Black Mirror 7: Strong Return with a Cheeky Netflix Jab
Before we begin: I’m dividing this review into two parts. The first part will be spoiler-free, as I’m sure many of you haven’t had time to watch the new season, which started streaming on April 10. Before I dive into the second part in which I will go into more detail about the respective episodes, you’ll get a big spoiler warning from me, I promise. After that, I’ll talk about a few specific points from the episodes that excited me most.
Oh, Black Mirror! I’ve been an ardent fan of Charlie Brooker’s British anthology show since the first season. As is the case when you like something in particular, there’s always the risk of being disappointed the next time you watch it. This has happened to me twice so far: The interactive (and so far, sole) Black Mirror film “Bandersnatch” was okay at best for me — and the ominous sixth season, which turned away from science fiction dystopias (apart from episode 1), didn’t suit my taste either.
Black Mirror: Facts and figures about the seventh season
It is no wonder that I was nervous about the latest season of Black Mirror: can it return to its former glory? Or are the days of snappy dystopias simply over? I can reveal this much: Anyone who likes Charlie Brooker’s style of looking into the future, at least in the first five seasons, will most likely enjoy the new episodes as much as I did.
First of all, the bare figures: there are six episodes in total, the shortest of which is 46 minutes long, while the longest, at 90 minutes, is the length of a feature film. All episodes are rated for ages 16 and older. Here is an overview of the six episodes:
1. Common People
The first 57-minute episode, “Common People”, focuses on teacher Amanda (Rashida Jones) and her desperate husband Mike (Chris O’Dowd). After Amanda experienced a serious accident, Rivermind representative Gaynor (Tracee Ellis Ross) offered them an innovative but costly healthcare system solution. I see the episode as a gentle kick in the ass to Netflix. If you were to watch the episode, you can guess why I felt that way.
For me, this first episode was also the icebreaker that instantly reconciled me to Black Mirror after the sixth season. Charlie Brooker once again makes fantastic use of his talent for consistently thinking ahead about what is currently technically feasible and wrapping it in a dystopian cloak!
2. Bête Noire
In the second episode, successful research manager Maria (Siena Kelly) experienced a stark upheaval in her life when her former classmate Verity (Rosy McEwen) suddenly re-entered her life in a 50-minute story that raised subtle questions about altered memories and personal conflicts. I briefly feared Black Mirror was drifting back into the supernatural here, but fortunately, this did not happen. While it did not pack the same punch as the first episode, I felt it was more than decent.
3. Hotel Reverie
With “Hotel Reverie”, told across 77 minutes, the prominent actress Brandy Friday (Issa Rae) embarked on an immersive, AI-supported reinterpretation of a classic love story in which she unexpectedly had to take on the leading role. Here, technology and classic cinema from the black-and-white era were interwoven in a fascinating manner. This is especially relevant in our time, when we feel that AI is changing films, TV series, music, and art in general, this episode set a really exciting tone.
I’m really happy that so much time was invested for this beautifully staged episode.
4. Plaything
In “Plaything (Plaything)”, the eccentric character Cameron, played magnificently as an older man by Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who) and as a young Cameron by Lewis Gribben, delved into a mysterious world of nostalgic video games. This 46-minute episode featured an old acquaintance for anyone who has watched the film Bandersnatch. However, this episode is not really a sequel.
Incidentally, Netflix released the game for Android and iOS for free as a promotion. More information will be provided below in the second section. I’ll also reveal more about what the game is all about there.
5. Eulogy
The fifth episode is certainly one of the most emotional in the Black Mirror cosmos to date. Everything revolved around the reclusive Phillip (Paul Giamatti), who relived painful memories of a lost love with the help of innovative technology. The female guide who accompanied him through these memories was played by Patsy Ferran.
Once again, this was an episode that kept me thinking beyond its 47-minute running time. Also, but certainly not only, about technology and what will be possible for us.
6. USS Callister: Into Infinity
The “crowning” finale is the episode “USS Callister: Into Infinity”, which was extended to 90 minutes. Captain Nanette Cole (Cristin Milioti) and her crew, played by Jimmi Simpson among others, picked up seamlessly where we left off in the first part of the fourth season. So yes, in this case, we are dealing with a real sequel to a Black Mirror episode for the first time.
Once again, the protagonists found themselves in a digital universe where they had to fight to survive. I like the episode, but to be honest, it did not quite grab my attention in the same way the other five episodes did. Did I still have fun with the now visually enhanced USS Callister? Of course!
If that wasn’t enough to get you fired up, here’s the trailer for the season:
Black Mirror Season 7: A Spoiler-Free Summary
So yes: Charlie Brooker and his team have taken the numerous and loud criticisms of the sixth season to heart. In response, they delivered six new episodes, at least three of which were among my personal favorite Black Mirror episodes. Perhaps they don’t quite achieve the level of classic episodes like “San Junipero” (season 3, episode 4) or “Be right back” (season 2, episode 1). But they’re certainly not far off the mark, in my opinion.
Black Mirror has such potential to tap into a corner of our brains when it comes to technology. We recognize certain technologies that are already available to us today to a certain extent, or have been promised — and they are consistently thought of at least one step further than we have done so far. This forces us to deal with the consequences of our actions and the consequences of technological development. In most cases, Black Mirror opts for a dystopian rather than utopian approach.
This is also the case in this season, although I found in some episodes, we are wrapped up in a blanket of cozy feelings. This can be expressed in such a way that we not only think about a certain type of technology but also ponder our lives. Watch Eulogy and I promise that you’ll probably find yourself ruminating your own life and the people who once meant something to you.
Spoiler Alert! These Episodes Truly Stood Out!
So, just to be on the safe side: from this point on, read at your own risk if you haven’t viewed any of the new episodes yet! I’m going to dive into more detail about these four episodes: “Ordinary People”, “Hotel Reverie”, “Plaything” and “Eulogy” and share some nasty spoilers.
Ordinary people
I’ll keep it short with “Ordinary People” because I feel we’ll be dealing with it again separately (haha, I’m even spoiling upcoming posts in the spoiler part of the article ^^).
Sometimes, the most socially explosive Black Mirror episodes don’t arrive with a dystopian thunderbolt, but sneak quietly and almost casually into our world as we currently perceive it. Common People is just such an episode: it is also one that asks “What if?”, but comes with the flavor “Hasn’t this been reality for a long time?”.
Here’s a question: If an important person in your life was terminally ill and you could keep them alive via a costly subscription system, would you do this or how far would you go? That’s exactly what this episode is about and yes: Amanda and Mike are anything but rich, but they want to raise the monthly $300 subscription required. Out of financial necessity, she falls back into the “basic model” with all its weaknesses. She only has a limited range and unknowingly recites advertising messages at the most inopportune moments.
What is striking is the frightening parallel to current developments in the digital healthcare market. Do we live longer if we are rich? As I said, I will talk more about this elsewhere. It also reminded me of subscription models like Netflix itself. Is the cheap version with advertising enough for me? Is a once-good model being devalued by putting a better one on top of it? As mentioned at the beginning, this is a nice kick in the pants for Netflix, just like Joan is Awful was last season.
Black Mirror is always the scariest for me when I get the feeling that an episode isn’t just spinning something together, but is showing me exactly the future I should expect. “Ordinary People” is another one of those episodes. And it made me ask questions: How many areas of my life have I already turned into a subscription? What will happen if I were to simply fall out one day?
Hotel Reverie
Hardly any other episode of the new season plays with our media fixation as skillfully as Hotel Reverie. AI and its entry into our everyday lives makes us think a lot about how art is changing. Will we even need actors tomorrow? In this story, it is at least possible to simply step into an old movie set as an actor. All the characters there are AIs, with whom Brandy interacts. If she doesn’t stick to the script, the story takes a new course. The ideas are shouted from off-screen by spin doctors.
Brandy loses control of the plot, the system crashes, and she can only escape the story and return to the real world if the movie somehow ends with a decisive last sentence. However, until the story can continue, the whole world stands still in this virtual set where only she and her counterpart Clara are mobile.
Out of this distressing situation, Brandy explained to the bewildered woman that she is not really Clara, but is only being played by the actress Dorothy. You can imagine her horror when she first has to accept this fact, then actually remembers her life as Dorothy, and realizes that she is long dead.
The idea that experiences can be algorithmically edited for maximum emotionality is not only in line with the current streaming zeitgeist, but also with the way we curate our lives. After the episode, I had to think for a long time about situations in which I tried to force the perfect moment, be it on vacation, at concerts, or while writing. Every so often it turned into something strange or unreal. Hotel Reverie reminded us that not everything that feels like a story has much to do with real life.
Overall, this was really great episode, much of which is set in black and white, left me once again thinking about what the movie world will look like tomorrow. Is Hollywood slowly falling apart? Or are we actually experiencing such an immersive film future that completely reinvents the “dream factory”? Speaking of the dream factory: Emma Corrin, who played Lady Di in “The Crown”, was truly outstanding in the role of Clara/Dorothy. She truly deserves some TV awards for her acting chops!
Plaything
Some Black Mirror episodes create dystopias that unfold over decades. Plaything, on the other hand, is almost like a chamber piece — minimalist, but no less disturbing. And perhaps that is precisely why it is so effective. At the center is the reclusive Cameron (Peter Capaldi), who once wrote for a gaming magazine and thus came across a special, unpublished game called Thronglets.
In this game, he raises little Tamagotchi-style creatures that get smarter and smarter over time until they finally become one with Cameron through a port he implants in himself. The ending is the ultimate dystopia, as humanity ultimately falls by the wayside.
The episode ties in with Bandersnatch, but also works without any knowledge of the movie. I think it’s funny how Black Mirror has once again included lots of Easter eggs in the season and also in this episode. A QR code is hidden in the official poster for the episode. If you scan it, it will take you to a real Thronglets game for Android and iOS! Incidentally, the author would have published this article earlier if he hadn’t got bogged down in this game, but that’s just a side note.
The episode developed into a moral laboratory experiment: What do you owe an artificially generated consciousness that shows real feelings? And can caring be genuine if the other person is not? The final twist? This AI ends up becoming the blueprint for a global artificial intelligence, and is as Black Mirror as it gets.
Eulogy
There are episodes that pack a punch with shocking moments. And then there are those that creep into your heart very slowly and quietly. Eulogy belongs to the second category, an episode that somehow felt like a science fiction suicide note. Paul Giamatti plays a man who uses technology to move through the memories of his deceased partner.
To mark her death, a company wants to collect memories of her and has developed a technology that allows you to virtually step into old photos. You move through this photo, can change the perspective, and hope you will remember things that you perhaps no longer remember.
What initially seemed like a nostalgic stroll through a life turns out to be a bittersweet journey to uncomfortable truths. Memories are not only what was but also what we make of them, and what we repress. This episode really hit me hard. Perhaps it is because it’s less about technology and more about the most human thing of all: how hard it is to let go—and how much we want to try despite it.
After watching the entire season, perhaps just consider knocking on the door of people from your past again. To clarify and discuss things that we would later regret if we no longer had the opportunity.
The season left me thrilled because Black Mirror has returned to its old strengths, including the third and fourth seasons. If we were to rate the series, I would have easily given it 4.5 stars out of 5. But I’ve also realized one thing: Since we all know about ChatGPT and are much more involved with AI and its possibilities, you can watch the episodes in an entirely different manner. In any case, I’m thinking about simply binging all the old episodes again under this premise.
What do you think? Am I exaggerating? Or do you like the new episodes as much as I do? Please let me know in the comments, and also whether we should revisit individual episodes to discuss certain technologies.
