with it. And then she
went on further to say that we have these type of episodes for basically everybody.
There's even one for you talking to the reporter. And the reporter's reaction
is like, oh crap. It's like, I know, I'm awful.
You don't even have to umbelt. Holy crap. And then she asked a
question of how is this even possible, and the presiden CEO lady was like,
well, we use this supercomputer. This thing is amazing. It's a
miracle. I don't even know how it does it, but it it takes
all the information it's getting in, all the various audio inputs and video inputs
and everything, and it and it compiles everything, and it puts the likenesses
on there and takes the video and renders the whole thing and publishes it real
time. Like, this thing is amazing, how it works, how it
functions, the whole nine yards. It's absolutely amazing. Using quantum computers.
Now, now guys, look, I'm I'm the older than Google Okay,
I've I've been around for a few days, you know, I've I've seen
technology grow from Windows three point zero to whatever, whatever the heck we are
now Windows three sixty five. You know. It's I've seen the progression of
technology, and it baffles the mind. It really does, man does it.
It baffles the mind. But I want to let you in on something.
When it comes to processors, Okay, we have reached the limits of
silicone based processors, we really have. We we can't get information to move
across any faster than what it already does. We've reached the limit of our
current consumer grade sorry processors we have, you know. And they're exploring all
kinds of things, right you know, they're exploring light crystals, fiber optics,
and let me tell you, with fiber optics is is it's amazing.
I mean they've not even scratched the surface of what is possible with fiber optics,
let alone with just quantum computing in general. I was listening to a
guy just yesterday or maybe even even earlier today, and he was talking about
quantum communications. I'm like, what the heck is quantum communications? And you
know, I'm not going to like look layman terms, because that's all I
get. But basically is what an amounts to is I don't know Jack on
the science aspect of it, but what it basically amounts to is with quantum
computing, they are not not quantum computing, I'm sorry, quantum communications that
they can communicate one person with another instantaneous, regardless of the distance between them.
Instant communication regardless of distance. That's what quantum communication is. Like,
holy crapper, are you kidding me? I mean, y'alls have watched a
show where you got the news anchor on TV and he's interviewing some somebody that's
out in the field, you know, some some news reporter and you know,
ask a question and then wait ten seconds because they got to hear the
question, and then they got to respond to the question, and then the
anchorman has to deal with that delay, and then there you go. I
mean, y'alls have seen that, no more delay with quantum communications. Quantum
telecommunication, I think is how they worded it. But quart of communications,
dude, I mean, I'm telling you something. Okay, The future of
technology lies in you know, data management, robotics, AI, you know.
I mean, these are the things that if you're into it. Technical,
that's the place to go. What they're doing, dude, it boggles
the mind. I mean you know, I mean you think about it.
You know where just the last ten years of technological advancements, where are we
going to be in another ten years? Where are we going to be?
It boggles the mind to even think about it. Oh dude, who So
then this is where things get interested, because now it's go time. Now
they're going to smash the computer, right, They're gonna they're going to dismantle
this puppy. They're going to destroy it. They're going to take it out.
So they go into the room. There's an IT guy sitting there.
What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here? And then
Jane's like, well what are you doing? It is like I'm watching Joan
is awful. It's like, that's not Jonah is awful because that's me as
Joan. I'm not Joan, and Joan is awful. Sal Mahaiac is Joan
and jan Jonah is awful. And the IT guys like, but I'm watching
level one Joan is awful. What are you talking about? You're not real
you're computer simulation Because Salma is Joan and level two, and then this person
is Joan and level three, and then this person is Joan and level four,
and it just keeps going. But you're not Joan. Where's Joan?
She's in the real world. You're a computer simulation. You don't actually exist.
You're in a computer whoa You mean to tell me everything that I've been
watching is about Joan, whom isn't actually Joan. She's what mind blown dude.
She's going in to take a baseball bat, swing away, swinging for
a home run, you know. And then the president CEO comes says like,
hey, you can't do that. You're going to destroy kill everybody.
Everybody in every simulation should all down line. You're going to kill everybody.
And this is where Joan has now. I would be having an existential crisis
at this point. I would be like, I'm ink. Therefore, I
am little throwback to comics from like, you know, Sunday comics from back
in the day. You know, I think therefore I am type of thing.
You know, what do you mean? I'm not real? But she
doesn't have that existential crisis. She's like very self aware. She's like,
look, I'm not if I'm just nothing more than a computer program, then
I am not doing this. I am merely a mirror for what Joan is
doing. I'm only here because Joan is here. I'm not in control of
this. Something's happening. It's happening now. And then she swing out of
the park and when she hits the quantum computer, you see a flash and
then you see salmahiak as Joan, and then you see the level three Joan,
and then you see the level FOURT Joan, and then you see Joan
Joan, the real Joan. Such dude, you know this episode was on
another level. Right? Oh? Such a good episode, Such a good
episode. I tell you what. I can't wait to see what the rest
of this season has to offer because starting it off the way that they did,
Wow, I mean it might not have been the most flashy. I'm
telling you, just the undertones in this episode. The psychological in this episode,
the technological in this episode was whoa You know, so we got some
questions, don't we. You know, have you ever had a point in
your life where you just didn't feel like the driver that you just felt like
you were going through the motions, Okay, like you were just a ship
being tossed hither and yawn on the wind and the waves. Has that ever
described you at any point in your life? Does that describe you? Now?
I mean maybe maybe me, you know, I mean, I know
I've had those times in my life very much. So you know, I've
yeah, just going through the emotions, no real passion behind it, no
real emotion behind it, just that seems like something I should do and do
it. Yeah, I get it. You know, in this uh technological
state that we're in right now. You know, have you ever thought about
just how much access you grant these various companies that you just click on the
I accept these terms of services, not even considering what you're actually agreeing to,
knowing that everything you say is basically being monitor not. I mean,
granted, you know they say that it's for advertising purposes and you know,
and and realistically all the stuff goes into metadata aspect, and it's nothing that
has really pulled up this way. But we also know that if they really
wanted to, like for instance, with these smart devices, you know,
you ask it questions, you say things, you know they're always listening.
That's why them keywords wakes her up to where she'll respond back with you whatever
device you got, but you say that key word and there you go.
But they're always listening. M do you mind or are you like most people
like me that well, yeah, it's listening. But I guess until it
becomes an issue, not really an issue, right, you know? I
mean, what's the worst that can happen? Please don't say that, Please
don't say that. Don't don't don't don't ever ask that question. Don't do
that, don't do that. And then looking at technology, the technological aspect
of this story, I mean, wow, you think about the last ten
years, what's going to be possible in another ten How much more are we
going to advance our technology? I mean, what is even possible? I
mean, you know, isn't it almost like we've reached a point where anything
is possible, isn't it? You know? I mean I I remember watching
science fiction back in the day, you know, like like Star Trek.
Right, dude, guys, I got news for you anymore. I'm gonna
go out on the limb here and say it that science fiction isn't real.
Okay, there's no such thing in science fiction. It's not science fiction.
Star Trek is not science fiction. Science fantasy, sure, but not science
fiction because it's science possible. It's science. We're doing it. I mean,
think about it. That the you know touch screen things, we got
them, community, be me up, Yeah, we got it. You
know, they're they're experimenting with you know, you know teleportation stuff. You
know their experiment you know, they've done like small single molecule whatever. And
I think they've done you know, like objects. I don't think they've done
any anything alive at this point. But but there's no such thing. We
live in a world where there's no such thing as science fiction anymore. It's
just science fantasy because everything you've seen in the movies they've either done it or
tried it. Jurassic Park done it. The science is sounding that just so
you know, boggles the mind. But yes, the science is sound,
and like all the science speak in that show, it's accurate. They did
it just like that, you know. I mean the science fiction part of
it is that they've not done it to that scale and made dinosaurs and had
him kill a bunch of people yet. But as far as bringing a back,
guys, look, I just found something out not that terribly long ago.
Okay, I just found this out and they're doing this with extinct animals.
Okay, just found this out like maybe two weeks ago, maybe three
weeks ago. I don't even think it was that long ago. The wooly
mammoth is no longer an extinct animal. Yeah, they used what did they
use? Was it an African elephant? I don't remember what elephant they used,
but they used that elephant and then they used the DNA to make something
and then magic and then wooly mammoth. Are you kidding me? No,
No, I'm not lying. They did that? Is that not cool or
what? So, dude, where are we going to be? Where are
we going to be? All of these questions? And I really do I
want to know what you think on these things. I want to know you
know how you feel about some of these things. So definitely head on over
to Black Mirror podcast dot com. The website is live. I definitely still
have quite a bit of work to do on the forum page of things.
Not this weekend, but next weekend. I'm hoping to get quite a few
more done, but definitely before the end of season six, everything will be
done and in there. I'm still just on season one starting into season two,
I do have an episode done on their butt. You can head on
over to those discussion boards and anything you know, put your questions, put
your responses in. If there's questions that you have in there and thoughts that
you have about various episodes, let me know. I'm curious. And of
course you can always go to the homepage of Black Mirror podcast dot com and
just scroll on down towards the bottom of the page and there is a contact
me section. You can put your questions, your comments, your concerns,
your suggestions in there. They are always welcome, absolutely they are, and
don't forget to subscribe to the newsletter. So guys, that is all I
got for you today. That is it. I'll see you either next week
or the week after that with season I'm sorry season with episode two. It's
all I got. Y'all's have yourself a great one and I'll see you next
look. Thank you for listening to the Black Mirror Podcast. If you would
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