The series Black Mirror has been with us since 2011. During this time, the world of technology and society itself have changed significantly. Smartphones and voice assistants are no longer surprising anyone, and some of the latest news can surpass any dystopia. Therefore, showrunner Charlie Brooker has to delve deeper and deeper into various patents, ideas and fantastic works, but it doesn't always turn out well.
Because of this, some viewers felt that the show's move from Channel 4 to Netflix after the second season and a special episode only hurt the series. The fifth season, which received the worst reviews from critics and viewers, was especially bad. However, the anthology format allows you to return to a successful form at any time without unnecessary ties to characters and storylines, if you wish. And season 7 of Black Mirror is the same return to form that everyone has long been waiting for. Not in everything, but it will definitely bring back pleasant memories of the first two seasons of the show.
| Name | Black Mirror |
| Genre | science fiction, dystopia, drama |
| Director | Charlie Brooker |
| Cast | Rashida Jones, Sienna Kelly, Peter Capaldi, Paul Giamatti, Christine Milioti, Nora Lum and others |
| Channel | Netflix |
| Episodes | 6 |
| Year | 2025 |
| Link | IMDb |
Season 7 of Black Mirror consists of six independent episodes, so instead of one general synopsis, we'll quickly go through the description of each one.
Common People. A woman named Amanda agrees to an experimental operation, part of her brain is replaced with a synthetic one. The operation is free, but the "new" brain works on a subscription model with many nuances. This completely changes her life with her beloved husband, Mike.
Bête Noire. Maria's new colleague is behaving strangely, but no one notices this except Maria herself. Gradually, all the details of the main character's life begin to change.
Hotel Reverie. Hollywood actress Brandy is to star in a remake of a romantic film. However, instead of the usual filming process, she is transported into the digital world of the film, in which everything seems real.
Plaything. Characters from a forgotten video game may be the key to solving murders in London. The events take place in the universe of the special interactive episode Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.
Eulogy. A special technology gives the ability to relive moments from the past through photographs.
USS Callister: Into Infinity. A sequel to the episode "USS Callister" from the fourth season of Black Mirror, which expands the fictional space universe.
When creating anthologies, one of the most important elements is the sequence of individual stories. It allows you to set a kind of pace, slightly hide the weaker segments and put the works of which the authors are most proud to stand out. Brooker and the team seem to have perfectly mastered the art of anthologies. Because season 7 of Black Mirror begins not just with the most powerful episode, but with one of the most interesting stories in modern science fiction in principle.
In Common People, the focus, as you might guess from the title, shifts from an interesting technological concept to the everyday life of an ordinary couple, to whom progress promised salvation, but brought only huge problems. The story in the episode is in no hurry and demonstrates in detail what kind of hell life can turn into due to too brazen interference of corporations in your brain. Parallels with Neuralink arise quite naturally.
This episode makes you feel uncomfortable, evokes scary and difficult thoughts, and it seems to get right under your skin and into your nerves. While watching, associations arise with works of the level of Warren Ellis's Transmetropolitan and Silent Hill 2, and these are comparisons that are more valuable than any recommendations. Common People is reminiscent of the first seasons of Black Mirror, when the show was more provocative and did not hesitate to shock the audience instead of interacting with a sense of nostalgia and pop culture affiliation. So even if you don't have much time, find an extra hour for Common People. This story will not let you go for a long time.
After an incredible start, the show almost immediately begins to slow down. It is somewhat confusing at the beginning and can leave a negative impression, but overall things are far from bad. After all, other episodes also turned out to be worthy and are able to give pleasant emotions. In addition, it is interesting that the authors did not take the easy way and did not make artificial intelligence, which has become a key technological phenomenon of recent years, the center of all episodes. Black Mirror is also a self-proclaimed prophecy, so simply quoting reality would not suit it.
Season seven marks a notable shift in tone, offering perhaps the most mature and consistent set of stories the show has ever produced on Netflix. There’s a focus on more grounded, human dramas, where technology is less the main monster and more a backdrop or tool to expose eternal issues: loneliness, the search for connection, moral choices, the consequences of the past, the value and eternity of love. This compelling humanity, empathy, and sincerity, which permeates almost every key scene, makes them surprisingly emotional.
The return to the "USS Callister" universe, which many fans of Black Mirror were waiting for, turned out to be a worthy sequel that does not parasitize on the glory of the original, but offers a new twist on the story, forcing a new look at already familiar characters and raised topics. Hotel Reverie interacts with the ideas of Perfect Blue and David Lynch's Inland Empire. And in Bête Noire you can see interesting subtexts about gaslighting. Even in the weakest episodes, which I found Eulogy and Plaything, you can see something noteworthy.
However, the overall impression of the season remains somewhat uneven. The pace sometimes slows down, and some plots seem too familiar, as if they have all happened before - and there is a high probability that they are right in the Black Mirror. Because of this, when watching, you sometimes think that the authors are still gradually approaching the limits of their own imagination, although, it would seem, stories about the dangers of technology can be told endlessly.
In addition, the film crew seemed to have abstracted too much from reality to allow themselves a free flow of thoughts. And in vain, because it is reality, not fantasy stories, that has recently given rise to the craziest situations with the use of technology. Yes, it is not necessary to completely copy reality, but it would be worth leaving at least some hints in some episodes.
But even such minuses do not affect the pleasant impressions of the 7th season of Black Mirror. Especially after the previous two seasons, which seemed like a degradation of the general concept. Brooker and the team have proven that they are still capable of publishing stories about technology, which can well cause nightmares and paranoia. However, in the future, I would like more development, and not just stagnating in place or walking around a couple of ideas.
And in one of the episodes there is a segment with the game Balatro. As they say, this is a plus point right away.