Black Mirror: Season 7

I love Black Mirror. Let me start with that. I consider the short anthology episodes White Christmas, Metalhead, San Junipero, Striking Vipers, and The Entire History of You to be some of the absolute best television ever made. Pure brilliance. Simple as. Sure, there are some stinkers that make up Black Mirror's ranks too, but Charlie Brooker's Netflix-funded anthology series is mostly excellent in my eyes.

Season 7 was released recently and I have watched all the episodes and consider it a better collection of thought-provoking short shorties than what was offered in both season six and five. In particular, I really enjoyed Common People, in which Rashida Jones & Chris O'Dowd play Mike and Amanda, a married couple in the near future who are forced to borrow money to buy a custom-built processor that is implanted in the brain and helps stroke-afflicted Amanda live a normal life again, at least as normal as it gets when the processor manufacturer uses Greedflation to cause shocking price increases, leading their personal finances to crash along with their relationship and lives... The greed that we see in many of today's big companies is the basis for this sharp social satire in an episode that feels scaled down and personal.

I also really liked Hotel Reverie, in which Issa Rae plays Hollywood star Brandy, who nabs a role in a lavish remake of an old 1940s film, where she gets thrown into an AI-driven VR world and gets stuck inside the film that it intends to reinterpret. The production company changes both the gender and skin colour of its main character and thus puts itself in a position that culminates as a well-made study in alternating emotions and spontaneity. The Casablanca feel here is ever-present and Emma Corin, in particular, does an absolutely brilliant job as the Ingrid Bergman-like 1940s star Dorothy in a short film that, in my experience, stayed with me.

Paul Giamatti's role in the episode Eulogy was good, too. It was about an old professor whose discovery allows him to step into old photographs, which stirs up lots of emotions. As was the episode Bête Noire, which is basically about the most petty revenge story the world has ever seen.

The only thing I didn't really appreciate about the seventh season of Black Mirror was the continuation of the fan-favourite USS Callister where, unlike the original episode, the satire never really worked and the script felt mostly improvised and lacking of charisma. That aside, this is a really enjoyable season even if none of it reaches White Christmas or Metalhead levels.