Black Mirror: “San Junipero”
got home from work, made dinner and sat down to watch another episode of Black Mirror on Netflix before bed, as one does. was totally not prepared for what turned out not to be the queerbaiting i first assumed it to be, but to instead be a heart-wrenching queer romance between a bi / multiple gender attracted black woman and a gay woman exploring intimacy for the first time. not only was the story itself a tear-jerker, the characters themselves were well-developed and included quite possibly the most in-depth and positive representation that i’ve ever seen of a bi black woman character in particular in popular media. even consent– something that a lot of media doesn’t put enough thought into– was handled fairly well (imho) and the episode certainly explored things that other media tends to only dance around if touch upon at all, all crammed into a 60 minute episode.
i can’t recommend Black Mirror’s “San Junipero” (Season 3 Episode 4) enough, to be honest. as is normal for Black Mirror, the entire episode is a one-off, self-contained story so you needn’t have seen any other episode of the show or even know anything about Black Mirror in order to watch and enjoy the episode. i will caution, however, that the episode really is heavy and heart-wrenching (i can’t imagine anyone coming away from it dry-eyed) and it does explore a topic unrelated to sexuality that some may not be entirely comfortable with, but the ending of the episode is unusually positive, especially given that, you know… it’s Black Mirror.
anyway 10/10, would watch again. good job Black Mirror. ???