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 see a lot of people complaining that this episode has veered away from Black Mirror's central theme of the dangers technology can unleash upon humanity, but that's because the creator of this series, Charlie Brooker, intended to do so with this episode. He was quoted by the press saying the following:

"Demon 79 opens with a 'Red Mirror presents' title sequence, marking it out as 'different-from-yet-adjacent-to' Black Mirror. This is because, typically, Black Mirror has focused on tech dystopias or media satire, whereas this story has a stronger supernatural element, harking back to 1970s horror. The episode is almost unclassifiable."

Hopefully that helps clear up the confusion as to why "Demon 79" is so different than the other BM episodes.

Overall the main story of this particular episode could have been fleshed out a littler tighter, but the performances of the two leads, particularly Paapa Essiedu (who plays the demon Gaap), are exceptional. His charisma is incredibly intoxicating, and his on-screen chemistry with Ania Vasan (who plays the protagonist, Nida) is palpable. Kudos to both actors! They made a somewhat ordinary horror story especially interesting and even comedic, with hefty doses of dark humor sprinkled throughout. And of course the late 70s Britain setting creates a captivating nostalgic throwback.

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 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?

I'm not going to repeat what many others have said about this season. I don't know what is happening to the show but here we are. This episode is actually good TV. A good coherent story (unlike the last episode, wtf was that? Werewolves? Seriously?) and very well acted. There is great chemistry between Vasan and Essiedu, and the latter does a particularly great job portraying a funny, inexperienced demon dressed like Bobby Farrell, you know, the man from Bony M! The funny moments do well to give a lightheartedness to a story that tackles many serious issues like racism and murder, and shows an exercise in an extreme version of the trolley problem. Would you kill three people if you could save the world? What if they were bad people? The episode does an excellent job of making you laugh one second and clinch at the violence the next, all the while keeping you questioning what you would do in Nida's shoes. The only thing that made me enjoy this episode less than I would have otherwise is the fact that I was very aware the whole time that I was watching a Black Mirror episode and this is not that. Don't do what I did. Forget it has anything to do with Black Mirror and you will enjoy it.