Now in its seventh season, Netflix’s anthology series, Black Mirror, is getting closer to reality than perhaps anyone expected when the show first premiered in 2011.
On Monday, March 31, Netflix revealed the titles and synopses for the season’s six episodes. They collectively deal with issues that we all find ourselves facing in our everyday lives: artificial intelligence, virtual reality, advertising thrust at us from all sorts of unlikely places, rapid change brought about by technology, and more basic human issues like love, loneliness and regret.
“You can expect a mix of genres and styles,” Brooker said during Netflix’s annual Geeked Week festival in September. “We’ve got six episodes this time, and two of them are basically feature-length. Some of them are deeply unpleasant, some are quite funny, and some are emotional.”
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Season seven kicks off with “Common People,” starring Rashida Jones as a schoolteacher whose life is saved when her husband (Chris O’Dowd) signs her up for a high-tech system called Rivermind. The solve works – but of course it comes at a cost. The episode also stars Tracee Ellis Ross.
In “Bête Noire,” Maria (Siena Kelly), a development executive at a chocolate company, is unnerved when her former schoolmate Verity (Rosy McEwen) appears at a focus-group session. There’s something very odd about Verity but only Maria seems to notice.
“Hotel Reverie” stars Issa Rae as Brandy, an A-list actor who is thrown into an immersive remake of a vintage romantic movie, starring Dorothy. The episode also stars Awkafina and Harriet Walter.
In “Plaything,” Peter Capaldi is eccentric loner Cameron who is obsessed with a 1990s video game. When he’s arrested in connection with a cold case, his interrogation goes places the police weren’t expecting. The episode also stars Will Poulter as Colin Ritman and Asim Chaudry as Mohan Thakur, both of whom sharp-eyed viewers will recognize from Black Mirror’s interactive episode, “Bandersnatch,” which premiered in December 2018.
In “Eulogy,” Paul Giamatti stars as Phillip, a lonely man who gets to revisit his life thanks to an innovative system that allows users to step into photographic memories. Patsy Ferran also stars as The Guide.
The series will also return to a fan-favorite episode – “USS Callister,” a riff on Star Trek – with a sequel episode, “USS Callister: Into Infinity” starring Christin Milioti and Jimmi Simpson. On Tuesday, April 8, Netflix is hosting a virtual watch party, sponsored by Streamberry and TCKR Systems, for fans to revisit the original episode as well as a sneak peek of the sequel and a live Q&A with series creator and executive producer Charlie Brooker and executive producer Jessica Rhoades.
