Black Mirror S6 E2 – Loch Henry

Available on Netflix now

The phenomenon that is the true crime documentary is under the lens of this Black Mirror episode, directed by Sam Miller and written by Charlie Brooker. Loch Henry focuses on dating film students Davis (Samuel Blenkin) and Pia (Myha'la Herrold), who travel to the titular countryside town to visit the former’s widowed mother Janet (Monica Dolan) before commencing work on their next project.

However, during their trip Davis and Pia learn about a notorious serial killer whose murdering of innocent tourists many years ago has had a drastic effect on the town’s economy, as well as a discordant link to the death of Davis’ father. This prompts them to change tact and make their own true crime flick about the murders, a decision which, in true Black Mirror fashion, leads to a shocking discovery that has life-changing implications for all involved.

Given how dark this episode is, it was unsurprising to learn that Miller’s previous work includes a stint on Luther, that most macabre of detective procedurals. The director deserves plenty of credit for Loch Henry, which makes for a gripping near-hour of television that pleasingly doesn’t feel all that similar to Black Mirror’s usual oeuvre. It is helped in no small part by compelling performances from Blenkin, Herrold, John Hannah and in particular Dolan, whose character’s about-turn is not easy to see coming.

Brooker gives plenty of service to his topic, not just from a tonal perspective but also in the sense that his screenplay is unafraid to lean into some of the more problematic aspects of the genre, such as the unintentional tendency to immortalise its subjects (we all probably know of at least one idiot that dressed up as Jeffrey Dahmer for Halloween last year). In that respect, it is a highly effective analysis of one of the more unsuspected televisual trends of the last decade.