Black Mirror Season 6: Joan is Awful – Episode 1 ending explained

• In the “Black Mirror” episode “Joan is Awful”, a woman discovers a series about herself on a streaming service.
• Episode 1 of the 6th season of “Black Mirror” takes aim at Netflix, the home of the series, and boasts a number of stars.
• We explain to you the ending and the one aspect of the plot that doesn’t really make sense.

Did you read Netflix’s Terms of Service before subscribing to the streaming service? Probably not, but in Joan is Awful Netflix itself gives you a cautionary tale that we’re slowly losing control of what’s technically possible and morally justifiable.

Although “Joan is Awful” is the funniest episode of “Black Mirror” Season 6, it nevertheless tells of an eerie reality that could really await us very soon. But what exactly happens in “Joan is Awful”?

Streamberry presents: “Joan is Awful”

Joan Tait is unhappy with her life as CEO of a tech company and bored with her fiancé Krish. When her ex contacts her, Joan agrees to meet him and then returns home. There she wants to make herself comfortable on the sofa with Krish and comes across the new series “Joan is Awful” on the streaming service Streamberry.

Not only the title of the series, but also the hairstyle of the main character, played by Salma Hayek, is reminiscent of Joan. But even worse: The series recounts Joan’s real day exactly! The series takes liberties here and there, but the sequence of events fits, which is why Krish finds out about Joan’s meeting with her ex and leaves her.

The next day Joan loses her job and all her friends and acquaintances have seen the series and now want nothing more to do with her. However, according to Joan’s lawyer, Joan cannot complain because she has accepted Streamberry’s terms of service, allowing the streaming service to use her name and life.

In addition, Salma Hayek does not actually appear in the series, instead the actress only provided her appearance, the series itself is completely computer-generated and can therefore be produced quickly.

Joan then eats numerous burgers, takes a laxative, and enters a church disguised as a cheerleader, where she then defecates – all so that the next day a digital version of Salma Hayek in “Joan is Awful” can be seen doing it, eh she also relieves herself in a church, which the actress probably won’t like.

Joan is right, but Salma Hayek hasn’t read the full terms of her contract either and can’t take action against Streamberry or her portrayal on the show. So Joan and Salma Hayek team up to destroy the responsible server, the “Quamputer”, in the Streamberry office building.

Joan is Awful ending explained

At Streamberry HQ, we learn that the streaming service is planning a dedicated “…is Awful” series for each subscriber to give everyone a series they can easily relate to. Joan was just a test balloon, she was chosen because she is absolutely average and boring.

While trying to make the series more positive with a “…is Awesome” title, Streamberry’s research showed that subscribers responded primarily to negativity. Before Joan can destroy the “Quamputer”, a Streamberry technician reveals to her that she is not the real Joan, but the Streamberry version of Joan that the real Joan sees when she watches “Joan is Awful”.

The objection that she kills all digital versions in this and other “…is Awful” productions when she destroys the “Quamputer” is ignored by Joan, knowing that she is only standing here by the “Quamputer” because the real Joan did it too. Thus, the “Quamputer” is destroyed and the real Joan and Annie Murphy, who played Joan in “Joan is Awful,” are questioned by the police.

Later we see that Joan got her life back on track. She is dating men again and has opened her own coffee shop, where Annie Murphy visits her. Both women wear electronic ankle bracelets, but are happy.

The “Black Mirror” episode “Joan is Awful” shows the version of the fictional Streamberry series “Joan is Awful” that sees the real Joan for long stretches. The exceptions here are all the scenes with the real Joan at the end and the scenes where Joan isn’t there. However, this creates a logic hole.

What exactly does the “Quamputer” create?

Streamberry’s quantum computer, “Quamputer” for short, can analyze the lives of Streamberry users and use CGI and artificial intelligence to create a series from them. That makes sense because while we feel like we’re following Joan the whole time, of course we only see a few scenes with her and those are the scenes that the real Joan would see on Streamberry.

But the scenes without Joan don’t fit in here. The Streamberry series Joan is Awful, as far as we know, only follows Joan and no other characters. This is how Joan’s assistant sees himself in “Joan is Awful” when his series version is with series Joan, however the Streamberry series does not show the series version of the assistant sitting on the sofa with his boyfriend and ” Joan is Awful”. So why do we see it then?

The same applies to Salma Hayek, who complains to her lawyer about Streamberry. This Salma Hayek is not the real Salma Hayek, but a CGI version that is used for the first level of the Streamberry series. But if the Streamberry audience only follows Joan, the “Quamputer” doesn’t have to animate a digital Salma Hayek at the lawyer.

As we watch “Joan is Awful” on Netflix, what’s happening makes sense, but only until we learn that the Joan we think is the real Joan isn’t the real Joan at all.

It would be different if the “Quamputer” not only created digital series, but also contained countless digital characters who went about their normal everyday lives with their artificial intelligence and had no idea that they were actually just copies of real people and part of Streamberry series . But the explanation that “Black Mirror” offers us does not mention a gigantic, digital universe.

Of course, not every story has to be questioned, but science fiction stories like this one lend themselves to thorough investigation. Half the fun is learning how Streamberry produces “Joan is Awful” and why. Netflix – or “Black Mirror” creator Charlie Brooker – criticizes the programming of the streaming service, which is less about quality and more about evaluating customer data.

So “Joan is Awful” has become a critical, but also very humorous and entertaining “Black Mirror” episode, in which only a few aspects weren’t fully thought through or explained sufficiently, so that the episode doesn’t stand up to a closer look.

All episodes of “Black Mirror” Season 6