Black Mirror Season 7 Explores AI's Impact on Entertainment and Society

All the 'Black Mirror' Season 7 Episodes Ranked

If world events aren't satisfying your dystopia itch, here's WIRED's guide to the new season of Black Mirror. Every day, the world seems to be slipping further and further into dystopia, with President Donald Trump placing tariffs on islands inhabited by penguins and the country's head of Medicare and Medicaid touting AI-first healthcare. In case you needed an even higher dose of Orwellian anxiety in your life, though, Black Mirror has finally returned for season 7 with six brand new episodes. (Spoiler alert: This piece contains minor spoilers for Black Mirror, season 7.) In its new season, the anthology series about our, shall we say, complicated relationship with technology takes on AI sentience, subscription pricing models, lost loves, high school grudges, and the privatization of health care. It's also got plenty of action, romance, and a heaping helping of tech-era terror. As with any anthology series, Black Mirror has plenty of hits, and also its share of misses, and season 7 is no exception, which only makes it more perfect for ranking. Here is WIRED's ranking of every episode from Black Mirror season 7. The unfortunate nadir of the new season comes halfway through, with the feature-length "Hotel Reverie," an ode of sorts to '40s Hollywood classics like Casablanca. Issa Rae plays a Hollywood star, Brandy, who agrees to participate in a reimagining of Hotel Reverie, one of her favourite old movies, using technology that turns the original black-and-white film into a virtual AI-infused experience in order to film the remake in just 90 minutes. Emma Corrin plays the ill-fated old Hollywood starlet Dorothy Chambers, who co-starred in the picture. The beats of the story are all meant to play out the same like the original, but when things begin to go off course, Dorothy develops an awareness of her artificiality and the two begin to fall for each other. The episode aims for that "San Junipero" magic, but its romance feels more hollow, and its premise strains credulity. To put it simply: it's not clear why anyone would want to remake a movie this way, and it's even less clear why anyone would watch it. As a back door to a story about closeted sexuality in the '40s, the episode feels contrived, and so does the romance. Rae and Corrin try their best to bring some spark, but can't sell it in the end. "Common People" is a familiar kind of Black Mirror episode, identifying a couple of clear social ills related to class and technology, and then playing out its sci-fi premise to explore those issues in a heightened way. A fine approach, except when it feels pat and obvious, which "Common People" does. Chris O'Dowd and Rashida Jones play a couple struggling to make ends meet. When Jones ends up in a coma with a brain tumor, O'Dowd is offered the chance to save her with an incredible new technology from start-up Rivermind. Surgeons replace the cancerous area of the brain with synthetic tissue, and the parts of Jones's memory and personality contained in that section of brain tissue are beamed to her via the cloud. With a hefty monthly subscription fee, of course. O'Down and Jones are both excellent and affecting in the episode, as is Tracee Ellis Ross as the frustratingly uncaring rep for Rivermind. The problem is that the moment the monthly subscription idea is introduced, it's immediately clear where the story is heading. The existential dilemma of having your life tied to the whims of a subscription service is upsetting and hits close to home. But when the message is clear in the first five minutes, sitting through the next forty isn't exactly enjoyable. Set in the same universe as "Bandersnatch," the interactive Black Mirror special from 2018, "Plaything" stars Peter Capaldi as Cameron Walker , a man booked for murdering someone and stuffing him in a suitcase. During his interrogation, Walker shares the story of his younger days, in the '90s, when he was a video game critic. He's given an early preview of a game of sorts, created by Will Poulter's Colin Ritman from "Bandersnatch." It's a Tamagotchi-inspired game called Thronglets, which involves taking care of little digital creatures. Only, as Ritman explains, they're actually a form of digital life. When an LSD trip makes Walker think he can communicate with the Thronglets, he maniacally devotes his life to helping them grow, prosper, and evolve. It's a fairly simple episode, told largely in narrated flashbacks, and is certainly too exposition-heavy to be truly elegant, like the best of Black Mirror. That said, the premise is a fun one, and the twists and turns in Walker's tale lead up to a hell of an ending. "Bête Noire" might be the most outright surprising episode of season 7. Maria, played by Siena Kelly, works as a researcher at a chocolate company whose life seems to go haywire with the arrival of a new co-worker. Verity, played by Rosy McEwen, went to school with Maria, though they were in very different social spheres. Maria was popular; Verity, far from it. Already a bit freaked out by this person from her past showing up, Maria starts to feel like the reality around her is slipping. People around her are not remembering things the way she does, leading to apparent mistakes at work, and she begins to suspect Verity is to blame. It's an odd episode. Much of it doesn't even feel particularly like Black Mirror, and it seems to be spinning its wheels in the first half. But as the nature of what's going on gets more extreme -- emails that appear altered, security camera footage that has been doctored -- the fun of the episode emerges. The twists and turns all lead up to a perfectly shocking and hilarious final scene. "Eulogy" is easily the most affecting episode of the season. Paul Giamatti stars as a man who learns that his ex-girlfriend has died. He receives a package from the woman's family containing a device that allows him to enter into old photographs of his, to resurface his memories of her as part of a eulogy project. The trouble is, in his anger over their breakup, he blotted out any photos of her face, and now he can't really remember it. He enters into photo after photo, tracing the story of the relationship while trying desperately to bring the image of her face back. Giamatti is fantastic, bringing a gravitas to the role of a man sorting through the facts of his own life, and what he did and did not understand about the woman he loved. Also a little too exposition-heavy at times, "Eulogy" is nonetheless a beautiful story about regrets, miscommunications, and the way love stays in our hearts even as memories fade. When I saw that Black Mirror was doing a sequel to one of its biggest, and most beloved episodes, I was wary. For an anthology show, that didn't seem like the best idea. I was wrong. "USS Callister: Into Infinity" succeeds first and foremost, like its predecessor, by just being a great science-fiction adventure. Set in the aftermath of the original "USS Callister," Cristin Milioti's Nanette Cole is still leading the ship's crew of sentient digital clones through the perilous worlds of the online multiplayer game Infinity. The trouble is, they're not actual tagged players, meaning they need to rob players of their in-game credits to stay alive. But players begin to notice something is off, and that gets back to James Walton, the CEO of Callister Inc., played by Jimmi Simpson. He and the real-world Nanette team up to help the in-game crew survive, while trying to hide the evidence of the illegal cloning tech. The plot gets wilder from there, maintaining the sense of humour of the original episode, while throwing in even more action, and even bigger twists. Though it's not the most emotionally affecting episode this season, it's certainly the most entertaining, making a raucous meal out of its nearly 90-minute running time. Better still, the ending only has me more excited to see if they make a third one.

If You Only Watch One 'Black Mirror' Episode, It Should Be This Romantic Mindbender

Aaron covers what's exciting and new in the world of home entertainment and streaming TV. Previously, he wrote about entertainment for places like Rotten Tomatoes, Inverse, TheWrap and The Hollywood Reporter. Aaron is also an actor and stay-at-home dad, which means coffee is his friend. Black Mirror season 7 feels like a return to the show's unsettling roots, with each episode focusing on different facets of how Artificial Intelligence can disrupt society -- it sort of is, already. I've watched every entry in the new installment, and one specific episode has haunted me since the credits rolled. I'm talking about Hotel Reverie, the mostly bittersweet black-and-white romance that delivers heaps of nostalgia and sincere emotion. Underneath it all, though, exists a stark warning for entertainment and the industry's future. Simply put, the episode hints at AI's threat to Hollywood. And, dare I say, the bleak creative scenario the episode alludes to is pretty much already here. The episode follows Hollywood A-lister Brandy Friday (played by Issa Rae), who decides to take a considerable risk with her career and signs on to star in the remake of a vintage movie, which aptly shares the title with the episode itself. She soon discovers this is no ordinary project. Rather than stepping onto a movie set, she's faced with the reality that instead of concocting a whole new rendition of this classic film from scratch, she'll be dialed into an AI rendering of the flick with the help of an immersive tech company called ReDream -- run by reality designer Kimmy (Awkwafina) -- and will perform live opposite the life-like avatars of the actors who originally performed in the movie. Dorothy Chambers (Emma Corrin) is the movie's star, sauntering through every scene as enigmatic ingenue Clara. Brandy's job is to play a race and gender-flipped Dr. Palmer, Clara's love interest. The immersive project, if successful, would propel Friday into a new echelon of her career and introduce a new method of movie-making to the world, thus changing the entertainment industry forever. Spoiler warning: Before I continue, I must warn you that there are major story spoilers below. If you haven't seen Hotel Reverie, I suggest you turn back now. Read more: Netflix Review: Our Top Choice in a Crowded Market The 76-minute episode is an emotional roller-coaster ride that ultimately reveals itself as a tragedy of romance and identity. Hotel Reverie explores how an actor, also a woman of color, must navigate her professional and personal life to maintain a certain level of success and status without making too many waves. Like the fan-favorite season 3 episode San Junipero before it, Hotel Reverie plants the seeds for an unlikely romance to blossom between two women in a locale disconnected from real-world constraints of time and space. Brandy's enchantment with Dorothy blossoms into an intimate bond with the AI version of the actor that, when the system goes dark, reveals to Brandy a fulfilling relationship she may never have given herself the grace ever to pursue. The line between fantasy and reality blurs quickly. Death by virtual reality is not a new sci-fi concept. But Hotel Reverie flips that idea on its head by not just adding life-threatening stakes to the mix but also placing themes like body autonomy, agency and identity on the chopping block. Using classic cinema as a stylistic lens to tell this story and explore these ideas creates a poignant and entertaining experience. But what if you scaled your perspective back a bit further and looked at the bigger picture? You may see this Black Mirror episode as a death knell for movie-making. Hotel Reverie lays out a fictional reality that calls into question very real concerns regarding AI and how, if unregulated, it can disrupt (and potentially destroy) the concept of entertainment as we know it. OK, that sounds pretty dramatic. I get it. As an actor who participated in the SAG-AFTRA strike in 2023, I watched as these topics fueled the most heated debates and conversations driving those negotiations. Suppose software like ReDream existed in the real world, and remixing classic movies for modern audiences, like Hotel Reverie does, became the hot new trend. In that case, huge ramifications would follow. The economic impact would be hard-hitting and wide-reaching. Without a film set to report to, production employees like crew members, makeup and wardrobe artists, set designers, caterers, and many more folks who keep the movie-making machine running would be without work. However, the human impact can get blurred and pushed to the background when the creative process is rebranded as content creation. Netflix obviously knows this. After all, it is a tech company. It allows itself to be involved in Black Mirror's ongoing Streamberry joke, but when so many hours of movies and TV shows get lost in the streamer's churn machine, that content versus art debate starts to show some teeth. Now think about the use of Dorothy's likeness, here. Since she's a character who has since passed away, ReDream would need to approach her estate for permission to move forward with this immersive project. How much would that cost? What sort of implications would creatives face if a situation like the one that Hotel Reverie poses actually came to fruition? "It is a violation of the original filmmakers, who, as you all know, spend so much time and meticulous detail making films what they are," Issa Rae told me and select journalists over Zoom during Netflix's virtual press day. "So to have any average Joe or corporation be like, 'We're going to plop a contemporary star in and hijinks will ensue,' is crazy to me. That would piss me off on so many levels." There is no happy ending in Hotel Reverie. The episode ends with the movie reboot becoming a smash hit and Brandy's career reaching new heights. But success on this level can be isolating. The love of her life lived and died in a virtual realm that proved unsustainable for human life. That absolutely sucks. Hotel Reverie leaves the viewer wondering if Brandy can find happiness beyond the fantasy life that transpired on the other side of the screen. It left me questioning whether the way we make entertainment is on the verge of evolution or the brink of collapse. I don't have an answer; the episode doesn't either. I've been replaying these ideas in my head, though. So yes, I've been haunted by Hotel Reverie. It's beautiful, tragic and unsettling, like any good episode of Black Mirror should be. Wait, that means the sci-fi series understood the assignment once again, huh? I guess it does. Well played, Mr. Brooker. Well played.

It's Hard to Pick a 'Black Mirror' Season 7 Favorite. Just Don't Skip This Episode

Aaron covers what's exciting and new in the world of home entertainment and streaming TV. Previously, he wrote about entertainment for places like Rotten Tomatoes, Inverse, TheWrap and The Hollywood Reporter. Aaron is also an actor and stay-at-home dad, which means coffee is his friend. Black Mirror season 7 feels like a return to the show's unsettling roots, with each episode focusing on different facets of how artificial intelligence can disrupt society -- it sort of is, already. I've watched every entry in the new installment, and one specific episode has haunted me since the credits rolled. I'm talking about Hotel Reverie, the mostly bittersweet black-and-white romance that delivers heaps of nostalgia and sincere emotion. Underneath it all, though, exists a stark warning for entertainment and the industry's future. Simply put, the episode hints at AI's threat to Hollywood. And, dare I say, the bleak creative scenario the episode alludes to is pretty much already here. The episode follows Hollywood A-lister Brandy Friday (played by Issa Rae), who decides to take a considerable risk with her career and signs on to star in the remake of a vintage movie, which aptly shares the title with the episode itself. She soon discovers this is no ordinary project. Rather than stepping onto a movie set, she's faced with the reality that instead of concocting a whole new rendition of this classic film from scratch, she'll be dialed into an AI rendering of the flick with the help of an immersive tech company called ReDream -- run by reality designer Kimmy (Awkwafina) -- and will perform live opposite the life-like avatars of the actors who originally performed in the movie. Dorothy Chambers (Emma Corrin) is the movie's star, sauntering through every scene as enigmatic ingenue Clara. Brandy's job is to play a race and gender-flipped Dr. Palmer, Clara's love interest. The immersive project, if successful, would propel Friday into a new echelon of her career and introduce a new method of movie-making to the world, thus changing the entertainment industry forever. Spoiler warning: Before I continue, I must warn you that there are major story spoilers below. If you haven't seen Hotel Reverie, I suggest you turn back now. Read more: Netflix Review: Our Top Choice in a Crowded Market The 76-minute episode is an emotional roller-coaster ride that ultimately reveals itself as a tragedy of romance and identity. Hotel Reverie explores how an actor, also a woman of color, must navigate her professional and personal life to maintain a certain level of success and status without making too many waves. Like the fan-favorite season 3 episode San Junipero before it, Hotel Reverie plants the seeds for an unlikely romance to blossom between two women in a locale disconnected from real-world constraints of time and space. Brandy's enchantment with Dorothy blossoms into an intimate bond with the AI version of the actor that, when the system goes dark, reveals to Brandy a fulfilling relationship she may never have given herself the grace ever to pursue. The line between fantasy and reality blurs quickly. Death by virtual reality is not a new sci-fi concept. But Hotel Reverie flips that idea on its head by not just adding life-threatening stakes to the mix but also placing themes like body autonomy, agency and identity on the chopping block. Using classic cinema as a stylistic lens to tell this story and explore these ideas creates a poignant and entertaining experience. But what if you scaled your perspective back a bit further and looked at the bigger picture? You may see this Black Mirror episode as a death knell for movie-making. Hotel Reverie lays out a fictional reality that calls into question very real concerns regarding AI and how, if unregulated, it can disrupt (and potentially destroy) the concept of entertainment as we know it. OK, that sounds pretty dramatic. I get it. As an actor who participated in the SAG-AFTRA strike in 2023, I watched as these topics fueled the most heated debates and conversations driving those negotiations. Suppose software like ReDream existed in the real world, and remixing classic movies for modern audiences, like Hotel Reverie does, became the hot new trend. In that case, huge ramifications would follow. The economic impact would be hard-hitting and wide-reaching. Without a film set to report to, production employees like crew members, makeup and wardrobe artists, set designers, caterers and many more folks who keep the movie-making machine running would be without work. However, the human impact can get blurred and pushed to the background when the creative process is rebranded as content creation. Netflix obviously knows this. After all, it is a tech company. It allows itself to be involved in Black Mirror's ongoing Streamberry joke, but when so many hours of movies and TV shows get lost in the streamer's churn machine, that content versus art debate starts to show some teeth. Now think about the use of Dorothy's likeness, here. Since she's a character who has since passed away, ReDream would need to approach her estate for permission to move forward with this immersive project. How much would that cost? What sort of implications would creatives face if a situation like the one that Hotel Reverie poses actually came to fruition? "It is a violation of the original filmmakers, who, as you all know, spend so much time and meticulous detail making films what they are," Issa Rae told me and select journalists over Zoom during Netflix's virtual press day. "So to have any average Joe or corporation be like, 'We're going to plop a contemporary star in and hijinks will ensue,' is crazy to me. That would piss me off on so many levels." There is no happy ending in Hotel Reverie. The episode ends with the movie reboot becoming a smash hit and Brandy's career reaching new heights. But success on this level can be isolating. The love of her life lived and died in a virtual realm that proved unsustainable for human life. That absolutely sucks. Hotel Reverie leaves the viewer wondering if Brandy can find happiness beyond the fantasy life that transpired on the other side of the screen. It left me questioning whether the way we make entertainment is on the verge of evolution or the brink of collapse. I don't have an answer; the episode doesn't either. I've been replaying these ideas in my head, though. So yes, I've been haunted by Hotel Reverie. It's beautiful, tragic and unsettling, like any good episode of Black Mirror should be. Wait, that means the sci-fi series understood the assignment once again, huh? I guess it does. Well played, Mr. Brooker. Well played.

Black Mirror season 7 tugs at your heartstrings while skewering tech

Andrew Webster is an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories. Black Mirror started out as a grim, dark, and nihilistic exploration of near-future tech. But with the tragic romance of "San Junipero" in season 3, the anthology slowly started to shift its priorities. Early on, everything was bad: the technology and the people. And the former was used to show how awful the latter was, highlighting how its characters were largely stupid, greedy, and desperate. New technologies just brought out their worst tendencies. Steadily, though, the humans in the show have become more, well, human. Sure, some are stupid and evil, but many are just trying to do their best with the worst-case scenarios introduced by thoughtless tech advancements. The new season takes this philosophy even further -- some episodes even have happy endings. Perhaps the best example of this is the episode "Hotel Reverie." When a golden age-era movie studio finds itself facing closure, it partners with a tech startup led by Kimmy (Awkwafina) that promises to remake its most famous film -- Hotel Reverie -- cheaply, quickly, and with the help of a Hollywood A-lister. After losing out on all of the Ryans (Gosling and Reynolds), the studio signs Brandy (Issa Rae), a perpetual cinematic sidekick dying to break out. Instead of just swapping her likeness for the original lead actor, though, the remake process is something more immersive; Brandy finds herself transported into the film and has to act through it in real time, surrounded by AI automatons that think they're real people in this world. Of course, things don't go as planned. When it's discovered that Brandy can't play the piano, for instance, it completely changes a plot line, and the world's characters react accordingly. Brandy and Kimmy's team have to improvise to keep the narrative on track, like some kind of high-tech immersive theater. The important turn, though, is that Hotel Reverie's other lead -- Dorothy (Emma Corrin) -- is exceedingly real to Brandy, and the two become very close, particularly during a forced hiatus from filming due to a technical hiccup. The episode becomes something like a cross between Her and a holodeck episode of Star Trek, but with the kind of tragic ending befitting Black Mirror. Similarly, "Eulogy" is a bit like Black Mirror's version of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. When Phillip (Paul Giamatti) is asked to help put together an "immersive memorial" for a deceased ex-girlfriend, he ends up going through their past together in a way that forces him to confront the harsh realities of their relationship. The technology in this episode makes it possible to "enter" a photograph as a sort of VR experience, and Phillip, along with an AI companion (Patsy Ferran), searches for details and images of his ex that can be used at the funeral. Along the way, he's able to understand important details he missed when he was younger, helped along by an AI that needles him about some questionable choices. Like "Hotel Reverie," it ends on a bittersweet note. What's interesting about these episodes is how, like the depiction of love in a virtual world in "San Junipero," they manage to cover Black Mirror's mandate -- to look at the worst-case scenario for plausible future tech -- in a way that feels both dire and optimistic at the same time. Yes, the tech has a ruinous effect, but people are still able to fight through it and form real connections. The same could be said of the darkly hilarious "Common People," in which Amanda (Rashida Jones) has her life saved by a procedure that backs up her brain to the cloud. The surgery is free, but Amanda and her husband Mike (Chris O'Dowd) are then forced to deal with escalating subscription costs coupled with declining features. At one point, Amanda is almost fired from her teaching job because she can't stop saying contextually appropriate ads since she's stuck on the lower subscription tier. The episode is funny because of how frustratingly relatable it is, but it's as much about the strains these escalating costs put on a relationship as it is about the technology itself. The other change with this season of Black Mirror is that there's more connective tissue with previous episodes. As in the past few seasons, there are little touches: the Netflix-like streaming service Streamberry makes a number of appearances, and multiple episodes use the same immersive tech in which users place a tiny circle on their temple in lieu of a headset. More notably, though, season 7 includes direct sequels to some of the show's biggest hits. The choose-your-own-adventure episode "Bandersnatch" is followed by "Plaything," in which genius coder Colin (Will Poulter) has crafted a Sims-like game that contains actual sentient digital life. Meanwhile, season 4's "USS Callister" -- in which another genius coder forced sentient digital clones of his coworkers to suffer for his amusement -- continues with "Into Infinity," where those clones are forced to fight and steal in order to survive in an MMO filled with players who want to kill them. Both of these elements -- the less abrasive storytelling and the recognition of past success -- points to a maturation. Black Mirror isn't the scrappy little guy anymore, it's a major Netflix series packed with huge stars. That doesn't mean its attacks on tech are any less poignant or funny, but many of the rough edges have been smoothed over to better connect to a larger audience. I wouldn't say all of these stories have a happy ending, necessarily, but they're pretty far removed from the disturbing conclusions of "The National Anthem" and "Shut Up and Dance." And by focusing on characters you can really connect with, the tragic twists ultimately hit a lot harder.

Every 'Black Mirror' Season 7 episode, ranked from worst to best

A scene from the "USS Callister: Into Infinity" episode of "Black Mirror" S7 (Image credit: Netflix) Let's be honest, "Black Mirror" and its often-cynical take on human nature, technology, video games, movies, space travel, multiple dimensions, digital toys, and alternate realities is not for the faint of heart. However, those brave souls willing to indulge in its provocative nightmares will be rewarded with newfound understandings and perhaps even a few sleepless nights. It's all part of the haunting descent into our deepest dreams and fears. Season 7 was just released on Netflix, and it's another triumphant outing for one of the best sci-fi shows of all time, with something for every taste and temperament. We've watched all six chapters of Black Mirror season 7 and ranked them from worst to best. Whichever order you choose to view them in, make sure to leave a light on and have a few tissues close by. Featuring Issa Rae and Emma Corrin in a stylish sapphic love story, this is one of the two feature-length episodes for this 2025 outing and plays with notions of inserting AI-generated likenesses of actors into older films. A-list star Brandy Friday (Rae) pines for the more glamorous roles of Hollywood's yesteryear and agrees to be plugged into an interactive AI software program called Redream, which takes modern celebrities and injects them into classic movies of a bygone era. Her favorite flick is the 1949 movie "Hotel Reverie" and her gender-bent character is now a romantic interest of that film's vintage actress named Dorothy Chambers (Corrin). But the simulation goes awry when plot points are deviated from, and the two realms bleed into each other. Will Brandy be stuck in that alt-reality forever or emerge unscathed and unaffected? Unfortunately, it all feels a little poached from "Star Trek: First Contact's" holodeck scene or HBO's "Westworld." There are some highlights here, but overall, this tepid, overlong episode is overcooked, a bit dated, and by far one of the weaker entries of the fresh season. This bleak and depressing installment stars Rashida Jones and Chris O'Dowd as a middle-class married couple, Amanda and Mike. It drills directly into our current annoyance with ever-changing cell phone coverage plans and ad-based streaming platform rates. After a medical emergency, Amanda undergoes experimental brain surgery from Rivermind, linking to a subscription service that uploads a backup copy of a healthy brain via a Wi-Fi-like process for $300/mo. But complications arise when her sleeping hours grow longer and she begins to experience blackouts when straying too far from Rivermind coverage zones. Amanda starts randomly pitching ads and other strange anomalies that, of course, all require pricier plans and new upgrades to get rid of. This leads to a destructive downward spiral of their lives and a devastating ending that might leave you in a foul mood and wanting to axe your streaming services.... a bold move from a streaming service that just jacked its prices up again recently. Title definition: "a person or thing strongly detested or avoided." Starring Sienna Kelly as Maria, a flavor expert at a candy company, this brutal episode is a bit lighter than the nightmare of "Common People," that offers up a twisty fifty minutes with a horror-tinged chapter about the traumatizing effects of childhood bullying and a cutting edge snack food firm and tasting laboratory called Ditta. When a mysterious ex-schoolmate named Verity Greene (Rosy McEwen) appears at a focus group tasting and joins Ditta as a research assistant, Maria recalls her oddities and her insulting "Milkmaid" nickname. Broken down by days of the week and paired with sinister organ music, the odd chapter is a fun ride. Maria's reality begins to distort, and she expects Verity is somehow sabotaging her life, resulting in a shifting entanglement of quantum physics, infinite realities, and parallel timelines. Just be careful who you tease! Unspooling in a not-so-distant London of 2034, "Plaything" is a riveting segment centered around a notorious murder suspect and a cult video game from the '90s that was home to a menagerie of digital life forms that gamers can nurture, communicate with, and control. A highlight here is brilliant work by ex-Time Lord Peter Capaldi as Cameron Walker, playing a former PC Zone game journalist. His younger self is shown in flashbacks, a nerdy writer assigned to demo a strange new simulation that's disguised as a video game. Fans will recall Will Poulter's creepy game designer, Colin Ritman, from 2018's "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch", and he's back at the top of his craft revisiting the character. The tiny yellow creatures of his game, named Thronglets, become increasingly demanding as the tale progresses, leading to uncomfortable circumstances and a killer finale. Tight storytelling, exceptional production design, and superior acting make this 42-minute chapter that links back to "Bandersnatch" one of the best of the bunch. Try Netflix's tie-in mobile game! This is the first-ever direct sequel to a "Black Mirror" episode, this being a follow-up to Season 4's "USS Callister" from 2017. There, an introverted video game genius named Robert Daly creates digital clones of his co-workers to form an adoring crew trapped in a "Star Trek"-like VR simulation where he's the cruel captain. SPOILERS: That old episode ends with Daly's digital and real-life demise, and the USS Callister left roaming an infinite artificial universe with a bold new captain. Clocking in at nearly 90 minutes, "Into Infinity" is an enjoyable mission that picks up with nearly the entire first-gen cast zooming into uncharted digital space with new threats, targeted for stealing players' MMO game credits to survive, and hunted as illegal clones. Nanette Cole (Cristin Milioti) is back as the battle-tested, doe-eyed leader who works with her real-life counterpart back at Callister Inc., investigating the history of CEO James Walton and how the firm was originally built. It wraps up neatly in true "Black Mirror" style as a fun, clever companion to the Emmy Award-winning original. "Black Mirror" is often at its finest when relating to the infinitely complex topics of human love and memory. Here in this melancholy entry, we follow the great Paul Giamatti as Phillip, a lonely, grumpy man who is introduced to a technology that lets him enter into his physical photographs that contain images of Carol, a long-lost girlfriend who just passed away in England. A benevolent company called Eulogy creates immersive memorials for loved ones of the deceased, and by using their AI-assisted kit, he's able to help curate painful digital memories for her memorial. This process takes him into a haunted past and stirs up repressed thoughts of their relationship while guided by a Ghost of Christmas Past-like AI host. Giamatti is pitch-perfect in this bittersweet interlude as we jump from the freeze-framed photographic images. Highly personal, beautifully paced, and performed, "Eulogy" exhibits a heartfelt depth of emotion. Love's precious piercing arrows have seldom been more acutely rendered and received. Bravo to all involved with this sentimental jewel! All six episodes of "Black Mirror" Season 7 are now streaming on Netflix.

Black Mirror is now a delightful escape from reality

The latest season of Black Mirror feels almost therapeutic as we peer over the cliff of civilizational collapse. Everything is awful, but at least we don't have to worry about renting out access to our brains from skeevy startups, or dealing with the consequences of a PC game's super-intelligent AI. Not yet, anyway. While Black Mirror felt like a horrifying harbinger of an over-teched future when it debuted in 2011, now it's practically an escape from the fresh hell of real world headlines. That's not to say that the show has lost any of the acerbic bite from creator Charlie Brooker. Season 7 of Black Mirror, which debuts on Netflix on today, still occasionally veers into nihilistic territory, and at times it will emotionally devastate you. But now Brooker and his writers -- Ms. Marvel showrunner Bisha K. Ali, William Bridges, Ella Road and Bekka Bowling -- more deftly wield their talent for cultural analysis. Not all of the new episodes revolve around nefarious new tech, sometimes the tools themselves are genuinely helpful -- it's humans who are often the real problem. And I suppose that was always the end-goal for Black Mirror. When our screens are turned off, we see ourselves. And most of the time, we're probably holding a smartphone. The season's first episode, "Common People," is the most stereotypical Black Mirror tale. A loving husband (IT Crowd's Chris O'Dowd) discovers that his wife (Parks and Recs' Rashida Jones) has a terminal brain disease. Her only hope for survival comes from Rivermind, a startup that can digitally encode the damaged part of her brain and stream it to her head via the cloud. For a fee, of course. You can pretty much guess where things go from there. I won't spoil the specifics, but the episode taps into the universal experience of paying ever more for subscription services that get inexplicably shittier. Cellphone and cable plans are the most obvious parallels, but ironically it also maps onto Netflix's own troubled evolution, which has led to significantly higher prices, confusing new tiers and more limitations around account sharing. "Bête Noire" starts out like a psychological thriller: A successful confections designer (Siena Kelly) starts working alongside a former schoolmate (Rosy McEwen) who had been bullied for being a nerdy outcast. Inexplicably, McEwen's character becomes the office darling, while the star snack artist appears to lose her grip on reality. While there is ultimately a tech-related explanation for what's going on, the episode works best as an unhinged revenge story. I'd also classify the season's two sequel episodes as campy fun, but for different reasons. "Plaything" re-introduces Colin Ritman (Will Poulter), the genius video game designer from the interactive Black Mirror episode "Bandersnatch," who developed a Sims-like computer game with adorable AI creatures. But this being Black Mirror, they're obviously more than meets the eye. The episode kicks off as an older disheveled man (Peter Capaldi) gets arrested, and reveals that he was a former game critic who became obsessed with the game and learned to understand the AI's song-like language. "Plaything" is far from the first episode of the series to delve into the possibilities of AI consciousness, but it's the most explosive spin Black Mirror has taken so far. "USS Callister: Into Infinity" is a feature-length follow-up to the season 4 opening episode, and it's yet another sign that Brooker and his team simply want to lighten things up a bit. We follow the digital clones from the first episode as they try to survive in a popular online game by robbing other players. Meanwhile, their real-world counterparts discover their existence as they follow player complaints about these robberies. "Into Infinity" delivers everything I loved about the original "USS Callister" -- it's simultaneously akin to an episode of classic Star Trek and a modern cyberpunk thriller, while also being funnier and sharper. It's also a bit strange to see Cristin Milioti and Billy Magnussen paired up once again in a sci-fi show after starring together in Max's Made for Love. (And if you're looking for a bit more Black Mirror-esque dystopia in your life, that show is worth a watch.) "Hotel Reverie" and "Eulogy," both feature neural connection gadgets that can instantly transport people into immersive digital worlds. (According to a viral marketing site, it's called the Nubbin.) It's sort of like putting on a VR headset and haptics suit, except you only need to place a small puck by your temple. Once again, though, the technology is far from the most interesting aspect of the episodes. In "Hotel Reverie," an actress (Issa Rae) who is bored with the limited roles Hollywood is giving her gets a chance to do something completely new: Inject herself into a classic film. She's not just remaking the original film, she's replacing the lead male actor and working alongside digitized versions of the rest of the cast. The film, also called Hotel Reverie, was already a tale of forbidden love, but it becomes even more transgressive as a love story between two women. It's not quite as transcendent as "San Junipero," but the episode will definitely make your heart ache a bit. And speaking of heartache, I'd recommend bracing yourself for "Eulogy," a monumental episode featuring some of Paul Giamatti's finest work. We're introduced to him as an older man who gets a strange call: Someone he used to know has died, and their family would like him to contribute some virtual memories via a company called Eulogy. The startup sends him a neural puck, which is powered by a plucky virtual assistant. The puck can record his memories, but even more intriguing, it lets him step directly into virtual memories via old photos. Giamatti recounts a tale of lost love, and by the end of the episode you're reminded that few actors can embody soul-crushing regret as well as him. All of the whiz-bang technology in the episode is just a vehicle to see Giamatti's heart fully exposed. (Get you a man who can do that and also give his all as Rhino in the forgettable Amazing Spider-Man 2.) It took about five seconds of scrolling through Bluesky to snap me back to the hellscape of reality after binging this season of Black Mirror. I was riding high on a wave of emotion and energy, the sort of feeling you get when experiencing the work of talented artists at their peak. One news headline washed that all away. I used to need a breather between earlier Black Mirror episodes to escape Brooker's bleak sensibility. Now, the dystopian show is my balm.

8 More Black Mirror Episodes That Deserve Sequels

'USS Callister: Into Infinity' proves more Black Mirror stories should be continued. Black Mirror season seven is now streaming on Netflix, and its six-episode drop contains a first for the series in sequel "USS Callister: Into Infinity." The follow-up to the popular season four episode is the standout of the bunch, and with the knowledge that series creator Charlie Brooker is pondering other sequel ideas for future seasons, here are eight stories we hope he considers revisiting. The first episode of Black Mirror's second season imagines that Martha (Hayley Atwell), a young widow, turns to AI to ease her heartbreak over the loss of her husband (Domhnall Gleeson). Recreating his consciousnessâ€"first as a chatbot, then integrated into an android that's an exact copy of himâ€"seems like a good idea at first, as the freaky tech on Black Mirror often does. But as Martha progresses through the stages of grief, she comes to terms with the fact that there's no substitute for the real human she's lost. The episode ends with the android hanging out in her attic, occasionally getting visits from the young daughter Martha was pregnant with when her husband died. You have to wonder: what happened to it when Martha herself passed away, presumably years in the future? Did other families try to cope with tragedy with their own AI-recreated loved onesâ€"and how did that work out? And how many android doppelgangers came into being as a result? When this first episode of season three arrived in 2016, social media was already hugeâ€"but it's since grown even more monstrous. TikTok didn't even launch in the U.S. until the following year. Suffice to say the themes of "Nosedive" have only become more accurate, not to mention alarmingly prescient, in the past nine years. It's set in a society where everyone lives or dies by the "ratings" they derive from social interactions, a system that also determines their economic status. The main character (Bryce Dallas Howard) sees her life spiral after a scheme to gain popularity goes awryâ€"and the fake personality she puts on to keep her numbers up fractures in the face of real emotions. Her ultimate fate predicts "cancel culture" in its own way, but the episode is certainly ripe for an update or follow-up. How's that world faring these days? Is it still running on ratingsâ€"or did a total collapse happen somewhere along the way? Aside from "USS Callister," "San Junipero" is probably the most beloved Black Mirror entry of all time, arriving as the fourth episode of season three. An unconventional love story infused with 1980s nostalgia that examines the idealized possibilities that come with living inside a simulationâ€"including the lure of eternal (if artificial) lifeâ€""San Junipero" brings genuine feeling to its narrative. It's no surprise that "Junipero" has popped up as a Black Mirror Easter egg in subsequent seasons; if the romance of Yorkie (Mackenzie Davis) and Kelly (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) isn't specifically mentioned, just tossing the name out there is like a wink to the viewer who knows what it represents. (There's a "Junipero Drive" in season seven's "Hotel Reverie," as one example.) Its continuing presence means it wouldn't be surprising if Brooker decided to revisit "San Junipero"â€"maybe exploring another relationship inside the simulation, its creators, or some other angleâ€"in a future season. Season four's fourth episode offered a Black Mirror take on dating apps that like "San Junipero" uses a simulation to take prospective couple Amy (Georgina Campbell) and Frank (Joe Cole) on a wild "what if" ride. The "Coach" device that pairs up romantic partners steers the narrative in both amusing and heartbreaking ways, and it's quite clear that Amy and Frank aren't the only duo who've decided to rely on it. What about all those other would-be matchesâ€"and who exactly is pulling the strings? The concept of "Coach" could be deployed in a horror tale that takes things in a much different direction than the rom-com vibes of "Hang the DJ." The original episode, which arrived third in season five, had some problematic elements. But its killer premise and clever use of Miley Cyrus' own fame to propel its narrative about a pop star who exists as both a troubled human and a chipper, AI-enhanced doll (Cyrus plays both) beg for another round. A sequel could potentially right the wrongs of the 2019 original, checking back in with Ashley O's music career while furthering the rich themes of how technology can be used to exploit celebrity in the most insidious of ways. Season six's second episode brought true crimeâ€"more specifically, Netflix-style true crime documentariesâ€"into the realm of Black Mirror, delivering a horrifying tale that digs its truth out of old VHS tapes. "Loch Henry" wraps up its story with satisfaction, solving the awful mystery at its center while also showing us what happens to its main character, a fledgling filmmaker who realizes he's got an uncomfortably close connection to his own subject matter. But true crime's popularity is still sky-high, especially on Black Mirror's own streamer, and if a direct sequel to "Loch Henry" doesn't make sense plot-wise, it would still be intriguing to see the show approach the genre from another, presumably just as twisted angle. "Beyond the Sea" © Netflix Season six's third episode has one of Black Mirror's longest runtimes to date, a necessary indulgence considering all the twists and turns its story takes. First, there's the complicated set-up: in an alt-history 1960s, space exploration has evolved to include the idea that when astronauts are on extended deep-space missions, they leave behind "replicas" that look just like them. If they have downtime millions of light-years away, they can transfer their minds into these artificial bodies and interact with their loved ones back on Earth. Conflicts arise when an anti-replica group attacks astronaut David (Josh Hartnett) and his familyâ€"murdering the actual humans and destroying David's replica. Sympathetic to his co-worker's agony, Cliff (Aaron Paul) lets David use his own replica for terrestrial visits... until lines are crossed and David starts to put the moves on Cliff's wife, Lana (Kate Mara). He looks like her husband, but he's a different man insideâ€"and he's not even actually a living being on the outside, either. It's messy! And it ends messily, with David murdering Cliff's family and destroying Cliff's replica, meaning both men are stuck in space together as long as their mission needs them. What's worse, now neither have anyone waiting for them back home. What happens next could make up a sequel episodeâ€"as could another story digging into the idea of dopplegangers who switch brains. Surely astronauts aren't the only people who make use of this unsettling tech? Come on, you knew we were going to include this one. Season seven's sixth and final episode is so much funâ€"and the digital copies that make up the USS Callister crew still haven't quite resolved their dilemma, now that they're all living inside of Nanette's digital consciousness (which is now part of her organic body). How's that going to look a few years down the line? There may be dozens of seasons of Real Housewives to watch, but surely another urge to flee will creep in eventually.

Black Mirror Season 7's Tech Tales Come With a Knife-Twist of Emotion

Charlie Brooker's dystopian series returns with six new episodes on Netflix. A new season of Black Mirror has arrived, and with it the usual cautionary tales (and screaming warnings) about technology's darkest capabilitiesâ€"wrapped in a deceptively alluring blanket of "Jeez, that would actually be really cool if it were real!" Across six episodes, season seven boasts some of the show's all-time greatest performances, as well as its first sequel episode, which proves well worth the eight-year wait. Black Mirror's past track record of predicting tech trends takes on a particularly chilling hue in season seven, which puts a special emphasis on re-purposing vintage tech, including old Hollywood movies and physical photographs. It also digs into the extreme emotional reactions that tech "innovations" are capable of drawing out of people, especially those who engage with it innocently at first. That latter theme comes into sharp relief in the first episode, "Common People." Rashida Jones and Chris O'Dowd star as Amanda and Mike, a married couple whose relationship is charted across several years of anniversariesâ€"and the turns their lives take when Amanda's mysterious headaches abruptly reveal a scary diagnosis. Tracee Ellis Ross plays the smooth-talking biotech sales rep with the answer to their prayers, which in classic Black Mirror fashion, soon becomes its own waking nightmare. The episode's main thrust is how health-care companies tend to see people as customers rather than patients, but beyond the obvious, it also sneaks in some satire about creator culture, introducing an online game show that pays contestants to accept painful and humiliating dares. It works in a funny, if poignant taken in context, dig at subscription services that keep adding more "tiers" that are both more expensive and yet impossible to resist. (Netflix, you listening?) Jones and O'Dowd have co-starred together in other projects and are mostly known for their comedic performances, and "Common People," directed by Ally Pankiw and written by Charlie Brooker, from a story by Brooker and Bisha K. Ali, draws on their innate likability and makes them a believable couple. Because Amanda and Mike are such lovely people, it makes their ordeal all the more heartbreaking, though Black Mirror does an admirable job of showing how there's really no choice in the choices they must make. Far less sympathetic are the characters in "Bête Noire," an episode perfectly named for the phrase that means "the bane of one's existence." Black Mirror loves a toxic workplace, but rarely has it gone so hard as it does here. A rising star in the research and department of a niche candy company, Maria (Siena Kelly) is smugly pleased with her success until Verity (Rosy McEwen), a former school mate, joins her team. You get the sense that Maria would already be suspicious of anyone who might be seen as competition, but her hackles are even more raised because of who it is: Verity, you see, was once the school outcast. It's incredible that someone Maria knew 10 years ago can still trigger her mean-girl instincts with such force, but it's soon clear there's something very strange going onâ€"even if only Maria (and the audience) believe it to be true. The agony drags on along with the mystery (this one's directed by Toby Haynes, and written by Brooker) and it's hard to pick a side because both women are impossible to root for. As you might guess from Maria and Verity's shared history, "Bête Noire" also incorporates another favorite Black Mirror theme: elaborately concocted revenge. But just when you think you've figured the episode out, it rips out some surprising twists. A far sweeter duo comes to the fore in "Hotel Reverie," which introduces Brandy Friday (Issa Rae), a movie star in a career rut. She's successful and in demand, but she's bored to death with playing either "the noble victim" or "the fuckable sidekick." Her agent doesn't understand her desire to find "something magical and timeless," but a project in that vein unexpectedly materializes: a remake of golden-age classic Hotel Reverie, with Brandy playing the previously male leading role. Black Mirror has a lot of fun recreating Hotel Reverie, giving us a trailer that lays out its plotâ€"a love triangle involving an heiress, her murderous husband, and a dashing doctor, whose paths cross at a bustling hotel in 1930s Cairoâ€"and introducing the studio head (Harriet Walter) despairing of what to do with the fading media library that's her family legacy. The remake sounds like a killer idea to all involved, but Brandy doesn't initially understand what she's signed up for isn't a conventional do-over. Instead, it's a first-of-its-kind creation of ReDream, cutting-edge tech that "creates an entirely self-sufficient immersive dimension." With a no-nonsense Awkwafina playing the eager project leader, the weird-science element of having Brandy port her consciousness into a simulation filled with AI constructs who think they're all real people, living in a real worldâ€"when in fact, they're recreations of movie characters who were never real to begin with, in a world that's completely contained inside a computerâ€"helps keep the story flow from getting too tangled. It's a high-concept idea both to Brandy and the audience, but with ReDream's team clustered around in a control room watching Brandy perform inside the movie, dropping techie exposition as we need it, you thankfully don't get too confused by how all this is working. The how isn't really important, anywayâ€"elaborate computing aside, "Hotel Reverie" is far more interested in the relationship that forms between Brandy (both in and out of her doctor character) and her co-star, a character named Clara played by an actor named Dorothy (played by Emma Corrin). Intended as a beat-for-beat recreation of the movieâ€"with Brandy seamlessly swapped in; the aim here is to get younger audiences excited about "heritage media" by adding in an A-listerâ€"things soon inevitably go off the rails. The ReDream team realizes right along with Brandy how quickly an AI simulation can spin out of control, as well as how many layers it can craft within its drama, and how much genuine emotion it can bring to the surface. It's written by Brooker, and directed by Haolu Wang. Maybe the weakest entry in the bunchâ€"and again, it's a very strong bunch, so that's a minimal dingâ€"is "Plaything," written by Brooker and directed by David Slade. It's a murder mystery in which the DNA-identified suspect is a wild-eyed, wilder-haired computer geek played by Peter Capaldiâ€"whose performance is a delight even if it's in service to a story that telegraphs its ending far too early in the episode. Also of note, however, is that "Plaything" brings back a past Black Mirror character in video game creator Colin Ritman (Will Poulter), who fans will remember from the Bandersnatch interactive movie. More in line with "Hotel Reverie" is "Eulogy," written by Brooker and Ella Road, and directed by Chris Barrett and Luke Taylor. In a season that showcases a lot of wonderful acting, Paul Giamatti takes top honors as a lonely man who goes on an unexpected and surprisingly visceral journey down memory lane. "Hotel Reverie" has already asked, "What would it be like to step into your favorite old movie?"â€"but "Eulogy" makes it even more personal, asking "What would it be like to step into an old photo and re-live the moment that was captured?" We follow Giamatti's Phil as he combs through old shoeboxes, searching for images to contribute to an "immersive memorial" for a long-ago girlfriend, and "Eulogy" takes us on a roller-coaster of feelings. Warm nostalgia gives way to sadness and regret, and then resentment. The latter we can tell he's spent the last several decades papering over, but it surfaces just as raw once he starts poking into those old wounds. It's a heartfelt journey as well as a reminder of how break-ups used to be, when you could just scratch someone's face out of a photo and not have a digital trail of memories following you everywhere. At least, until some new form of tech comes knocking and wondrously, yet awkwardly blends the two. Last but certainly not least is "USS Callister: Into Infinity," which brings us back to the digital clones trapped inside of Infinity, "the most immersive multiplayer game in human history," and the humans who work at gaming company Callister, Inc. There's a "previously on" that's helpful even if you remember the original episode, and the story then picks up a few months after Robert Daly's death. Part one ended in victorious freedom for the crew of the USS Callister. But some cracks have formed after their jailbreak, and they're now confronting new challenges that make their previous suffering under Daly's thumb almost a breeze in comparison. Let's just say being the only players in a video game who can never leave the game creates some unique predicaments. The outside world also gets a deeper dive, with Nanette (Cristin Milioti) and Walton (Jimmi Simpson) having to grapple with Daly's legacy in surprising waysâ€"not to mention experiencing a fresh dose of that toxic workplace that, again, Black Mirror simply adores as a setting. Directed by Toby Haynes, and written by Brooker, Ali, William Bridges, and Bekka Bowling, "USS Callister: Into Infinity" is everything you want a sequel to be. The world gets bigger, the characters you've already come to know reveal new dimensions, and the narrative goes to some extremely clever places. The Star Trek homage is way dialed down this time around, though, since Daly's no longer running the showâ€"but there's still plenty of space action, not to mention some Trek-style thematic lessons about making choices for the greater good that end up shining through.

Black Mirror Season 7 Episodes, Ranked

Six new episodes hit Netflix this week. How do they stack up against each other? Black Mirror is back, and it's a strong season overall. All six episodes capture dystopia, despair, and tech terrors, along withâ€"don't blink!â€"the occasional flicker of joy. If you're a fan of Charlie Brooker's series, you should definitely watch the whole drop without skipping any. But if you're curious, here's how we think the entries line up, from least successful to most entertaining. A stringy-haired Peter Capaldi's performance as a guy who hasn't left his apartment in far too long is note-perfect, and the flashbacks to his younger, acid-gobbling self (Lewis Gribben, soon to be seen in Blade Runner 2099) are perfectly calibrated. We also loved the appearance of Will Poulter's Colin Ritman, last seen offering up sketchy choices in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and no less of a danger-maker hereâ€"as well as the episode's cynical depiction of '90s video game journalism. But there's a beat a little too early in "Plaything" where Capaldi's character takes note of the "central state computer" that's watching him during a police interview, and that sort of kills the suspense. It's already obvious his sloppy arrest at the top of the episode is part of some grander plan, and it's not hard to connect the dots to figure out what his intentions are. Using a humble pen and paper to topple all of society in a single blow is a nice touch, though. Season seven's lead-off episode has tons of built-in goodwill thanks to the casting of Rashida Jones and Chris O'Dowd, much-loved comedic actors who here play married couple Amanda and Mike. They're barely scraping by as it is when Amanda develops a brain tumor that'll mean the end of her lifeâ€"if not for Rivermind, glorious experimental technology described as "a revolution in neuroscience." It results in her miracle revival, which is amazing! But there's a catch, and it's a mighty one: for Amanda to stay alive, she must become a lifelong Rivermind subscriber. Over time, the company adds "tiers" of service that become prohibitively more and more expensive, with Amanda at one point being forced to spit out advertisements like she has "commercial fucking Tourette's." "Common People" distills a lot of anguish into its plot. There's the horrors of chronic illness and becoming dependent on an uncaring healthcare industry. There's the distressing delight people take in witnessing human suffering, as demonstrated by the humiliating online challenges Mike submits to in exchange for much-needed cash. There's the dread-filled realization that the expensive thing you already had that was working just fine now requires exponentially more dollars to pay for. There's also the reveal that Rivermind is preying on its customers' own brain power to fuel its servers, which adds a whole other dimension of proprietary ickiness. It's a lot, and "Common People" balances it well, with a dose of catharsis at the end that's equal parts freeing and awful. Also, the sight of a rock-bottom Mike selling the couple's never-used crib to kids who cheerfully announce they plan to set it on fire for a music video walks the line so perfectly between hilarious and sob-inducing. It's a small moment, but it captures the tone at work here with expert precision. Unlike most Black Mirror episodes, "Bête Noire" takes place in a moment where technology mirrors what's actually available to us in 2025. That makes it even freakier when Maria (Siena Kelly) starts to suspect that her former classmate and current work rival, Verity (Rosy McEwan), has deployed computer trickery to somehow sabotage the fabric of reality. She doesn't have much to go on other than her own certainty... and the knowledge that Verity is a tech genius with a legitimate gripe against her. The actual reveal of Verity's scheme, however, strays deep into fantasy territory; for all of the wild tech Black Mirror has imagined over the years, Verity's harnessing of multiple dimensionsâ€"and being able to switch between them with the blink of an eyeâ€"feels among the most far-fetched. In the build-up to that outrageous reveal, "Bête Noire" is often hard to watch; the tension builds to near-unbearable levels as everyone in Maria's orbit starts to believe she's losing her mind. We should be on her side, but both Maria and Verity are pretty horrible people; one's a raging narcissist, the other's basically a comic book supervillain. The episode requires patience from the viewer, but it does have its rewards, including a breathtaking nasty streak you just have to salute and well-placed Amyl and the Sniffers track leading up to the final confrontation. The tech in "Hotel Reverie" is so complicated, it's lucky viewers have Awkwafina and her ReDream co-workers to explain its finer points throughout the episode (no thanks to that guy who spills his drink on the hardware, though). But it's used in service of a delicate love story, in which Issa Rae's contemporary movie star falls for a vintage leading lady (Emma Corrin) when the two meet in an immersive world re-creating a black-and-white Hollywood classic. There's a lot going on here theme-wiseâ€"including the uncomfortable idea that an AI character could evolve, gain dimensionality, and perhaps even become self-aware. There's also the whole alarming but not entirely far-fetched scheme of jazzing up "heritage media" by adding modern A-listers, aiming to attract younger audiences who wouldn't bother watching it otherwise. But the romance is the main focus of "Hotel Reverie," and eagle-eyed viewers will note that Rae's character lives on "Junipero Drive," a nod to Black Mirror's much-loved episode about another meaningful connection that forms within a simulation. The tender closing scene isn't quite "San Junipero" levels of happy, but it's refreshing when Black Mirror throws out an optimistic ending to cut through its usual farewell notes of fear and melancholy. Sometimes, the most effective Black Mirror episodes are the most simple. "Eulogy" has just two characters and pivots around straightforward (if far-future and wondrous) tech. It follows a story thread that weaves through an ordinary man's lifeâ€"revealing one tragic mistake that sent ripples throughout his entire existence. Paul Giamatti is perfectly cast as Phil. He still has a landline phone, which is how he receives the news that he's being asked to contribute to a virtual memorial for a former girlfriend. And this is not just an ordinary memorial; this is a cutting-edge immersive memorial that helps recreate moments from the deceased woman's life. He agrees to help, with an AI guide at his side, he's able to actually step inside of the Polaroids he digs up and re-experience the moments the photos were taken. At first, it's kind of fun. But as the memories come flooding back, so does the pain the relationship caused. By focusing so tightly on a single character's life and painâ€"drawn out by tech that actually isn't harmful for onceâ€""Eulogy" ends up being a deeply human story. It's beautifully brought to life by Giamatti, who has us breathlessly watching as Phil learns an agonizing truth that's long been lodged in his past, then finds a way to make peace with it. A perfectly executed extension of much-loved season four episode "USS Callister," this sequel is nearly feature-length and brings both its "innies" and "outies" (or the Black Mirror equivalent) to a satisfying conclusion that's equal parts thrilling and clever. We especially loved Cristin Milioti doing double duty as digital and human Nanette Cole as they meet face-to-face, but special props go to Jimmi Simpson for infusing his versions of James Walton with different levels of sleaze, heroism, and caveman charisma.

Review | In Season 7, 'Black Mirror' is only reflecting on itself

Despite a cast that includes Rashida Jones, Awkwafina, Peter Capaldi and Paul Giamatti, this the thinnest shard of "Black Mirror" yet. On "Black Mirror," the future isn't a boot stamping onto a human face forever, as George Orwell said it would be. It's a little white pad stuck to the side of someone's noggin -- a kind of AirPod for the temple, sending all who wear it into a digital trance, their bodies slack, their eyes milky white. Think Orwell via Apple, and not in the way Steve Jobs meant when he cast his fledgling Macintosh as the answer to Big Brother way back in the brave new world of 1984. No fewer than three of the six new episodes of "Black Mirror" on Netflix deploy some version of creator Charlie Brooker's favorite portable VR accessory, which previously plugged characters into a simulated 1980s paradise, a hyperrealistic fighting game and a resentful geek's re-creation of the final frontier. Fans of this dependably withering sci-fi anthology might see that as tantalizing hints of continuity -- an Easter egg implying that Brooker's various visions of the nightmare tomorrow are less self-contained than they once appeared. But, as is often the case with "Black Mirror," a more pessimistic outlook is possible: Is the recurring appearance of that little doohickey further proof that Brooker, our resident small-screen Orwell, might be running out of ideas? He's certainly short on new ones in Season 7, maybe the thinnest shard of "Black Mirror" yet. The sense of déjà vu goes beyond any one technological gimmick; this time, whole premises have been copied and pasted. Perhaps you've heard that the show is not so boldly going where it's gone before? Along with a much-ballyhooed return trek to the USS Callister, you can expect a quasi-sequel to "Bandersnatch," minus the novelty of choosing your own adventure. Skip to end of carousel The Style section Style is The Washington Post's place for news from the front lines of culture -- arts, media, politics, trends and fashion. For more Style stories, click here. To subscribe to the Style Memo newsletter, click here. End of carousel Brooker, who as usual wrote or co-wrote every episode of the season, gets his most trenchant (and, relatedly, most heavy-handed) observations out of the way early with "Common People," starring Rashida Jones as a teacher who discovers that the miracle implant that has cured her brain cancer comes with a hefty monthly fee. Just as last season's "Joan Is Awful" poked gentle fun at Netflix itself, so, too, does this latest premiere skewer the underhanded practices of subscription services that continuously hike their rates and roll out laggier, buggier, ad-supported plans. "Out of network" has a disturbingly dual meaning for a medical device that sends you into a comatose rest mode whenever you stray too far from your coverage area. There are grim laughs aplenty in "Common People," most of them courtesy of Jones involuntarily blurting out commercials, like the human equivalent of Spotify Basic. But the social commentary is often as barndoor-broad as the humor, with Brooker and co-writer Bisha K. Ali straining to work in some satire of MrBeast-style humiliation content, as their heroine's husband (Chris O'Dowd) abuses himself for quick cash on a website called "Dumb Dummies." Faintly condescending to its own working-class characters, who want nothing grander than a burger and a beer once a year, the episode is unsubtle even by "Black Mirror" standards. "Wot if ya wife ran on 5G?" Brooker nearly asks by the self-parodically bleak coda, as if determined to fulfill the mocking meme take on his feel-bad sensation. At least "Common People" has a point to make, however didactic. Too many of the stories this season settle for empty twists. A cameo by Will Poulter drops us into the same gaming industry sandbox as the feature-length "Bandersnatch," but it's not just an interactive element that's missing this time: Told via long flashbacks narrated by a hammy Peter Capaldi, "Plaything" devolves into pure technophobic boilerplate. More fun, if every bit as silly, is "Bête Noire," which arranges a blast-from-the-past reckoning for a chocolatier (Siena Kelly) with some skeletons in her closet. Kept under wraps until the final minutes, the speculative tech here is among Brooker's most outlandish. It's like something out of "Rick and Morty" rather than the grim cautionary tales of the show's pre-Netflix creative infancy/zenith. Meanwhile, the wistful "Hotel Reverie" proves that conceptual ambition isn't everything. The problems begin with the conceit, in which an actress, played by Issa Rae, lobbies to star in a gender- and color-blind remake of a sweeping "Casablanca"-like Hollywood classic. The wrinkle is that, rather than shoot any new footage, the studio plans to insert the star into a virtual-reality simulation modeled on the original movie and populated by artificially intelligent phantoms of its cast ... including the Golden Age starlet (Emma Corrin) that Rae's A-lister ends up wooing, in and out of character. But wait, what modern studio would bankroll a glorified rerelease of a black-and-white melodrama? And what, exactly, would be the benefit of making it with a cast of unpredictable AI automatons, instead of simply splicing the new actor into existing footage? Nothing about "Hotel Reverie" makes a lick of sense. Nor does the episode have the courage to even explore the implications of remaking a Golden Age hit into an interracial, queer romance -- a swap that Awkwafina's exposition-spouting director waves off with a line of dialogue. It's about as all-vibes as "Black Mirror" gets, and that vibe is a transparent thirst for the swoony appeal and popularity of "San Junipero." For an affectingly bittersweet wander into the photographic past, look instead to "Eulogy," in which Paul Giamatti slaps on that same spherical nub to enter old Polaroids of a deceased ex, his distant memories turning the two-dimensional snapshots into three-dimensional spaces. More visually than dramatically compelling (the frozen tableau is a nifty image), the episode gets by on some elegant effects work. That, and Giamatti's tender performance, adding another melancholy crank to a résumé rich with them. Watching these new episodes, you remember how much "Black Mirror" is elevated by its revolving ensemble of guest stars, who put an expressive face on its pitch-black allegorical aspirations. That's certainly true of "USS Callister: Into Infinity," which reunites most of the cast of its beloved Season 4 predecessor for another nightmare, open-world riff on "Star Trek." It's a fun world to visit again, and Brooker adds some wrinkles and complications that would make Gene Roddenberry proud -- including a stretch that allows star Cristin Milioti to act as her own game scene partner. Of course, what made "USS Callister" so special was the critique it smuggled into its pastiche; it was a "Trek" tribute that dared to tackle the toxic entitlement underscoring too much modern fandom. "Into Infinity" doesn't so much advance as reiterate the thoughts of that earlier installment. Like a lot of sequels, the episode mostly repeats what the original said first and better. In that way, it's also like "Black Mirror" at large. Seven seasons in, you can't help but miss when the show mirrored the world back at its audience, instead of merely catching its own gleaming success in the reflection. Black Mirror (six episodes) returns Thursday on Netflix.

The new season of 'Black Mirror' is different, in a good way

The very first episode of Black Mirror, which debuted in 2011, is not about complex technology. Called "The National Anthem," it's about 24-hour news saturation and the public opinion swings enabled by social media. Almost 15 years later, the new seventh season of Black Mirror has gone super-fancy with its imagined tech -- specifically, the idea of a storable, transferable human consciousness. In several of the episodes, what's at stake is the ability to transfer or copy your full self into an alternate reality, or an alternate dimension, or simply up to the cloud for storage. Are these episodes as good as classic Black Mirror? Well, they're different. Classic Black Mirror includes some stupendously bleak stuff premised on the idea that humans take every technological advancement and use it for evil -- to torture each other, control each other, and exploit each other. Most of these stories, on the other hand, are more ambivalent, suggesting there are threats but also opportunities in a world where your humanity can be moved around like any other file. It would feel pretty heavy at the moment to have something like a "White Bear" or a "Fifteen Million Merits," something really and truly horrific, dropped on our heads. With not one but several episodes that are genuinely about love, perhaps this is the right season for the right time. Here's a quick rundown of what to expect from the episodes - and what works. "Common People": Starring Chris O'Dowd and Rashida Jones, this one follows a loving couple of modest means, getting by until the wife lapses into a coma because of an inoperable brain tumor. A chipper sales rep played by Tracee Ellis Ross convinces the husband to sign up with a subscription service that will upload his wife's brain to the cloud, so she can survive surgery. Riffing on the ways that subscription services trap people and then deteriorate with time, the episode gets very good work from the leads and has some good and dark jokes as things get grimmer, but after a while, it feels a bit one-note, clever but not quite satisfying. "Bête Noire": A woman realizes that a new work colleague she also knew long ago is sabotaging her. Her inability to explain what's happening is compelling, but the resolution of the mystery lets this one down a bit. There are episodes of Black Mirror that bump up against the idea that a person or a gizmo is all-powerful, and that starts to be more absurd than unsettling. "Hotel Reverie": Issa Rae plays an actress who, through the use of AI, takes the lead role -- originally played decades ago by a man -- in a "remake" of a swoony black-and-white old-Hollywood romance. To make it, her consciousness steps into the world of the movie opposite the original actress, played by Emma Corrin. One of Black Mirror's best episodes is "San Junipero," another romance between women who meet in an unreal space, and this lovely story, in which Corrin makes a very convincing 1940s actress, pairs well with it. "Plaything": This weird little tale finds Peter Capaldi playing a scruffy old electronics nerd. He tells the tale of a video game he's played for years that's populated with little yellow beings who are trying to ... take over humanity, pretty much. Here, the porous boundary between virtual and real worlds continues as the little guys, called "Thronglets" (sounds bad, right?) threaten to leave their domain and enter ours. "Eulogy": This is probably the most emotionally rich episode of the season. Paul Giamatti plays a man who explores memories of an old girlfriend with a "guide" gathering information for her memorial. There's no twist, just a man reckoning with the differences between the history he remembers and the history that really happened -- as we all do now and then. Giamatti is excellent, and of all the warmer and fuzzier Black Mirror episodes, this is among the best. "USS Callister: Into Infinity": Back in the fourth season, Black Mirror premiered "USS Callister," in which a game designer, played by Jesse Plemons, imprisoned digital clones of his co-workers in a world based on his favorite old spaceship TV show, where he was the dictatorial captain. When he cloned Nanette, played by Cristin Milioti, she rebelled. In this sequel, the cloned Nanette and the rest of the ship's crew are still trying to survive. The original was a pointed examination of a man whose cruelty didn't prevent him from seeing himself as a good guy and a victim; this one feels more comic and not quite as cutting. Still, the returning cast, which also includes Billy Magnussen and Jimmi Simpson, is a pleasure.

Black Mirror season seven review - Charlie Brooker's thrilling satire gets its warmest, most human season ever

Tender sentiment touches instalments starring the likes of Chris O'Dowd, Rashida Jones and Paul Giamatti. But it hasn't lost its demon side - you'll cackle with laughter at some of the chaos It's tough being an anthology. While other dramas set up their premise and characters and then lazily dole out a little more of the same in every episode, anthologies must constantly seek our approval anew. If critics and viewers think the latest shiny thing is a dud, they toss it into the void and deem all the expert hard work that went into it to be a waste. Even the hits are only celebrated briefly before everyone moves on to the next fresh story, ready to give it a thumbs up or down. In season seven of his collection of digital-age fables, Black Mirror writer Charlie Brooker finally cracks and, for the first time, produces a sequel to an old episode. This year's feature-length finale, USS Callister: Into Infinity, is a straight continuation of season four's fan favourite. But it's the least interesting instalment from the new batch, because it can't replicate the thrill, the hope, of starting without knowing whether this latest adventure will be a success. The other five offerings take that risk, and almost all get their reward. Leading the line is Common People, starring Chris O'Dowd and Rashida Jones as a blue-collar couple who have more love than money. When she is diagnosed with a brain tumour, the lifesaving solution is technology that replaces her mind with servers in the cloud - but it's on a monthly subscription, which is expensive, and the company that runs it keeps altering the terms. The episode has one of the show's common flaws, which is a tendency to bludgeon the audience with satire that makes one big point, then works methodically through a long ledger of further logical consequences. It also once again showcases Brooker's maniacal desire to push beyond what other writers might see as unworkably bleak. But as Common People spirals downwards with grim inevitability, like the film Requiem for a Dream for people who are too online, beneath all the dark gags about signal coverage and annoying advertisements is a study of modern precariousness that shows real compassion for its victims. This is where what was once a hard-edged, occasionally malfunctioning cyborg of a show has slowly evolved: Black Mirror 7.0 has a lot of soft tissue around the metal. Tender sentiment flows through the ingenious Hotel Reverie, which stars Issa Rae as a movie actor cast in a new type of remake that inserts her avatar into an AI simulation of the world created by a classic black-and-white romance. A story with notes of The Truman Show and Steven Moffat-era Doctor Who explores how, for all Hollywood's cynical hammering of lucrative formulae and writers' knowledge of which scripting tricks work, fictional people on screen can mean so much to the viewer - and to their authors - that magic happens and they become real. Even more heartfelt is Eulogy, with a perfectly cast Paul Giamatti as a man given the chance to step inside old photographs and unlock memories of a great lost love. The techno-gubbins barely impact on a sweet, sad, simple tale that steps away from Brooker's growing obsession with characters choosing between online and offline versions of themselves. Here instead is a man looking back on his one and only analogue life, regretting what his younger self didn't know and couldn't recognise. The truth about the happiness he could have had is in a box in his attic full of pictures, letters and cassettes. The dust may get in your eye. But this year's other standout demonstrates that Black Mirror hasn't lost its demon streak. Bête Noire has a premise straight out of a midweek terrestrial drama, with Siena Kelly as Maria, the office high-flyer who is right to suspect that new recruit Verity (Rosy McEwen) is a deranged wrong 'un, but can't prove it in a way that her colleagues can see, so efforts to expose Verity make Maria look like the loose cannon. The cruel chaos smoothly ramps up, gradually revealing the twist before the narrative delivers an ending that will make you not laugh or chuckle, but very specifically cackle. The only skippable episode is Plaything, set in a near future where cops use DNA mouth swabs to solve crimes, and have an interrogation room built in a pleasing asymmetrical-lozenge shape. Inside sits a predictably excellent Peter Capaldi as a mercurial murder suspect who has spent his adult life playing a potent video game that is somewhere between Lemmings, The Sims and a Tamagotchi. What looks like a great first half is followed by ... the end credits. The set-up is all there is, the idea doesn't go anywhere, our thumbs are down and Plaything is moved swiftly to the bin. Anthologies are a hard gig. But this warmer, more convincingly human Black Mirror is easier than ever to forgive.

Black Mirror Season 7 Episodes, Ranked From Worst to Best

But it was never going to be just $300. As with our existing frog-in-slowly-heating-water subscription culture, an upsell is inevitable. Suddenly, advertisements start spewing from Amanda's mouth that disrupt her life and threaten her job -- and can only be stopped with an exorbitant upgrade from Rivermind Common to Rivermind Plus. The parallels to Netflix's own tiered service aren't subtle. Now that he's making tech satire for a global entertainment monolith, Brooker can't seem to resist rattling the cage, even if he denies that it was his outright intention (see also: Season 6 streaming satire "Joan Is Awful"). Yet the real-world resonances of "Common People" run deeper. A stratified health care system, the branding of mere survival as luxury, the sense that scientific advances only exacerbate inequality; it's all reflected in the elegantly horrifying metaphor that is Rivermind. While Jones and O'Dowd balance tenderness with dark humor, Ellis masters the art of cold corporate politesse. Considering that the episode is named for Britpop legends Pulp's 1995 eat-the-rich anthem, though, I have to deduct a couple points for the lack of a needle drop. Major streaming services (like Netflix) rarely license movies more than a few decades old. Great leading roles for women and people of color, even if they're A-listers, can be hard to find. Then there's AI, threatening to change the cinema forever with dubious innovations that rob the art form of its humanity. A Black Mirror episode devoted to escalating Hollywood crises such as these was inevitable. The surprise is that, instead of cooking up the kind of furious parody you might expect from a series whose premiere used bestiality as a nauseating political metaphor, Brooker weaves these entertainment-industry woes into an exquisite feature-length episode that has the grace, romance, and melancholy of a classic silver-screen melodrama. Midcentury relic Keyworth Studios is floundering when its head (Harriet Walter) hears a pitch for an AI tool called Redream. Together, she and the company's rep (Awkwafina) plan to use the technology to quickly, cheaply remake Keyworth's Casablanca-like masterpiece Hotel Reverie with a contemporary star. While the Ryans Reynolds and Gosling pass, Brandy Friday (Issa Rae), a big name frustrated with "noble victim or f-ckable sidekick" parts, seizes the chance to step into a lead role originally occupied by a white guy. What she doesn't know is how literal that shoe-filling will be. Redream plugs Brandy's consciousness, Matrix style, into a virtual recreation of the movie. Her co-stars are AI copies of the characters, programmed to replicate the film's original performances as long as Brandy sticks to the script. (It's best not to ask too many questions about the mechanics of all this.) Yet something about Brandy triggers an unanticipated response from her character's love interest (Emma Corrin), which throws the project into chaos. Flecked with humorous details (Brandy is warned that dissolves might make her queasy) and shaded with dark undertones, "Hotel Reverie" also feels hopeful and profound in its insistence on the impossibility of abstracting an artwork from its quintessentially human origins.

Black Mirror season 7 episodes, ranked

Table of Contents Table of Contents 6. Plaything (season 7, episode 4) 5. USS Callister: Into Infinity (season 7, episode 6) 4. Bête Noire (season 7, episode 2) 3. Common People (season 7, episode 1) 2. Hotel Reverie (season 7, episode 3) 1. Eulogy (season 7, episode 5) ack Mirror is devastatingly disturbing yet so philosophically thought-provoking. The anthology series, which first premiered on Channel 4 in 2011, after which it moved to Netflix from season three onward, has solidified its creator, Charlie Brooker, as somewhat of a creative genius. It took four years for fans to get a sixth season and almost another two years for season seven, which is finally here. But it was worth the wait. There are six episodes in total, many of which take us back to the original luster of the show. Black Mirror has always been about technology gone too far and the implications of inevitably disastrous, futuristic scenarios. While the show diverged in later seasons to feature more horror and less psychology, season seven is back in full form. The episodes range from cyberpunk to psychological thriller to heartbreakingly emotional tales. The cast is a mixed bag of both knowns and unknowns. Plus, this season features the first-ever sequel episode. Every episode is solid, Black Mirror at its finest. But some are especially enthralling. Recommended Videos 6. Plaything (season 7, episode 4) The anticipated return of Will Poulter reprising his role as Colin from the interactive film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, was anticlimactic. Though his character has a crucial role in the story, he only appears on camera for a few minutes. At the center of the story is Peter Capaldi (Lewis Gribben in flashbacks) as Cameron, a former video game journalist who, decades later, is arrested for the cold case murder of a man who hasn't yet been identified. As he's being interrogated, Cameron describes his growing obsession with groundbreaking software developed by Colin. It's not a game in the traditional sense but rather consists of adorable Tamagotchi-like digital creatures called Thronglets that "players" are meant to nurture over time. Thronglets work as a collective, multiplying and slowly teaching us how to be better human beings. When Cameron begins to monitor these while also partaking in frequent acid trips, he starts to believe that he can understand their bird-like sounds and their mission to create a better world. On the surface, the cyberpunk-themed plot touches on video game addiction -- the Thronglets are a metaphor for in-app purchases, mods, and quests video game developers relentlessly feed players. But it's more so about our human capacity to work together, or rather, lack thereof. "Plaything" is subtle commentary on society's reliance on violence and anger and our desperate need for a reset. The episode is the weakest of the season, the ending somewhat abrupt. But Capaldi is so captivating, you won't be able to look away. 5. USS Callister: Into Infinity (season 7, episode 6) The return of Jesse Plemons' Robert Daly was a wonderfully kept secret in the first sequel episode of the series. In the original, one of the best Black Mirror episodes, Daly is a brilliant programmer who is taken advantage of by his financial partner, James Walton (Jimmi Simpson). Walton takes credit for the immersive video game Daly built and pushes Daly to code day and night to create more and more virtual universes the company can monetize (which partly explains how his character was able to return). Quietly seething but unable to stand up for himself, Daly finds an unhealthy outlet: he uses a since-banned DNA cloning device to create sentient clones of some of the company's employees, as well as Walton. When in this modded version of his game, Daly forces them to bow to his commands, keeping them captive as he continuously tortures them. New savvy coder employee Nanette (Cristin Milioti), however, orchestrates a revolt so the ship can escape from his clutches and kills the real Daly in the process. In the sequel, Nanette and the team are now fighting millions of enemies via random players and make it their mission to steal credits so they can continue to exist. When paying subscribers start to call out these non-tagged illegal players for their unauthorized theft and inability to be tracked, Walton must try to identify and get rid of them before everything he has worked for crumbles. Overall, the episode is a fun return to an Emmy Award-winning episode. Running the length of a movie, it pays fan service more than anything else, bobbing and weaving through a story that almost seems ripe for a part three. From Black Mirror's commentary perspective, it's all about the power and obsession of rage-filled keyboard warriors. 4. Bête Noire (season 7, episode 2) It was only a matter of time until Black Mirror did an episode about the long-term effects of bullying. In the spirit of the series and the psychological thriller themes that were at the center of the earliest episodes, this episode takes the high school computer nerd to new heights. Former awkward and bullied high schooler Verity (Rosy McEwen) is now an unassuming grown woman with the capacity to alter reality such that she's able to drive her once tormenters, like Maria (Siena Kelly), mad. It's a social commentary on gaslighting that starts with small instances where Maria is forced to question her own reality and proceeds through the story until it reaches an explosive crescendo. The episode is incredibly acted by Kelly and McEwen, lesser-known faces who play beautifully off one another. They remind you that Black Mirror used to feature a talented pool of up-and-coming British actors who were relatively unknown to American audiences. While the episode's ending leaves something to be desired, the message is clear: be careful how you treat people, especially the smart, awkward ones. One day, they may rule the world. 3. Common People (season 7, episode 1) The inaugural episode of the season revisits the central idea of technology gone too far, a devastating commentary on corporate greed and subscription culture. Tracee Ellis Ross is a sales rep for biotech company Rivermind who promises grieving husband Mike (Chris O'Dowd) that she can save his comatose wife Amanda (Rashida Jones). It requires an experimental surgery that replaces the damaged part of her brain with a synthetic implant and has her run from the cloud. The surgery is free, but there's a monthly subscription. It sounds simple enough, and there's no price you can put on a loved one's life, after all. Soon, however, Mike and Amanda learn that the basic subscription causes Amanda to spit out random, targeted ads. It also limits how far she can travel within the "coverage zone." As the subscription tiers evolve, Mike and Amanda find themselves deeper and deeper underwater. It doesn't take long before Mike resorts to desperate means to earn the money necessary to literally keep his wife alive, including participating in sick and twisted online fetish culture. It's a bold episode, a veiled warning to brands and particularly the health care system, calling out how wrong it is to shamelessly take advantage of people. It's also a cautionary tale to consumers about how easy it is to be conned by companies looking to squeeze every last penny out of you. The ending will leave you cupping your mouth in horror. It's not an accident that the episode is named after a song from the Britpop alternative rock band Pulp, which just so happens to be a scathing commentary on class division. 2. Hotel Reverie (season 7, episode 3) Kind of like an homage to the San Junipero episode from season three, one of the best Black Mirror episodes, Hotel Reverie addresses a hot-button topic today -- the use of AI in the movie business. Kimmy (Awkwafina), a rep from high-tech AI tool ReDream, offers a lifeline to Judith (Harriet Walter), owner of flailing movie studio Keyworth Studios: they can use new technology to bring back one of her classic films with a new A-list actor and create it on a dime. While some of the bigger male names pass on the idea (namely, the two big "Ryans"), Brandy Friday (Issa Rae) wants to do it. But only if she can play a role reversal of the male lead. No problem! When Brandy arrives, however, she realizes the role involves non-traditional acting. She must enter a digital world occupied by AI copies of the original characters and re-shoot pivotal scenes while in AI form. The episode has a Westworld-like feel to it once the AI version of long-deceased actress Dorothy (Emma Corrin) is triggered through off-script moments. She taps into actual emotions she felt when originally filming the classic movie. Since she drew heavily from her own life experiences when filming the role so many decades ago, she starts to remember things. The line between reality and fiction begins to blur, and when a series of mishaps cause the story to go completely off script, Brandy gets stuck in the matrix. That is, unless she can guide the narrative along to the desired end credits. In the process, however, Brandy develops real feelings and emotions for this very unreal "person." Questions are raised about personal identity and what it truly means to exist. On a more surface level, the episode explores virtual worlds spilling into real ones and the risks of releasing creative control to machines. Both Rae and Corrin deliver captivating performances that are worthy of awards. 1. Eulogy (season 7, episode 5) Your reality is arguably your perception, or so is the theme of this deeply emotional episode and arguably the most beautifully shot of the entire season. When Phillip (Paul Giamatti) receives a call about the death of an old flame, he is encouraged to use a series of old photos to conjure up memories of her to help with a high-tech, immersive memorial service. No worries if he can't remember: The Guide (Patsy Ferran) can help him use cues and triggers, from photographs (all of which he has scratched or ripped her face out of) to music, to help awaken those memories. As he walks back in time, however, Phillip realizes that he only remembered things from his perspective and failed to recognize his own shortcomings and the role he played in the breakdown of their relationship. The episode explores how people tend to build their own self-fulfilling, aggrandized narratives and examines the deep-seated pain of regret. While Eulogy is about the death of a woman, what Phillip is mourning and grieving is so much more. The episode tugs at the heartstrings. It's the most subdued of the season, but Giamatti, not surprisingly, draws you in as he and The Guide re-enter memories, some faded, others vivid, to only now truly understand a situation from a perspective beyond his warped recollections of reality. Stream Black Mirror on Netflix.

Black Mirror Season 7 review

PC Gamer's got your back Our experienced team dedicates many hours to every review, to really get to the heart of what matters most to you. Find out more about how we evaluate games and hardware. Black Mirror Season 7 has arrived from the all-too-near future, bringing with it the familiar combination of tech-based horror, cautionary tales, and the occasional smidge of hope. The series doesn't feel nearly as prescient as it did when it began way back in 2011 -- how could it -- but even when the episodes of this technological Twilight Zone don't quite deliver on their premises, they're still well worth watching (maybe while scrolling social media on your own black mirror). This time around there are a few game-centric episodes: one deals with AI in a sim game that might not be quite as artificial as it seems, another returns us to space-based MMO Infinity from Season 4, and one episode deals with something we all constantly use and deeply dread: streaming subscription services. Plus, you can even see someone playing Balatro in one scene in Season 7, which makes sense: Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker called the deckbuilder "possibly the most addictive thing ever created." The most relatable tech nightmare begins in the episode "Common People," where grade-school teacher Amanda (Rashida Jones) and welder Mike (Chris O'Dowd) are a humble but happy suburban couple until their lives are upended by a serious medical event. Amanda needs brain surgery, but offering the only real and affordable chance for success is a startup called Rivermind that will stream some of her brain functions from their cloud-based servers. For a monthly fee. We subscribe to everything these days: smartphone plans, streaming services, apps, music, news websites, videogames. It can be legitimately difficult just to buy something: it took me ages to find a fitness tracker that didn't require a monthly sub, and when I had a plumber come to install a new bathroom fixture recently, he told me now offers a monthly service subscription. We're all well-versed in the pitfalls of these subscriptions, like sudden price hikes, different tiers of service, and that infuriating moment when we realize, "Wait, I'm paying for this subscription, so why the hell do I have to watch advertisements?" Now apply all that stress to your brain instead of your phone, TV, or game library. It's an unsettling thought (especially if that thought is being streamed into your head). There are obviously benefits to streaming services both in this episode and in life -- Amanda would be in a coma if not for Rivermind (at least here in the US, where you can't get life-saving medical procedures or even routine medications without bankrupting yourself). I complain about monthly subs but I still subscribe to a bunch of them so I can listen to any song ever made or any movie ever released without having to go hunt down a physical copy in a store. But the episode -- the best of the six this season -- is a pointed reminder of how quickly we've gone from owning the things we pay for to renting them a month at a time, and how just to live our lives we're relying more and more on distant servers controlled by megacorporations more than happy to squeeze every dollar they can out of us. Another episode, "Plaything," takes us back to the 1990s as a young games journalist working for PC Zone magazine (as show creator Charlie Brooker did) is invited to preview a new game from Colin Ritman (Will Poulter), the developer we met in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. (Note: apart from Poulter's appearance, this episode isn't a really Bandersnatch follow-up as we'd hoped, and it's not an interactive pick-a-path episode like Bandersnatch was.) Ritman's new game isn't actually a game, he claims. It's called Thronglets and though it looks like it's a creature simulation, Ritman claims the critters on the screen are actually alive. "They're not some obscene puppets, like Sonic the Hedgehog," he says. "These are living individuals" created with code. The cute pixelated creatures walk around in a simulated nature preserve multiplying and sometimes singing. The journalist realizes the Thronglets are trying to communicate with him, and after scavenging some gear like an Atari Jaguar, a Quickcam, and a Sound Blaster sound card (it's fun to see all this throwback hardware again), he upgrades his rig so he can talk to them directly. His interest in these creatures quickly turns to obsession, but if your Sims were really alive, wouldn't you be even more consumed with them than you already are? Thronglets might be based on sims like 1996's Creatures, which featured little animals called Norns players could pet, feed, play with, and teach to take care of themselves. The Norns would communicate with little noises, similar to the Thronglet's singing, and Creatures used machine learning and neural networks to allow the creatures to learn behaviors, making it a precursor to today's AI research. (It's even on Steam.) Unfortunately this episode can't really live up to its setup, and it's pretty much all setup. The idea of the sims in our games being actually alive is an interesting one, especially when they can grow and learn, but it's not particularly well explored here. It's great fun seeing lots of old hardware and references to games like 1994's Magic Carpet (in the episode the reviewer says he gave it a 93%, though apparently the real PC Zone gave it a 96%) but even Peter Capaldi playing an older version of the games journo can't make this episode memorable. The biggest draw of the season is probably the follow-up to the Black Mirror Season 4 episode "USS Callister," in which a masochistic game developer (played by Jesse Plemons) made digital clones of his coworkers using their DNA and inserted them into his space-based MMO so he could abuse them. In Season 7 sequel "USS Callister: Into Infinity," the starship crew, captained by Nanette Cole (Cristin Milioti), find themselves in dire straits as the game they're living in has been heavily monetized and requires credits just to use their hyperdrive. Since they're not actual players but are living in the game's universe, they're targeted for deletion by the game's sleazy and greedy CEO James Walton, played again by Jimmi Simpson. Most of the episode is carried by the great performances of Milioti and Simpson, who play dual roles as the real world Cole and Walton and their digital clones inside the game. But the movie-length episode (it's 90 minutes) just doesn't have enough to sustain it other than a few laughs. A lot more could have been done with the premise of real people trying to survive inside an MMO, but most of the episode takes place outside the game in the less-interesting real world. The other episodes of Season 7 I hate to describe as "fine," but they're fine: Paul Giammati plays a man exploring his painful past through photographs while assisted by an AI guide, Issa Rae is a modern day actor inserted (again, with AI) into an old film so it can be updated for re-release, and Siena Kelly is a chef who starts experiencing the Mandela Effect to a troubling degree when a former classmate resurfaces in her life. Like Season 6, most of these episodes don't feel like they're really foreshadowing the future when it comes to technology. The series relies heavily on its "Experiencer Disk," a recurring gadget that you stick to your temple that instantly transports you into a virtual world where pretty much anything can happen, and that always winds up feeling more like fantasy than science fiction. But just because the show has lost some of the impact and weight of the earlier seasons, they're still worth streaming to one of your black mirrors: at least until Netflix can beam them right into our heads.

The 5 best 'Black Mirror' episodes, ranked (including 'U.S.S. Callister')

A look at the six new episodes in Season 7 of the Netflix sci-fi anthology series "Black Mirror," featuring Paul Giamatti, Issa Rae and Rashida Jones. Netflix's dark and cynical sci-fi anthology series, all about the dangers of technology, returns for a seventh season (now streaming) to warn us to get the heck off our phones and turn off all those A.I. chatbots for our own safety. The new season has the series' first sequel episode, a tragedy tied up with those oh-so-familiar subscription fees and a sentimental hour featuring none other than Paul Giamatti. But do any of the new episodes rank among the series' very best? Since 2011, "Mirror" has offered 34 usually depressing stories designed to make us take a hard look at our digital future. And while most have been thought-provoking and striking, a handful stand out far above the rest. In honor of the seventh season's debut, we ranked the five best "Mirror" episodes of all time. Don't worry, "U.S.S. Callister" and "San Junipero" are still on the list. But some of the others may surprise you. 5. 'Metalhead' (Season 4, 2017) Most episodes of "Mirror" are extremely psychological, intimate and intellectual. "Metalhead" is all of those things, but also a rip-roaring piece of physical horror, a jump-scare bonanza that will leave you chilled even in the moments you don't have to think too much. Filmed in a stark black-and-white palette and set in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by insatiably violent robot "dogs," "Metalhead" is one of the most thrilling and tense episodes of the series. That it still manages a heart-wrenching twist in its final moments only speaks to the maturity and depth of the writing. 4. 'The Entire History of You' (Season 1, 2011) One of the few "Mirror" episodes penned by someone other than creator Charlie Brooker (a pre-"Succession" Jesse Armstrong), "History" represents everything that "Mirror" does best, the Platonic ideal of the anthology series. In a world in which people have implants that allow themselves to rewatch their memories like episodes of a TV show, a couple (Toby Kebbell and Jodie Whittaker) is rocked by jealousy and distrust. The overarching theme of "Mirror" (technology is scary and bad) is illustrated by the eerie and intrusive memory recorders, but the sci-fi element only serves to amplify the flaws of the characters. The episode is fundamentally a story about relationships, good and ill. 3. 'San Junipero' (Season 3, 2016) Romantic, gratifying but also deeply tragic, this retro-futuristic episode starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Mackenzie Davis is Emmy-winning and beloved by fans for a reason. It is a deeply resonant love story with a technological twist: Two women meet and fall in love in a digital afterlife designed with our nostalgia-obsessed culture in mind, except one of them isn't looking to make her stay eternal. You might call it a happy ending when Mbatha-Raw's Kelly chooses the virtual heaven instead of a natural death so she can stay with Davis' Yorkie. But when the camera cuts to the stark, gray, electronic servers that contain the entirety of their world, their fate is also revealed to be deeply sad. Their afterlives and love is virtual, ephemeral and fragile, tied to the fallibility of human technology. How long could their "forever" end up lasting? 2. 'U.S.S. Callister' (Season 4, 2017) The only "Mirror" episode ever to get a direct sequel (Season 7's new "U.S.S. Callister: Into Infinity," now streaming), "Callister" is perhaps the most culturally relevant and insightful installment of a series that is built on those qualities. A lonely and deeply cruel programmer creates sentient digital clones of all the people in his office he perceives to have wronged him, so he can torture them inside a "Star Trek"-like video game. An apt "Trek" parody, meditation on fandom and toxic masculinity and acting showcase for stars Cristin Milioti and Jesse Plemons wrapped up in one, the episode fires on all phasers, as its space-faring characters might say. This season's sequel is a fun continuation with returning stars, but it doesn't match the depth of the original. 1. 'Be Right Back' (Season 2, 2013) Harrowing is the only word to describe this devastating episode, a cruel and heart-rending version of the "be careful what you wish for" story. Hayley Atwell stars as a woman whose boyfriend (Domhnall Gleeson) dies in a tragic accident, and amid her inescapable grief tries a service that digitally recreates her love based on his online presence. What starts out as essentially a ghost chatbot turns into a full-blown android, but Atwell's character quickly discovers that this construct can never be anything more than a facsimile. She cannot recreate the man or the love she shares, and she suffers all the more for having tried. Atwell's performance is an undeniable force, making the story all the more wrenching and affecting.

'Black Mirror' season 7 premieres Thursday on Netflix but should you watch it?Here's all about the cult show

The much-anticipated British television series "Black Mirror" returns to Netflix on Thursday for a seventh season, promising to immerse fans once again in its iconic, dystopian worlds replete with futuristic technology. The seventh season should appeal to long-time fans, thanks to its return to "'OG Black Mirror' and the near-future tech themes, with the satirical undercurrent and social commentary sprinkled on top," said Brooker.After a two-year hiatus, the much-anticipated British anthology series "Black Mirror" returns to Netflix on Thursday, April 10, with its seventh season -- bringing back its signature blend of futuristic tech, unsettling twists, and sharp social commentary. Created by Charlie Brooker, the award-winning series will feature six new episodes, including a long-awaited sequel to the fan-favorite "USS Callister" -- the Season 4 episode inspired by Star Trek. "There are a few episodes that are quite unpleasant," Brooker revealed in an interview with AFP at a recent festival in Lille, France. "They're more like the OG Black Mirror," he added, referring to the earlier seasons known for their disturbing tech-driven scenarios. Season 7 continues the show's tradition of combining the familiar and the unexpected, with some episodes even steeped in nostalgia -- including technology that lets characters enter old photographs or recreate classic black-and-white films using AI. Season 7 features an impressive lineup of actors, including: Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers) Rashida Jones (Parks and Recreation) Issa Rae (Insecure) Emma Corrin (The Crown) Peter Capaldi, Will Poulter, Cristin Milioti, Tracee Ellis Ross, Chris O'Dowd, and many more The new season marks a return to the tech-noir tone that earned the series nine Emmy Awards and global acclaim since its debut on Channel 4 (UK) in 2011, before moving to Netflix in 2016. Brooker acknowledged that Season 6, written during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaned more into the supernatural and gory, reflecting his own temporary "sickness of technology" at the time. Now, Season 7 dives back into what fans love: near-future tech, biting satire, and chilling insight into human behavior. The opening episode, Common People, follows a woman saved by groundbreaking medical tech -- only to find her and her husband trapped in a sinister, subscription-based system. It's a timely jab at modern capitalism, and a reminder of the show's eerie prescience. "Technology itself isn't evil or malicious," Brooker told AFP. "Often, the humans involved aren't either -- but there's a clumsiness. In a way, we're the problem." All six episodes of Black Mirror Season 7 drop on Thursday, April 10 The current season as well as all previous seasons are exclusively streaming on Netflix. Radio Times in its review said the new season is "an instant classic instalment that showcases Charlie Brooker at his best". IGN said, "Black Mirror recaptures its dark magic in season 7, which delivers a worthy sequel to "USS: Calister" along with episodes that run the full gamut of emotions and views on technology." However Screen Time said the new season is underwhelming. "In 2025, fans can't really be shocked anymore - and that leaves a large part of Black Mirror Season 7 underwhelming," it said in a post on X. According to Variety, "In 'Black Mirror' Season 7, Netflix's Tech Drama Has Maudlin Lows and Grisly Highs." "The series hits the high notes of human loss and love amid our relationship with tech and the search for life's meaning with flashes of Brooker brilliance," wrote The Times in its review.

'Black Mirror': Charlie Brooker Reveals Which Season 7 Ending Sums Up His Feelings About the Future

You could say Charlie Brooker is going back to basics with the seventh season of Black Mirror. After experimenting with things like interactive movie Bandersnatch and "Red Mirror" horror last season, the creator-writer of the hit Netflix series says he wanted to go back to the Black Mirror formula of sorts. "You've got human beings and then some form of miraculous technology is introduced into their lives that upends it," says Brooker about the theme of the new episodes. If you haven't figured it out by now, technology isn't the bad guy in Brooker's stories: humans are, as is proven by many of the characters in the six new episodes, which include the first-ever Black Mirror sequel, "USS Callister: Into Infinity." The endings range from bleak to unnerving to sentimental and victorious, with one that can be debated as hopeful or bleak, or perhaps somewhere in between. Below, Brooker and executive producer Jessica Rhoades explain the inspiration for these new offerings, revealing why they wanted to return to the "USS Callister" spaceship and why Brooker left it open-ended, what that "Plaything" ending says about the current state of technology, how complicated feelings about AI led to "Hotel Reverie" and "Eulogy" (a story Brooker wrote specifically for Paul Giamatti), what the biggest tragedy of "Common People" is and how "Bête Noire" is a great example of the Black Mirror launchpad. Brooker also has a recommendation for viewers who want a season eight. *** Charlie, I've seen you talk about how you wanted this to be more like an "OG season" of Black Mirror. Did you go into the season with that agenda, or did you realize that as you were making these episodes? CHARLIE BROOKER I think it's fair to say that last season started out as a different season entirely. It started out that they were all going to be "Red Mirror" stories -- "Red Mirror" being a sort of horror brand. Then I came up with the idea for "Joan Is Awful" -- annoyingly, in the middle of making the season -- which was so Black Mirror. JESSICA RHOADES And it wasn't going to wait. That episode had to happen last season. BROOKER Yes, it had to happen then. So we ended up branding "Demon 79" as a "Red Mirror" episode last season. This time, when I say it's sort of "OG Black Mirror," this is where I'm starting from: Your baseline Black Mirror is that you've got human beings and then some form of miraculous technology is introduced into their lives that upends it. That's often at the basis of a lot of what we're doing. And so I knew very much that we were starting from there. Then I was keen to, at the same time, revisit areas that we haven't really gone into before. And of course, we literally revisit one whole story. Black Mirror has always been a jumping off show for British talent. But now it's such a big global show with major American actors too. I'm sure stars come to you asking for roles that you can't even fit in. How do you balance trying to keep cultivating lesser-known British talent? RHOADES I think that starts with the script. Charlie writes such exquisite characters. Yes, there is now a lovely, long list of people who have reached out and pursued the show. But at the same time, you have to ask, who's the right person for the role? In the case of someone like Paul Giamatti, you practically wrote that episode for him. BROOKER I've been a huge fan of his for as long as I can recall. RHOADES So something like that [with "Eulogy"] was the perfect opportunity. But on some other episodes, like "Bête Noire," both Siena [Kelly] and Rosy [McEwen] had read for the roles. We got to see their tape and we got to see those characters come alive as they embodied them. So it's a case-by-case basis. We are aware that we're doing six episodes. We like to look at it as a whole and find the episodes that we want to make sure we preserve a certain Britishness and a discovery. BROOKER Stretching all the way back to the start of the show, our very first season we obviously were a British show, but we had a mix on the first one of people who were familiar to British viewers. They may not have been familiar to international viewers, but they were familiar to British viewers, along with completely new faces, or at least people whose work I hadn't seen much of before. That's a really important part of the show's DNA. Because each story is a separate standalone story, it means we could have an episode where you know who that lead actor is or sometimes, we bring you new talents that you may not be aware of and they get a chance to really prove what they can do. They're always cast because they're fucking great actors! Charlie, you also lamented the show being called the "tech is bad show" last season. BROOKER I'm always moaning! But you always have said that Black Mirror is about humans making bad choices, and this season there is certainly a lot of that. Was there one episode or two where you really set out to reclaim that narrative? BROOKER Generally speaking, it's always been clear to me throughout the show that the technology is not necessarily the problem. Like you couldn't do my job if you thought technology was just evil, because so much of the job involves creating these gizmos and realizing them in ways where they should always look seductive. They should always look like, "Wow, I can see the use of that technology." Otherwise it would be sort of nonsensical. But usually what we show is that the technology has some unintended side effect that's got some kind of human cause. Sometimes negative, sometimes it's actually a positive upside that people didn't see coming. So I don't know if there's a particular episode. Take an episode like "Common People," the technology that we show there is amazing. It would be literally life-saving technology. And then the problem comes from elsewhere. It's not the technology itself, the technology itself is a man-made miracle. There are a lot of callbacks this season, even circling back around to Bandersnatch with Will Poulter's return in "Plaything." BROOKER To be honest, that story didn't start that way. With "USS Callister: Into Infinity" we knew we were doing a proper sequel. "Plaything" actually started out as a story in its own right and what happened when writing the story is that I realized, "Hang on a minute, this is set in the early '90s and the character goes to meet a programmer. Why would I come up with a new character when I've got this character I so loved writing with Colin Ritman for Will Poulter?" And we've got Asim Chowdhry, who plays Moe Tucker, the owner of Tuckersoft. I just thought, "Could we get them?" So I wrote the scene with Colin Ritman in it, and that was more about a returning character rather than a direct sequel. It's a luxury in this show to be able to bring characters back. Across my career, I've written so many short things that the character I've written for most consistently over my career is Philomena Cunk [Diane Morgan] for Cunk on Earth, who is fantastic and I love doing that. But sometimes I look at other shows and I get jealous that their casts survive from story to story! So that's partly where it stemmed from, about bringing those characters back and similarly, approaching the "Callister" sequel like, "I just love those characters, why can't I bring them back? We're an anthology show, but fine, we'll do a sequel!" It has to feel like it owns its place. Bandersnatch was Netflix's first adult interactive feature. Would you ever do that again? BROOKER I don't know, that was so difficult. That was partly experimental. It was Netflix coming to us saying, "We're doing this interactive stuff. Would you like to use it?" And I said, "No." And then I went away and annoyingly had an idea and then came back and said, "Okay." I think what would be interesting and something I would definitely tackle is something inside the way the viewer experiences the narrative, but it depends what that would be. [Pauses] I'd do another [interactive]. I'd do another. Why not? Speaking of "Callister," you go from Star Trek to Star Wars with this sequel, which returns star Cristin Milioti as Captain Cole. Almost all of the characters in the sequel survive in the end, so there is an option to do more. Did you leave it open-ended so you could revisit it? And did doing "Callister" make you want to revisit any other episodes, like for example, "San Junipero"? BROOKER It's always been in my head anyway [to revisit stories]. From the early days of the show when we did we did an episode called "White Bear" in season two, I remember then thinking, "Oh, I've got an idea for a follow-up to this." So it's often been at the back of my head to revisit a world or the characters. We've often sown in Easter eggs from episode to episode throughout the seasons, so we're malleable in that way. So I wouldn't say that necessarily doing "Callister" made us think, "Oh, are there other ones?" Because that's always been floating around. But certainly, it's the first time we've ever done [a proper sequel] and it was just so much fun to reconnect with all the cast and have Toby Haynes back in the director's chair. Selfishly, it's fun for a writer to get to do more than one episode with the same characters. RHOADES It comes down to the characters. I was a fan of the show years before I worked on the show and "USS Callister" had been one of my favorite episodes. Just as a pure fan, it's exciting to have those characters back, but to find out that Charlie himself was inspired to sit down and write those voices again and to continue from that place, it's hard not to look at other characters you might love from the seasons gone by. BROOKER It's like, never say never, because obviously where we end this one, you could potentially pick it up from there and I remember Toby saying that at the time [after we finished the first one]. And I was like, "Oh, no, no, no." And then you sort of forget, which I hear is what childbirth is like -- traumatic and painful and you go, "Never again," and then a year later you go, "Well, maybe!" Because your brain has blanked out how how strenuous and difficult it was, because it's a challenge. So, never say never! I've heard you use the words "beautiful, contemplative" and "reflective" to describe this season. We certainly see that with "Eulogy" and "Hotel Reverie," which both tackle AI. "Hotel Reverie" director Haolu Wang recently said AI is unbiased, but shaped by the people who wield it. BROOKER That's a very good way of putting it. This isn't what we explore in the episode. The episode is almost fantasy. The tech is being used in a different way from what you might imagine of a Black Mirror episode, because you might imagine that a vintage British movie being remade with AI avatars sounds like it's going to be one thing, and we don't do that. I think that AI itself is a phenomenal potential tool and I can see its value as a tool in the hands of creatives in much the same way as the tools in Photoshop are valuable tools in the hands of a creative. I think because all creative work is basically an attempt by one human to communicate with some other humans, if you take one of the humans out of the end of one of those pipes, then I don't understand what you've got anymore. You're doing something else, but you're not doing that. You're creating a different form of content that isn't creative art. That said, I can absolutely see its power as an analytical tool in all kinds of scientific uses. I can see its value as a tool for creatives to wield. The thing that worries me, and worries almost anyone who's got any job at all and looks at AI, is that you don't want humans to be frozen out of that equation either physically, emotionally or financially. That's the worry. It's an incredible tool. The genie is going to be out of the bottle. We just have to think mindfully about how we apply it. But I still don't think we'll lose the human appetite for human stories. I think we still want to hear stories being told to us by people. There is also a diverse cast on that episode (starring Issa Rae, Awkwafina, Emma Corrin). How important was that when casting? Given the story and theme of unbiased AI, was it key to get so many perspectives? BROOKER I guess, yes. This is something I thought when I wrote "San Junipero," and this might sound naïve, so apologies if this is a naive thing to say, but who the characters are is both really important and in some ways not important when I'm writing. When I'm writing, I'm just trying to think about humans and, what would this human do in this situation? I'm not a spiritual person. Do I believe in a soul? I don't know. I don't know why I've just pitch myself such a profound question in the middle of this! (Laughs) But I try to just think about what a human soul would do in this scenario. That said, obviously, it is very important to who the characters are. It's absolutely hugely important to who Dorothy Chambers [Corrin] is within that story. The way I keep myself sane while writing, conversely, is to sort of ignore that while writing, if that makes sense. RHOADES We had this on "Joan Is Awful" last year. Oftentimes, Charlie writes something and then whether it's me getting to be the first audience or other people when they get to read it for the first time, they have different reflections upon it. I think "Hotel Reverie" is an episode that's talking about several different characters who wouldn't normally have the agency that they're provided by the story, kind of classically. And I think that's alive and well. BROOKER It's not like I'm oblivious to that while I'm writing it. It's just that I don't focus on it. I hope what that means is, like with an episode like "San Juniper," that at the same time, it feels like a very universal story that's accessible to everyone that also feels very specific to some people. Some people feel that it really speaks to them on a very specific level. If we achieve that, that's mission accomplished. I've seen you say you'll do this show until you die, or until people get bored of Black Mirror. All of these episodes have different types of endings: There's bleak to total cliffhanger to sentimental. Since it's so well-rounded, when making this season, were there other stories you left on the cutting room floor for next time? BROOKER Yes, there are some stories that are pretty much fully baked and ready to go. And there are others where I've got chunks of story or concept that I'm just slightly trying to work out. I've got the concept, but not quite the story. I've got a chunk of the story, not quite the concept. So there's a mix. Does that mean we might see season eight sooner than we saw season seven? BROOKER That's down to people watching the show, watching it again, watching it a third time, watching it a fourth time to check that was the right decision... RHOADES Adding the thumbs up. BROOKER Clicking the double thumbs up, writing to Netflix, saying, "Please recommission this show." I think that would be the ultimate guide. But I mean, it's such a fun job that I'd love to keep exploring. Of all the endings, what most describes how you feel right now about technology? BROOKER "Plaything" is quite an ambiguous ending. Maybe that's pretty close in that, looking around the world, there are all sorts of horrible things going on. It's a worrisome time. We've got tech that is a wave of misinformation. Things could get worse before they could get better. Technology is an amazing tool, and we're amazing things as people. So with any luck, we'll dig ourselves out of this shit. So, cautious... I wouldn't say that's optimism, but cautious... Caupimism? Hopeishness? (Laughs)

Black Mirror Season 7 Review - IGN

A return to form mixes hard dystopia, romance, and Star Trek fun. 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.

The Best Black Mirror Episodes

This story contains spoilers for Netflix's Black Mirror. Black Mirror is back! Netflix recently debuted the seventh season of Black Mirror, meaning that viewers will once again be able to lose themselves in the next entry of the horrific sci-fi anthology, which might be a nice escape for once. Charlie Brooker's nightmarish takes on tech have been haunting viewers since the series first debuted over a decade ago, and with the new season on the horizon we've curated a list of the 13 best ever episodes for your enjoyment! 13. Hotel Reverie - Season 7, Episode 3 Hotel Reverie is one of the rare heartwarming episodes of the science fiction series, which aims to evoke one of the most beloved chapters of the Black Mirror canon"San Junipero". While it doesn't quite reach those heights, its interesting and useful technology along with incredible performances from Emma Corrin and Issa Rae, make it a vital addition to our list. When an actress Brandy Friday (Issa Rae) is hired to remake a classic movie featuring a starlet known as Dorothy (Emma Corrin) she ends up entering the world of the film and finding an unexpected connection with her co-star which promises to change both the movie and its stars forever. 12. Bandersnatch - Interactive Special, 2018 This groundbreaking choose your own adventure special from Netflix and Charlie Brooker is well worth watching even outside of its potentially-gimmicky presentation. As a young computer programmer attempts to craft a choose your own adventure game, we control his actions. And as he potentially becomes aware of us doing so, things get extremely strange. This period piece was inspired by the gaming boom of the '80s, the real life crimes of author William S. Burroughs, and the crunch that still sees many programmers burn out. An unusual entry in the Black Mirror pantheon, "Bandersnatch" is a bunch of fun to interact with and you can rewatch it and play it multiple times with a ton of different outcomes. 11. White Christmas - Holiday Special, 2014 This holiday special established a rare anthology precedent for Black Mirror that would deliver one of its most chilling stories yet. Jon Hamm and Rafe Spall star as two men who have been living in a solitary cabin together for years, though they've barely spoken. Over a cold Christmas night they share their stories of how they came to be there. In classic Black Mirror fashion all is not what it seems and as their stories -- each featuring very prescient AI and Social Media focused stories seeing as this hit in 2014 -- come together in a shocking twist you'll be left reeling. Hamm and Spall make these two men deeply human even as you learn the depths of what they've done, and the episode's statements on tech feel more relevant now than ever. 10. Playdate - Season 7, Episode 4 Only one of the two sequels in Season 7 made it into our list and it was this grimy, gruesome, and ultimately heartbreaking followup to Bandersnatch, the series' interactive special that debuted five years ago on Netflix. Will Poulter returns as Colin Ritman, the genius videogame designer that we met during that choose your own adventure. Here he's created a new game "Thronglings" which features sentient avatars that connect with a video gamer reviewer in 1994 an interaction that sets off a chain of world changing events. Starring Peter Capaldi this is a brutalist look at the future and the way that technology can expand our lives and minds. And its shocking and ambiguous ending will have Black Mirror fans talking for months. 9. Black Museum - Season 4, Episode 6 While this is one of the most divisive episodes of Black Mirror, we also think it's one of the most effective and powerful. A young woman Nish (Letitia Wright) visits a strange roadside attraction where the proprietor Rolo (Douglas Hodge) shows her his odd exhibits: an electric hairnet, a toy monkey, and a hologram. As Rolo shows Nish around he tells the nightmarish stories behind each one and how he is connected to them. This is one of the series' most horrifying entries and it has a lot of fun playing with our expectations using the anthology framework to build up to an explosive and satisfying final reveal. Plus if you're a super passionate Black Mirror fan it's filled with Easter eggs and references to past episodes from the cult sci-fi series. 8. Bēte Noire, Season 7, Episode 2 In one of the most original entries in Season 7, Bēte Noire introduces us to Maria (Siena Kelly) a confectionary upstart who is living her dream as one of the leading flavor makers at Ditta sweet company. Everything is going perfectly until an old classmate Verity (Rose McEwan) arrives and quickly starts reshaping -- perhaps literally -- Maria's entire world. This is a brilliantly sci-fi twist on the classic paranoid thriller, taking cues from films like Gaslight, Vertigo, and Rear Window to showcase just how terrifying it can be to lose a grip on reality and the trust of those that you love with it. And stand out casting of the two leads makes this a total nailbiter. 7. Nosedive - Season 3, Episode 1 Bryce Dallas Howard delivers a career best performance in this searing satire of the way that social media controls our lives. Howard stars as Lacie Pound, a young woman who lives to move up the social ladder via her social media rating. In Lacie's world everyone is constantly rated and can rate others thanks to high-tech chips that showcase each person's ratings. A higher rating can make it easier to get a job or rent an apartment, and a lower one can make those things nearly impossible. After a series of events leaves Lacie with a devastatingly low rating her life begins to spiral before she realizes there may be a certain kind of freedom in not caring what those around her think of her behavior or status. 6. Be Right Back - Season 2, Episode 1 This heartbreaking parable centers around grief, loss, the -- quite scary -- possibility that Artificial Intelligence could help us deal with the death of a loved one. Starring Captain Carter herself, Haley Atwell alongside Star Wars villian Domhnall Gleeson, this one will have you crying before the credits roll as Martha (Atwell) mourns the death of her boyfriend Ash (Gleeson) but discovers there's new technology that'll allow her to spend more time with him. As Marsha soon realizes though, uploading someone's digital footprint to an android does not a loved one make, and instead she begins to resent the thing she has created. With the rise of AI in our real world and the everpresent specter of social media this is more relevant than ever. 5. "Fifteen Million Merits" - Season 1, Episode 2 This was actually the first episode of Black Mirror that was ever written, but ended up airing second after the groundbreaking and still notorious "The National Anthem" which saw the British Prime Minister -- spoiler alert -- having sex with a pig. Starring the brilliant and now globally famous Daniel Kaluuya, this story centers around a dystopian world where the only way to move up in society is to earn credits by riding on exercise bikes. We're introduced to Bing (Kaluuya) and Abi (Jessica Brown Findlay) who become friends when the former encourages the latter to pursue her dreams of being a singer by entering a world famous reality TV show. Taking on the rise of reality TV, the prevalence of technology, and a society where fame is valued over everything, this episode was so far ahead of its time that it almost feels dated watching it now. But its themes, impact, and satire about our obsession with celebrity still hit to this day, and it established much of the ambitious, prescient sci-fi storytelling that the show became known for. 4. "The Entire History of You" - Season 1, Episode 3 Another all-timer from the series' original season is this heartbreaking relationship drama that once again feels more relevant than ever in 2023. Toby Kebbell and future Doctor Who Jodie Whittaker star as a couple whose life unravels when one of them begins to suspect the other is having an affair. That all sounds pretty non-Black Mirror-ish and routine, but there is of course a twist: in this version of our world everyone has a memory implant in their head that records their every moment. Kebbell gives a startlingly great performance as Liam who begins to become obsessed with going back through his memory banks to prove that Abi (Whittaker) is cheating. While the episode came out in 2011 before our societal compulsion towards Instagram and Facebook etc. had truly begun, this episode absolutely captures the way that we would all become used to capturing and sharing our lives every single day. And it shows how those very public memories can quickly become toxic or used against us when things begin to go wrong. 3. "Shut Up and Dance" - Season 3, Episode 3 To this day still one of the most shocking episodes of TV ever made thanks to an absolutely brutal final twist, "Shut Up and Dance" takes trolling to the next level and subverts our expectations of who these stories center on and where our loyalties lie. We follow Kenny (Alex Lawther), a young boy who is threatened by an unknown internet troll into increasingly violent and strange acts. Using Kenny's shame around the fact that he watched porn, the troll pits him against other people who have been caught doing "unsavory" things on the web. Lawther is brilliant as the whimpering and empathetic lead, but the show eventually reveals he's far from innocent and, just like in the also very good "White Bear," Black Mirror has had us rooting for someone who might actually be the villain after all. Hard to watch in the way that the best of Black Mirror always is, this episode has been hugely influential on the way that stories about the internet, secrets, and shame have been told, most recently on Luther: Fallen Sun. 2. USS Calister - Season 4, Episode 1 Though on the surface the premiere of the fourth season seems like it's going to be a simple Star Trek riff, we soon learn that there's something far darker lurking under the surface. Captain Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons) and his hardworking crew, spend their days on the futuristic starship USS. Calister, battling their alien foe Valdack (Billy Magnussen). Just like Captain Kirk before him, Daly is introduced as a romantic hero and dashing space-hunk who's beloved by his subordinates and lusted after by his female colleagues. The reality is far darker, as Daly is actually a programmer at a games company who uses the DNA of his real life colleagues to create digital clones of them in Infinity, the game he helped create so he can control them. Plemons brings a terrifying energy to Daly, but the real star here is Cristin Milioti as new hire and soon to be new virtual prisoner, Nanette Cole. She's the sci-fi final girl that we need and this episode also features a wicked turn from future Black Panther star Michaela Coel. 1. San Junipero - Season 3, Episode 4 From one of the grimmest episodes of Black Mirror we go to one of the loveliest, in fact maybe the only entry that could be described in that way at all. "San Junipero" is the exceedingly rare happy future story about tech, as it imagines a future where queer people are safe to be themselves forever, even in the twilight years of their lives. It all begins when two young women Yorkie (Mackenzie Davis) and Kelly (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) meet and hook up while visiting a bar in the titular town during the 1980s. They soon fall for each other, but all is not what it seems. Viewers soon learn that San Junipero is a virtual reality plane of existence that allows people to upload their consciousness and continue to live on after death while elderly people can visit in order to decide whether they want to go there when they pass. Yorkie and Kelly's relationship in San Junipero changes both of their lives in the real world in this heartfelt and heart-wrenching romance that decides to make its gays immortal rather than burying them in tragedy. Would you rank your favorite Black Mirror episodes differently? Let us know in the comments! Note: This story originally ran on April 26, 2023. It was updated on May 31, 2023.

How Black Mirror Evolved From A Nihilistic Sci-Fi Show To Hopeful Fantasy Series All Thanks To AI - IGN

Since Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror debuted in 2011, it has presented a nigh-on nihilistic view of technology. Heck, it's right there in the name, explaining the darkness of how what we're watching on the TV screen reflects back onto our real world. But something has shifted as the show has continued, with the seventh season that's just dropped on Netflix presenting a surprising, new thesis for the series. Maybe, just maybe, it's technology - and AI in particular - that's going to save us. Or at the very least, save itself. To get one thing out of the way, the AI that's presented in Black Mirror is pure fantasy. This isn't the sort of AI used in ChatGPT and programs of the like, which isn't anything fancier than a predictive text algorithm. Nor is it the sort of AI that's close to anything that exists commercially or otherwise in our real world. What Black Mirror presents is a fantasy future version of AI that truly is what the initials stand for: artificial intelligence. In the series, they are programs that have vaulted past computer status to become living beings in and of themselves. And it's with that major difference that Brooker and company are aiming to teach us more about what humanity should be, through beings that are just achieving sentience on their own. This isn't true of every episode in the new season. The season premiere, "Common People," is a classic dark tale of a couple trying to solve their healthcare woes in a system that upcharges them to keep the wife's brain working. It's bleak, often darkly comic, and puts Chris O'Dowd and Rashida Jones through a gristmill to make a point about how the healthcare system isn't that different from spiraling cell phone charges, or, to bite the hand that feeds Black Mirror, Netflix's constant price hikes. "Bête Noir" is a comic tale of high school revenge that lightly plays with the idea of the Mandela Effect, but if you're looking any deeper into the episode, you're doing it wrong. Heck, at one point one of the characters Googles "nut allergy" and the only result is "did you mean 'not allegory'" in case you missed how this is more of an Outer Limits style episode than classic Black Mirror. But the next four episodes all take a very different, surprising tact for Black Mirror, something that we've only seen sparsely peppered through the series thus far. "Hotel Reverie" is a romantic comedy between Issa Rae's character, a famous actress trying to stretch her muscles, and a digital recreation of a classic actress, played by Emma Corrin. "Plaything" finds Peter Capaldi as the digital harbinger for The Throng, a game created by "Bandersnatch" madman played by Will Poulter, which may help bring about the singularity. "Eulogy" might be the most earnestly heartfelt episode of the series to date, as Paul Giamatti's character takes a journey through a relationship in his past that he'd rather forget, after his former paramour's passing. And the final episode, "USS Callister: Into Infinity," checks back in on the fan-favorite Star Trek riff now that the in-game AI crew has gone off on their own adventures. There's darkness, for sure, particularly with "Plaything." depending on how you feel about becoming the host for a digital symbiote, you might find it more disturbing than not. But each episode posits that the way forward is working with and learning from our AI counterparts. It's a far cry from how Toby Kebbell lost himself to The Grain in Season 1's "The Entire History of You," or the dark, sad end of android Domhnall Gleeson in Season 2's "Be Right Back." Heck, this is 180 degrees from the murder machine of Season 4's "Metalhead," or any of the times technology led to a gruesome death on the show, aka most of them. Instead, this batch of four episodes shows how tech can lead to closure, independence, a bright future, or even true love. So, how did we get here? How did a show so focused on the bleak side of sci-fi pivot to become a fantasy of what could be? The answer likely goes back to what is perhaps the most beloved episode of Black Mirror of all time, "San Junipero," which is referenced constantly in Season 7. "Common People" finds the main couple celebrating their anniversary every year at an inn/restaurant called The Juniper. Issa Rae's Brandy lives on 3049 Junipero Drive. Black Mirror has always included Easter eggs and references to other episodes; some overt, some not. But it's hard to understate the importance of "San Junipero" to this steady change to the series, and to Season 7 in particular. The fourth episode of Season 3, "San Junipero" starred Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Mackenzie Davis as Kelly and Yorkie, respectively, two seemingly young women who fall in love, only for it to turn out that Kelly is a dead copy of a person's memories, while Yorkie is a dying old woman. It's a beautiful lesbian love story, the first of its kind for the series, but in classic Black Mirror fashion it ends in a place that is either beautiful - they decide to be together forever in the digital afterlife - or disturbing - Yorkie is euthanized, and the final shot is a bunch of robot arms sorting drives, including their memories. Ending aside, multiple other episodes since then have experimented with this weird, fresh idea of "hope." Season 4's "USS Callister," also hailed as one of the best episodes of the series, found a bunch of cloned digital creations escaping their old-school Star Trek reality by killing their maker and entering a bold, new world. Later in Season 4, "Hang The DJ" seemed to present almost a heterosexual version of "San Junipero" involving a dating app, but ultimately fizzled its premise with a classic Black Mirror bummer of an ending. Same with Season 5's "Striking Vipers," which found two male friends striking up a sexual relationship in a Street Fighter-esque fighting game, only to discover it didn't work at all in the real world. Three episodes taking halting steps towards a different tone over nearly a decade, but none as successful as "San Junipero." Until now. So... Why now? Perhaps the easiest answer is Big Tech's current obsession with AI as the latest hot thing, something that is quickly proving to be not what consumers want at all. The faux AI they're hocking is as dark as anything Black Mirror has ever peddled, from boiling large bodies of water and accelerating climate change to wrecking whole swathes of the internet with frequently incorrect results. What can Black Mirror possibly say about our current AI when people are using predictive text in place of therapy, and Google is telling chefs to add glue to pizza? There's nothing left to parody, to heighten, because in the real world, it's already so ridiculous, so dangerous. Instead, Brooker's crew has changed focus to the real heroes, the digital beings, since we humans have taken so little effort and so much time to decide our world isn't worth saving as long as we can generate terrible-looking art with the wrong number of fingers. This is something the show seemingly tackles head-on in "Hotel Reverie," with Awkwafina's Kimmy testing a new technology that will spruce up old black-and-white movies by inserting new, hot actors into the scenes. It goes wrong, of course, and there's plenty of not-so-subtle commentary about how AI (the way we know it) can generate the beats of a script, from when characters should fall in love to how mysteries should be solved. But the heart of the episode, quite literally, is how Issa Rae's Brandy, stuck in the computerized version of the movie, finds a kindred soul with Emma Corrin's digital recreation - and it ends with a beautiful scene involving a phone call that matches Yorkie and Kelly's "forever," without the weird robot arms. It's about how connections can be made despite the interference of algorithms, not because of them. "Eulogy" presents the flipside of "The Entire History of You," with Giamatti's Phillip trying to forget his past so definitively that he's ripped the face of his ex-girlfriend out of pictures. But it's through his bond with The Guide (Patsy Ferran), who turns out to be an AI duplicate of his ex-girlfriend's daughter, curating material for her memorial, that Phillip can confront his own past mistakes and move forward with his life. It's not ChatGPT therapy, but it is the version that users think they're getting, versus plagiarized text that's missing the intuitiveness of emotion and consciousness. And the highly anticipated "USS Callister: Into Infinity" pairs nicely with "Plaything," both positing that perhaps humans are prone to violence and petty jealousy, while digital creations have the ability to be better, and do better. In the former, with one exception the human characters are all scrambling to either dominate each other or destroy. Meanwhile, the crew of the Callister just want the opportunity to live. And in "Plaything," when the adorable Tamagotchi-esque creatures of the Throng are presented with murder, their reaction isn't to kill - it's to present Capaldi's Cameron (played in flashback by Lewis Gribben) with another option: let them take that pain and rage away by forming machine-man hybrids. While Black Mirror isn't totally past punishing humans (see "Common People" in particular), the pivot in Season 7 has turned to a fantasy that flips from the common belief that a la Terminator, the machines are here to kill us. Instead, Black Mirror suggests by coexisting with them, they can teach us to be better humans. And in a worst-case scenario, replace us because we don't seem to want ourselves to survive anyway. Turns out that Black Mirror which we thought reflected back on us was a two-way mirror all along, and Brooker's digital creations have been watching this whole time. Perhaps it's a flight of fancy, perhaps not. But as the show's thoughts on AI have evolved, and the real world's reliance on destructive fake AI has devolved, Black Mirror may have a point. All hail our new machine overlords... Even if for now they're just fantasy.