We hear it all the time (even if we don’t act like it): art is subjective. But anthologies? Anthologies have a kind of hypersubjectivity to them. Asking someone if they likeBlack Mirroris tantamount to asking if they like 33 movies;many are incredibly dark, sure, but some are silly, some are romantic,some are horrific, some are good, some are bad, some are brilliant.Black MirrorSeason 7is particularly stuffed with ideas and varied narratives, so no matter how divided and bitter many fans can be, they’re all bound to find at least a couple of gems this season. Of the six episodes this time around, none feel like duds; two are close to perfect, another is delightfully enthralling, and three are good.
Black Mirror - Season 7
Charlie Brooker’s dark, satirical anthology series will return in 2025 with six brand new episodes, including a sequel to the sci-fi adventure USS Callister.
There is a bit of fan service this time around, butBlack Mirroronly cashes in on the nostalgia train with a cameo from Will Poulter’s “Bandersnatch” character and a sequel to thebeloved fan-favorite episode “USS Callister,” which itself was already a postmodern critique of nostalgia. The season avoids drifting away from sci-fi and into supernatural territory, which made some “fans” apoplectic over Season 6. Plus, there is a common theme running throughout most of the episodes this season thanks to a brain chip known as “Nubbin,” for which the marketing team has been releasing creepy advertising.
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Black Mirrorhasn’t lost its edge, either, with the first episode of Season 7 being one of the most soul-crushing the show has ever done; seriously, if you struggle with any sort of suicidal ideation, it’s best to avoid “Common People.” Despite beginning with tragedy, the rest of the season mainly avoids misery porn and eventually ends on the most accessible and crowd-pleasing noteBlack Mirrorhas ever achieved. Of course, opinions tend to disintegrate in the flux state of hypersubjectivity, so all I can do is encourage viewers to give each episode a try, and detail what works and what doesn’t.
Episode One: “Common People”
5 out of 5
“Common People” begins deceptively, like the sweetest episodeBlack Mirrorhas done, and casts two of the most likable actors in recent sitcom history: Chris O’Dowd (The IT Crowd) and Rashida Jones (Parks and Recreation). That’s intentional, because it makes watching them suffer horribly for the next hour all the more painful. It’s not just depressing for the sake of it, though. “Common People” is a masterfully executed exploration of whatBlack Mirrordoes best — an imaginative look at how current technology and entertainment are co-opted by corporations, politicians, and other awful “people” to exploit our worst instincts and profit off of our suffering.
The story follows a sweet working-class couple, a teacher and a construction worker, who may be predictable and low-key, but they’re happy. O’Dowd and Jones are perfect here, fleshing out the reality of this marriage with quiet humor and small gestures. They truly love each other, so when Jones suffers a brain injury and goes into a coma, O’Dowd jumps at the chance for an experimental procedure which replaces that damaged part of her brain with some sort of computer, where that part of her neurological wiring is hosted on ‘the cloud.’ They have to pay a large sum each month to a shady company to maintain this, and she can’t leave a certain radius or the computer will lose the signal, like crappy cell phone service.
“Bête Noire”
3 out of 5
“Bête Noire” is an interesting episode ofBlack Mirror, one which would actually make a better feature-length movie (or a longer episode, which the show is certainly capable of). The ideas here are ripe for further exploration, but by the time we begin to piece everything together, the episode ends abruptly with sudden violence. All in all, though, it’s a memorable cocktail of paranoia, Mandela effect silliness, the multiverse theory, and ‘mean girls’ cattiness. Plus, Rosy McEwen is especially good here.
Maria (Siena Kelly) works as a food scientist for a popular candy brand that hires a new assistant for the office with a name directly on the nose, Verity (McEwen). She’s a seemingly shy and weird girl, even more so because Siena remembers her from school years ago; Siena was apparently one of the popular girls, and Verity was bullied. When strange things begin affecting Siena’s memory, and then her reality, she wonders if Verity is to blame.
“Hotel Reverie”
Every season needs a “San Junipero” of sorts, I guess, so here we have “Hotel Reverie.” Unfortunately, it’s another episode that is full of interesting ideas (and characters) but seems to rush through them without fulfilling their potential. Again, though, it’s not at all a “bad” episode, even if Issa Rae may not have been the best choice here; she’s a great writer, but not strong enough as an actor for this kind of material. Emma Corrin, however, is stunning, in both performance and character, infusing her with curiosity and melancholy.
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“Hotel Reverie” introduces us to a new sort of technology that can remake old movies using AI that literally takes the consciousness of new actors into the narrative of the film, so that they can recreate the picture and make a ‘new’ one. Who wouldn’t want to play around and see whatRebel Without a Causewould’ve looked like with, say, a young Ryan Gosling in the Dean role? Of course, the tech mumbo jumbo is laid on thick here and never really believable (again, it’s rushed), butAwkwafina is very funnyas the hustling head of the company trying to do this.
They’re remaking the titular film,a black-and-white classicthat’s kind of theGrand Hotel(1932) of this world. Rae plays an actress who is sick of the kinds of roles she gets as a Black woman, andHotel Reverieis one of her favorite films, so she jumps at the chance to try this new technology and remake the film in a gender-swapped way, playing the lead actor opposite Dorothy (Corrin), an actress who had a tragic life and died shortly after the making of this film. Maybe it’s intentional that Rae is wooden and stiff here, because her character’s weak acting and inability to improvise is what kicks the AI recreation of the film off its tracks and causes all sorts of fascinating problems.
“Plaything”
4 out of 5
Peter Capaldi, all day, every day, please. Sporting long, unkempt hair and a jittery attitude, theDoctor WhoandThe Thick of Itstar is wonderful here as the present-day version of Cameron Walker, a computer nerd who used to review video games for a living. He seems to have gone mad, intentionally getting himself arrested only for the police to find out that he’s wanted for the suspected murder of someone from decades prior. The episode uses his interrogation as a framing device in which he shares his wild story, and it’s a delightful one.
And if there are video games, you know there’s Tuckersoft. Yes, “Plaything” takes us back to the golden days of Tuckersoft and brieflybrings backBandersnatchcharacters Mohan Tucker (Asim Chaudry) and Colin Ritman (Will Poulter). Colin has a game he’d like Cameron to ‘review,’ though it isn’t meant to be played, per se. It’s kind of a prototype for later farming and breeding sims likeHarvest Moon, but much simpler, where you’re breeding seemingly identical little 8-bit creatures. Except, when Cameron drops acid, he thinks the creatures are talking to him. And they want him to do things.
There isn’t much sociopolitical commentary here, other than a look at more human cruelty and our incessant need for meaning, but it is fascinating to see something actually supporting the typical Borg / Body Snatchers hive-mind mentality. It also has a phenomenal ending, and is just fun, like being told a great story by the (digital) campfire.
“Eulogy” is one of the simplest episodes ofBlack Mirror, which is both a strength and a weakness here. It’s very small, with only two speaking characters (and one of them is AI), and technically one setting. Despite this, directors Chris Barrett and Luke Taylor create some beautiful imagery here, taking the two characters inside frozen memories, as if we’re wearing a VR headset tapping into the lead’s subconscious. It’s wonderfully done, but just feels very low-stakes and inconsequential in many ways.
The episode finds an older, grumpy man (played by Paul Giamatti) living alone in some gray, Maine-like area. He receives notice that a woman he used to know has died, and that her daughter is putting together a eulogy using a special service that takes people’s memories and puts them together for a presentation. An AI ‘guide’ helps him locate these memories, which seem to be tightly repressed, obfuscated by emotional dust in his dome. They use photographs to help jog his memory, and so “Eulogy” essentially tells the story of this man’s relationship with the recently deceased woman, revealing his own blind sides and cognitive bias along the way.
“USS Callister: Into Infinity”
“USS Callister: Into Infinity” is a feature-length sized sequel to the hit Season 4 episode, “USS Callister,” and boy, does it deliver. The episode picks up a few months after “USS Callister” ended with the death of Robert Daly, the creator of a vast, multiplayer online game appropriately known asInfinity. Daly’s “subjects,” people at his office that he has cloned using their DNA, are still trapped in the game, where they are very much alive — other players can get hurt and not feel it, and die and simply respawn, but the crew of the USS Callister bleed and die forever.
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Things are even more difficult due to in-game purchases and the increasing cost of playingInfinity; video gamers can pay for more credits, but the living crew have to survive by basically raiding other players and stealing their credits. Since they aren’t actual users in the game but rather people trapped in it, they have no user identification tag and are thus impossible to track; they’re essentially MMORPG pirates, but they’re getting desperate. Even more so when Walton, the dumb scum who owns the company, tries to wipe them out and save his profitable game.
“USS Callister: Into Infinity” is feature-length but is perfectly paced and written, so that things move swiftly without ever becoming too confusing or overwhelming. The returning cast is even better this time around. Cristin Milioti (Nanette Cole), Jimmi Simpson (Walton), Billy Magnussen (Karl/Valdack), Milanka Brooks (Elena Tulaska), Osy Ikhile (Nate Packer), and Paul G. Raymond (Kabir Dudani) are all great. It’s been more than seven years since we’ve seen them, and many of the actors have gone on to become much more famous, so it’s a neat thrill to see them suiting up in goofyStar Trek-esque outfits again. Milioti especially proves that she’s one of the most exciting actors of the decade.
This is about as fun and endearing asBlack Mirrorhas ever been, but the episode still manages to do what the show does best and doesn’t compromise in its critique of corporate greed, gamers, and “nice guys.” It’s the rare great parody that becomes a perfect example of what it’s parodying, and ultimately ends the season drastically differently than it began. That’s the range of the crackedBlack Mirror, folks.
