Black Mirror S6 E4 - Mazey Day
Black Mirror takes a hard and sudden turn with Mazey Day, directed by Uta Briesewitz and written by Charlie Brooker. It follows paparazzi Bo (Zazie Beetz) “pulled out of retirement” to locate – and take pictures of – the missing titular character, actress Mazey Day (Clara Rugaard) when she flees a set in the Czech Republic. But, of course, as Bo and her paparazzi accomplices unravel the Mazey Day conspiracy, nothing is as it seems. It’s an interesting take on the private investigator mystery formula, and an admittedly clever premise for a satire on celebrity culture. But what makes Mazey Day stand out within this season is not its premise, but its baffling, left-field twist.
It is difficult to discuss Mazey Day without discussing where it ends up. Where the opening leads you to believe that the character Mazey Day killed someone in a drug-fuelled car accident, the latter part of the episode focuses on Bo and the paparazzi dealing with the consequences of learning the strange truth behind the incident. Even if the reveal is somewhat confusing and not particularly well set-up, you can still see the outline of an interesting metaphor, with celebrity culture leading people to dark, morbid, and hedonistically wild places. It’s a premise – and twist – that certainly would have benefited from more development of the Mazey Day character, which is played excellently by Clara Rugaard, but is unfortunately not given enough screentime to come off as more than a slightly blank slate.
Besides this, Mazey Day is one of the more tonally “fun” episodes of the series, with witty, snarky young characters and dialogue being centre frame. Thanks to the unending sympathy the episode grants Bo, with her money problems, charisma, and human empathy, the episode lacks the same cynicism and hopelessness that the series usually has, compounded by the twist that completely removes the premise from reality. It’s a popular formula, and for the many casual viewers, it probably works. But it isn’t that fresh or memorable.
Discounting the fact that it is a standalone episode in an anthology series, Mazey Day is Black Mirror at its most utterly unrecognisable. It certainly has its audience, but time will tell if that audience is the same one that usually enjoys this series.
