After years of diminishing returns, Black Mirror returns to form in season 7 with one of its best outings yet. The anthology series demonstrates its range and flexibility by getting back to its most dystopian roots, delivering an extremely fun sequel to a fan favorite episode, and tapping Paul Giamatti for a beautifully melancholy story about dealing with painful memories. Some of the episodes are a bit predictable or too focused on recapturing Black Mirror’s past glories, but for once, there isn’t a single dud in the mix.
Series creator and writer Charlie Brooker said people can get enough dystopia just looking out their windows these days, so the season 7 leans towards lighter and more optimistic stories. But the premiere, “Common People,” is as dark and bleak as anything he’s penned since season 1. Rashida Jones and Chris O’Dowd are immediately charming as Amanda and Mike, a working-class couple trying to start a family, but there are few things scarier than seemingly normal, happy people in an episode of Black Mirror. When a health crisis lands Amanda in the hospital, an experimental treatment seems like a miracle – but puts her very mind at the mercy of a greedy corporation.
The episode is a perfect crystallization of Black Mirror’s original mission to explore the dark intersection of technology and human nature. It’s a thorough rebuke of the United States’ cruel healthcare system, where people with chronic illness and lower incomes are made to suffer pointlessly while the wealthy enjoy the best treatment for both necessary and elective care. Beyond condemning corporate greed, “Common People” is also a scathing rebuke of people who find desperation entertaining, imagining an all too realistic livestream that’s a fusion of GoFundMe and MrBeast where people debase themselves for small donations. It’s a deeply tragic episode that evokes a feeling of powerlessness as potent as season 1’s “Fifteen Million Merits.”
Equally tearjerking is “Eulogy,” the rare Black Mirror episode where the novel technology is purely used for good. Here the disc used to play video games in “USS Callister” and “Striking Vipers” allows Phillip (Giamatti) to share his memories of his late ex, so they can be used in her funeral service. The journey through old pictures is gorgeously directed by Chris Barrett and Luke Taylor, with images coming into focus or even blossoming into color as Phillip reconnects to moments he thought he would rather forget and reconciles with his own role in the breakup. This is a classic Giamatti role – an isolated crank who might just have a good heart – and he unsurprisingly nails every aspect of the emotional journey.
“Bete Noire” is a quirkier tale, following confectionary developer Maria (Siena Kelly) as her world starts to unravel when Verity (Rosy McEwen), a former classmate, appears at the taste test for Maria’s latest creation. The discordant tone is set early by the ominous music that marks each passing day in Maria’s life: It feels totally at odds with the beginning of the story, where the biggest problem at the confectionary seems to be a staffer who’s annoyed that someone else is drinking her almond milk. McEwen does a great job alternating between the meek, helpful Verity all of Maria’s colleagues see to a gleeful, gaslighting villain. The plot is a bit too obvious, given frequently the high-tech way Verity is messing with Maria has been used in other, recent science fiction, but the episode still delivers a solid mix of psychodrama and comedy.
The nostalgic, queer love story of “Hotel Reverie” aims for the magic of season 3’s “San Junipero” – but in premise and execution, it’s an example of how remakes rarely live up to the original. This time, the sparks fly between Brandy Friday (Issa Rae) – an A-lister who steps into the lead role in a new version of a beloved film – and the AI recreation of the original’s star, Dorothy (Emma Corin). Corin and Rae have great chemistry, and Awkwafina adds plenty of comedy by leading the film crew trying to keep the slapdash production going as things quickly go off the rails. But “Hotel Reverie” ultimately feels more like a Star Trek holodeck episode than the second coming of Black Mirror’s romantic masterpiece.
Black Mirror often uses Easter eggs to connect its episodes into a shared universe, but season 7 draws the most direct connections. “Plaything” is effectively a dual-timeline spinoff of the interactive film “Bandersnatch,” following video game journalist Cameron Walker (played by Lewis Gribben in 1994 and Peter Capaldi in the present of 2034), whose life was transformed by the latest project from star developer Colin Ritman (Will Poulter), who served as the enigmatic mentor for the protagonist of Bandersnatch. Director David Slade seems to be emulating The Usual Suspects and Se7en in terms of structure and tone, with the story told in flashbacks presented by Cameron in an interrogation room. Unfortunately, the twist is predictable and the overblown good cop/bad cop dynamic doesn’t give Capaldi enough to work with.
Fortunately, Black Mirror shines in its first true sequel, “USS Callister: Into Infinity.” The crew of digitally cloned Infinity coworkers may have escaped from being tortured on Robert Daly’s (Jesse Plemons) private server, but now they’re struggling to survive and gather resources as CEO James Walton (Jimmi Simpson) aggressively monetizes the MMO they fled to. Like the original, this is a love letter to Star Trek, combining aspects of The Search for Spock and The Final Frontier with the goofy bumbling of Lower Decks. It evokes the franchise in its music, visuals, and structure – and captures the signature Trek charm of unlikely comrades taking big risks together.
“Into Infinity” also delves into some of the same philosophical questions as Severance, with technology creating multiple versions of the same person. Cristin Milioti does excellent work transitioning between the Nanette Cole who is still an insecure programmer and the one who’s become a hardened starship captain. But the real star is Simpson, who is hilarious both as Walton’s callous real world self and his pathetic in-game clone.
