Since the new season premiered nine days ago, Black Mirror season 6 has bene ruling the TV roost on Netflix. Ranked number #1 for a few days in a row (briefly derailed by new comedy special 85 South: Ghetto Legends), Black Mirror has now found itself shunned down once again, but this time with a hint of irony, one of its own specialties. As of today, the hit drama has been pushed out of the top spot on Netflix's Top 10 TV shows by none other than Catching Killers, a Netflix true crime original series. To really dig into this, Black Mirror spoilers will follow.
Black Mirror Loch Henry explained
Episode 2 of Black Mirror season 6, titled "Loch Henry," is one that begins in such a way that obscures why it would even be an episode of the Charlie Brooker series. Rather than being immediately obvious about its place as a criticism of technology or modern life, "Loch Henry" begins as the tale of two film students, Samuel Blenkin as Davis McCardle and Myha'la Herrold as Pia Koreshi, who have returned to Davis' hometown of Loch Henry, Scotland. The pair have plans to just stay a couple of days with Davis' mom Janet before their actual destination. Once Pia learns of the sinister story hiding in Loch Henry, a serial killer whose presence largely killed the town's place as a destination spot, that idea takes precedence.
As the story goes, so Pia learns, a young man named Iain Adair was found to have captured and tortured several missing people, eventually getting caught after a high profile couple disappeared in Loch Henry. Davis' father, Kenneth was the first on the scene to discover it and was injured by Adair when he pulled a gun, later killing his parents and taking his own life. This becomes the basis for their new film. With seeds planted all throughout the episode the big third act reveal is one that confirms Ian Adair actually had an accomplice, revealed to be none other than Ian's father Kenneth and his mother Janet. Pia herself actually makes the discovery and in her attempt to flee is killed by the elements.
"Loch Henry" the series becomes a hit, revitalizing tourism to the town and earning accolades for the production company that bought Davis' series. In the end, with his parent's serial killer antics now fully on display for the world to see, and countless people around him celebrating it, Davis ends up winning a BAFTA award. His girlfriend dead, his mother outed as a serial killer, and his memory of his father tarnished, the final moments of the episode is one with where we see the full effects of True Crime as a genre of entertainment, the human toil that it carries.
This is why Black Mirror suddenly being dethroned by a true crime show is sickly ironic. Not only does it literally fit into the mold that the episode of "Loch Henry" is playing with, where viewers and filmmakers alike set aside the human reality of these stories and the deep-seated trauma at their core for the sake of watching something on television; but it also plays with Black Mirror season 6, episode 1, "Joan is Awful." That meta episode takes not only Netflix to task for its content, but us as its viewers, revealing that negativity and shows about bad things happening are more likely to keep our eyes glues to the screen.
"True crime documentaries look so high-end now," Black Mirror writer and creator Charlie Brooker previously told Netflix's Tudum. "They're so classy-looking that it helpfully disguises what you're there for. You know what you're there for. You're there to have a good old bloody gawp. True crime docs are like a gourmet burger in that respect. You're still eating something full of fat and salt, but because it's called an artisan burger, you almost feel good about yourself rather than like a horrible pig."
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