Summary
Black Mirror’s Season 7 consists of six new episodes starring top-tier actors like Rashida Jones, Paul Giamatti, Cristin Milioti, Emma Corrin, Issa Rae, etc. The decade-old series has always innovated and came up with unique stories surrounding its fictional futuristic technology.
However, with every new season, the quality of episodes has certainly been inconsistent. With this season, Black Mirror feels like it has returned to form. While not every episode feels like a home run, there are a couple that are memorable and among the best that the series has ever offered.
6Episode 4
Plaything
Plaything takes place in the world of another Black Mirror episode, Bandersnatch. It starts off with an older Cameron Walker being arrested by the police for shoplifting. However, as they interrogate him for a suspected murder, they uncover a completely different mystery that involves Colin Ritman’s new video game, Thronglets. As Cameron explains the events of his past and his relationship with Thronglets, a whole new story starts to unfold.
As the episode progresses, viewers also get to see many older video games,like Street Fighter2 and Road Rash, along with many video game consoles. While the main component of the episode is very interesting, it never feels like it reaches its true potential as it leads to a very predictable ending. The best part of Plaything is certainly its cinematography, which gives it an indie film vibe.
5Episode 2
Bête Noire
Bête Noire starts off very strong. The episode shows viewers the life of Maria, who has a good life doing her day job as the head of flavor at Ditta. However, her life starts taking a turn for the worse when her schoolmate, Verity, also joins her company. Every task Maria does becomes messy, everything she knows changes, and she is even accused of lying. This leads to her becoming very paranoid as she starts becoming suspicious of Verity.
After these constant ‘mess-ups’ lead to Maria losing her job, she decides to break into Verity’s house to find the cause of all of it, which is where a major reveal takes place. Bête Noire is at its best in the first half as the incidents and Marie’s paranoia make the viewers curious and hook them instantly. However, the second half isn’t able to deliver according to the expectations created before and leads to a very underwhelming ending.
4Episode 3
Hotel Reverie
Through the use of the technology, ReDream, Keyworth Pictures attempts tomake a rebootof its old classic, Hotel Reverie. This technology essentially allows the new lead, Brandy, to enter the scene and act it out physically alongside the film’s other characters. However, due to some technical issues with ReDream, she gets stuck inside the film.
This allows her to spend time with one of the main characters, Clara, and they fall in love with each other. Meanwhile, Hotel Reverie also goes completely off script and the ReDream team alongside Brandy have to improvise and come up with their own ending. Hotel Reverie is a decent episode that starts off great but, unfortunately, suffers from some inconsistent pacing issues that keep it from being Black Mirror’s finest.
3Episode 1
Common People
Common People gives Season 7 a perfect start. It shows the life of a happy couple, Amanda and Mike. One day, their world shakes up as Amanda falls into a coma due to a brain tumor. This makes Mike invest in a new experimental treatment called Rivermind to save her life. While this process is very successful, it creates a whole different set of problems.
2Episode 6
USS Callister: Into Infinity
The final episode of Season 7 is the first ever sequel the series has ever made. It follows up after the events of USS Callister from Season 4 as the digital clones who were able to free themselves attempt to survive in the vast world of the video game, Infinity. On this journey, they come across many new and old threats that require the Callister crew to think on their feet.
USS Callister: Into Infinity is a brilliant sequel that is faithful to the original. It is easily the most fun episode of this season and feels like a big-budget sci-fi film with an exciting plot filled with proper twists and turns. The ending of this sequel is also an unexpected one that will definitely remind viewers of a very popularPixar film.
1Episode 5
Eulogy
After the death of Carol Hartman, her former lover, Phillip, is contacted by a company called Eulogy. They want him to contribute a memory of her to the family to conduct an immersive memorial. The company sends a guide disc to Phillip to curate and relive his fondest memories of Carol. As he is unable to think about her, the disc suggests using photos to jog his memory.
The guide also allows Phillip to enter these photos to examine them physically. As more photos are revealed, viewers get to learn about the relationship that Carol and Phillip had. It starts off like any other relationship, happy and wholesome. But over the course of time, many unfortunate things happen that lead it to deteriorate and eventually end.
By visiting each and every photo he can find, Phillip starts to have a heartbreaking realization about his own terrible deeds and shortcomings in the relationship. Eulogy is easily the best episode of this season. It’s cleverly written and keeps the viewer engaged in this tragic relationship by only using two characters.
