NetflixEvery time we get a new season of Charlie Brooker’s biggest hit, it’s like Christmas. If we’re honest, Black Mirror Season 7 feels a little different – but that’s not always a bad thing.
It’s not piling on too much praise to suggest previous seasons of Black Mirror have produced some of the best episodes of TV in the last decade. San Junipero, White Bear, and Shut Up and Dance are just some titles now entrenched in the cultural zeitgeist, with most episodes terrifying us to our core. The idea technology could change everything like that? It’s too much to bear.
But when you get seven seasons into a binge-worthy TV show, it makes sense that ideas would start to slow down and even repeat themselves. As an anthology series with a new story at every turn, Brooker must be ordering pizza late into the night to get him through another shift of idea creation. The fact we’re so obviously revisiting things this time changes something fundamental to Black Mirror’s makeup.
From a legitimate sequel in sci-fi movie spoof USS Callister: Into Infinity to more subtle nods like Will Poulter’s Bandersnatch character in Plaything, the series has morphed. In 2025, fans can’t really be shocked anymore – and that leaves a large part of Season 7 underwhelming. But when Brooker chooses to break hearts instead, it’s magic.
What is Black Mirror Season 7 about?
Obviously, we’ve got six stories on the go here, so we’ll keep this speedy. Common People follows a couple who try out a maverick life subscription plan when one of them nearly dies of a brain aneurysm, with Bête Noire watching the Mandala effect come to life in the ultimate Mean Girls-style workplace battle.
Hotel Reverie puts a Hollywood A-Lister into an AI-generated set of a classic 1940s film, nearly risking their life in the process. Plaything is our Bandersnatch moment, looking at what Colin Ritman made years later after a breakdown (and how that shapes the future of one gaming journalist).
Lastly, Eulogy follows Paul Giamatti trying to put together memories of a late loved one by literally stepping into old photographs. USS Callister: Into Infinity is the most obvious story, picking up months after the original episode. Surviving by looting real-life players, our digital copies must fight for their lives as the real world catches up to Robert’s dark personal life.
Can Black Mirror really disturb us anymore?
NetflixLet’s get one thing out of the way – there is no such thing as a bad Black Mirror episode. There’s only two in existence that were out-and-out fails, and they’re not in Season 7. All six adventures into futuristic nightmares are entertaining, and you’re not going to feel like you’ve wasted time binging them.
If anything, there are three categories. There are episodes that you enjoyed but explore subject matters Black Mirror has covered better before, there’s good episodes, and there are great episodes. An uneven 3-1-2 split covers the trio, putting Season 7 overall on the fence.
Our “meh” collection (my own words, not my team’s) is comprised of Common People, USS Callister: Into Infinity, and Bete Noire. Like I’ve said, there’s nothing inherently wrong with any of these stories, they just don’t cut the mustard. Common People is the Black Mirror best bits megamix, blending them to create a narrative smoothie that never blows you away. Concepts like Dum Dummies and Rivermind have been explored before, creating a much bigger impact the first time.
USS Callister: Into Infinity is the classic sequel that never needed to be made. Just because a story could be followed on doesn’t mean it should, and we hit all the same conclusions we learned about Infinity the first time out. Bete Noire is the most generally underwhelming. Its final scenes fail to pack a punch, with the conclusion you’ve known is coming all along frustrating to watch build.
NetflixThe fact this accounts for half the season begs a question: in a world where our day-to-day lives are more excruciating than any horror movie in existence, can Black Mirror disturb, shock, or scare us anymore? We literally live in what previous seasons forecasted as eventual truth, making us numb to any hints of dystopian nightmare still to come.
Truthfully, I don’t believe it can. Sure, there’s still moments when focusing on technological takeovers work, such as Plaything. Episode 4 accounts for our “good” category, with a standout performance by Peter Capaldi at its pinnacle. The episode isn’t stronger because Colin Ritman is back (although his involvement hugely helps), but because the tech itself is much more intriguing than any other kind we’re being presented with.
The opportunity for lore is immense here, and Black Mirror’s marketing is already tapping into that. An undisclosed “mystery project” from 1996 is being teased through the QR code hidden in the poster too, and we don’t even know what that leads to yet. Doing as Ritman does is clearly the way forward for these kinds of episodes. Don’t just focus on the futuristic… disrupt it. Reinvent it.
Eulogy and Hotel Reverie are standouts for the same reason
NetflixHere’s the shift. Black Mirror Season 7 becomes “great” – our third category – when it plays almost solely with emotion. Advanced technology is used to support love, loss, and grief, rather than becoming the star of the show. Hotel Reverie and Eulogy are star examples of this theory, and I defy you not to be moved by either.
What’s really interesting here is that Brooker is flipping his own usual social commentary on its head. In these two worlds, AI isn’t going to destroy the world, and we’re not going to be overrun by some digital overlord. Instead, our human characters are torn apart from the inside, with AI copies proving they are just as flawed as the real thing.
Emma Corrin’s Clara is a pitch-perfect example of this. The more she becomes sentient, the more she is able to love, only taking her tragic reality out of herself. Issa Rae’s Brandy often fails to distinguish AI from reality, and the fact she is left worse off than she began tells you what you need to know about how our emotions can respond. Think Spike Jonze’s Her level of unrequited trauma.
Paul Giamatti meets his own version of an AI copy in Eulogy, emotionally destroying him in a completely different way. Much like Hotel Reverie, it’s not just humans who are flawed, with Phillip’s guide needed to reassess what they believe to be right while recounting a past they only know one side of. AI gives us answers, closure, love, hope, and something to live for… and presenting that to us is how Brooker makes his true impact in Black Mirror Season 7.
Dexerto Review Score: 3/5 – Good
A tale of two halves, Black Mirror Season 7 ranges from average to exceptional, and it’s pretty damn good going to get that ratio after so many years. Yes, not every episode is going to be the banger you want, but you’re always entertained, and you always come away that little bit more enriched.
If Season 8 ever happens (pretty please, Netflix), it’s not a move back to Brit-centric content that’s needed, as so many fans like to argue. It’s giving Brooker unfiltered permission to break out hearts, emotionally eviscerate us, and destroy everything we are from the inside out. That’s how the show can scare us from now on. That’s how we end up truly disturbed.
Black Mirror Season 7 is streaming on Netflix now. For more, check out the best Season 6 Easter eggs, how to sign up for Streamberry, and our favorite episodes of all time.
For more information on how we score TV shows and movies, check out our scoring guidelines here.
