Demon 79

Young Shop Assistant Needa unwittingly summons a powerful Demon, who demands she commits three sacrifices over three days in order to prevent a total disaster.

A nice homage to 70's horror, I loved those opening sequences and wonderful opening credits, they set the tone for what was to follow. A mix of black humour and vintage horror.

A definite reminder of the casual racism of the time, Needa is exposed to all manner of abuse and prejudice, unfortunately mostly accepted at the time.

I can't say I thought this was a vintage episode, but I enjoyed the horror vibe, and I definitely enjoyed it more than Mazey Day.

I've read several comments about technology, and I may be wrong, but to my understanding technology was never the focus, it was always about a vision of the future, and in all fairness you can't get a more bleak possible future than this one.

Did I spot a reference to Metalhead? That's the possible future that Needa was contemplating.

Anjana Vasan was good as the beleaguered Needs, I became a huge fan of Paapa Essiedu during The Capture on BBC, and once again, he's so good.

Nice to see Vicky Binns, albeit in a small role.

It's been a bit and miss sixth series, it's definitely not been vintage, but some highlights nonetheless, I'll be making a point to watch Loch Henry again very soon.

7/10.

I've now watched 3 of this new season. And only a handful of ones from past seasons. I find BM can be a hit and miss affair. Sometimes a bit too predictable like watching that old series 'Tales of the Unexpected' if anyone remembers that?

But Demon79 was so much more nuanced and fun. Who cares if it wasn't about technology? Do a whole season of 'Red Mirror' please. This is exactly what it was like living at the end of that decade. Script and acting were sublime. Top marks to the fashion and sets too. Sometimes these retro scenes can look like a modern day students idea of the '70's - but the detail in this was done really well and it had a fantastic soundtrack that didn't pick all the obvious tunes.

Best thing I've seen on TV in a very long time.

I guess that somewhere there is a manual that says what Black Mirror is supposed to be, and if it doesn't fit the parameters set up by some council of judges, we give it a one. I guess I look at each episode like I would an independent short story and judge it on its strengths and weaknesses. While I thought this episode was lacking in many ways, I still thought it was engaging enough to be of interest. I guess Black Mirror is supposed to be based on misuse of technology. Well, a show about a deal with the devil doesn't work. Nor does one about werewolves. But the stories are interesting, if not too long. This one is highly predictable. A deal with an evil entity is always a big risk. I guess I'll wait ten years for the next season. In the meantime, print out that rule book.

I've seen a lot of comments saying that this episode has nothing to do with black mirror. And I agree. The closest connection is using old style tech to present the story. However, despite this out of place situation, I felt the episode as something pretty solid. It build good caracters, make nice parallels, and don't follow the most previsible path. In the end, was a nice experience, a well made story that doesn't involve the black mirror core ideas, but suggests something new and yet, exciting.

I've seen someone suggesting in the comments that they should create a new série for episodes like this. I agree. Mazey Day and Demon 79 definitely could be in a ontology about terror and fantasy movies.

I don't know why the last two episodes of the season (Mazey Day and Demon 79) are not Black Mirror, they're fantasy episodes, they seem like taken out from another series (Like Del Toro's cabinet of curiosities) and put them here.

Mazey Day was plain bad, boring, pointless. But I actually enjoyed Demon 79. Even though it's a fantasy episode it's very entertaining, solid story, I loved how it ended, performances were great, Anjana Vasan (Needa) and Paapa Essiedu (Gaap) have a lot of chemistry together, it was a fun and enjoyable episode.

Still, I don't know if I want these kind of episodes in this series, I want to see Black Mirror, not this, not fantasy episodes. This is not why I watch Black Mirror.

Maybe... why don't they just create a new series?