Black Mirror Is at Its Greatest and Its Worst in Uneven, Sequel-Crammed Season 7: Overview

At this level within the lifespan of Netflix anthology collection Black Mirror, every little thing feels linked. That’s by no means extra true than with Season 7: Not solely does the present’s return characteristic the primary direct sequel to a previous installment — the 2017 Emmy-winning “USS Callister” — there are much more apparent connections between Season 7 and the previous, making it nearly really feel like a full season of sequels.

It goes past cute in-jokes like “Frequent Individuals”‘s faculty instructor speaking concerning the synthetic bees from Season 3’s “Hated within the Nation” and “Resort Reverie”‘s film star dwelling on Junipero Drive. “Bête Noire” invokes the paranoia of “White Bear” and “Shut Up and Dance,” whereas “Playthings” brings again key characters featured within the interactive narrative expertise Bandersnatch, to not point out the online game firm Tuckersoft. And “Eulogy” seems like a mash-up of Season 1’s “The Total Historical past of You” and Season 2’s “Be Proper Again.”

Acquainted doesn’t at all times imply dangerous, although for a present the place creativity seems like a key a part of the enchantment, it’s a concern. Particularly as a result of when Black Mirror begins to really feel too predictable, it will possibly drag down even probably the most promising storyline. “Frequent Individuals,” the season’s opening episode, seems like quintessential Black Mirror, however in all of the worst methods. Chris O’Dowd and Rashida Jones (who beforehand co-wrote the Season 3 episode “Nosedive”) star as Mike and Amanda, whose good lower-middle-class lives get upended after Amanda almost dies, saved solely by a miraculous new mind damage remedy referred to as Rivermind.

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The excellent news is that the Rivermind surgical procedure is free! The dangerous information is that it’s a subscription mannequin plan. Think about each criticism you’ve ever had about your Netflix invoice growing in worth whereas the service solely grows worse in high quality, besides it’s about your precise mind. Earlier than too lengthy, Amanda is being supplied the prospect to improve to Rivermind Plus. For under an additional $500 a month!

The prevalence of subscription-based providers seems like a pure match for Black Mirror to satirize, particularly given how these providers manipulate clients into paying for more and more higher-tier choices than they maybe can afford. Whereas the metaphor right here isn’t significantly refined, the problem is the completely nasty approach by which the present explores it: “Frequent Individuals” is actually an episode by which two good folks get royally screwed over by forces outdoors of their management, in ways in which don’t actually say a lot concerning the world except for the truth that it sucks.

When a Black Mirror isn’t working, it results in hazard of slipping into self-parody at instances, and “Frequent Individuals” is probably the most blatant model of that, so over-the-top in its execution that it’d work higher as a parody show-within-a-show being watched by characters on The Boys or Solely Murders within the Constructing. It’s not the longest episode of the season, however lord does it really feel longer.

Black Mirror: Frequent Individuals (Netflix)

Thankfully, after “Frequent Individuals,” the standard of the season undoubtedly improves. As per regular, the season options two episodes starring British actors: “Bête Noire” contains a younger forged and an progressive tackle the Mandela Impact vis-a-vie quantum mechanics, whereas “Playthings” places Peter Capaldi in a protracted gray wig as he explains to the cops how a 1994 online game took over his life, with terrifying ramifications.

In the meantime, “Resort Reverie” options Issa Rae as a modern-day actor who’s supplied the prospect to star in a remake of an outdated Hollywood movie, by way of an immersive digital simulation the place her co-stars are the unique Forties forged, absolutely realized sufficient for the long-dead recreation of actress Dorothy Chambers (Emma Corrin) to have interaction along with her like they’re each actual…

Directed by Haolu Wang and in addition starring Awkwafina and Harriet Walter, “Resort Reverie” is the second-longest episode of the season at 77 minutes, in ways in which really feel at the very least just a little overly padded. But there’s quite a bit to get pleasure from, particularly relating to Rae and Corrin’s performances and the eye to element relating to recreating the nuances of outdated Hollywood filmmaking. (I do want they’d experimented extra with side ratios, however I admittedly have a private fondness for that type of factor.)