“Black Mirror” is Back to Bum You Out with One of Its Stronger Seasons

What role does a show about a depressing, tech-addicted future play in a depressing, tech-addicted 2025? It’s been fascinating to watch as some of the “what if” scenarios of Charlie Brooker’s influential sci-fi anthology series became reality, arguably making it harder to find escapism in a show that’s often about the questionable morality around modern technology. As issues like A.I., screen life, and virtual reality have dominated actual headlines, how could Brooker find something new to say in 2025?

The answer was to get real, focusing more on everyday concerns than ever before. Sure, it’s often through the lens of impossible technology, but the very strong 7^th season of “Black Mirror” feels like Brooker’s effort to say more about today than tomorrow. It focuses on topical issues like simulation theory, AI in film production, and even the very cost of existing. It’s not a perfect season, but it feels more artistically consistent than the last couple, and it contains one of the best chapters in the show’s history.

Let’s break it down chapter by chapter this time, in the order Netflix wants you to watch them, and this time with grades for each episode.

“Common People”

I’m not sure “Black Mirror” will ever get as bleak again as they did in last season’s standout, “Beyond the Sea,” but this soul-crusher comes close. Chris O’Dowd and Rashida Jones play an average couple named Mike and Amanda, struck by the horrible hand of fate when she’s diagnosed with a brain tumor. Enter Gaynor (Tracee Ellis Ross), a representative for a company called Rivermind that can dig out the tumor and replace the brain tissue with the right tech to save Amanda’s life. Of course, every deal with the devil comes with a catch, and the cost of what is literally keeping Amanda alive keeps rising, forcing Mike to do more and more insane things to keep her alive. A tech commentary on how much it costs in this society merely to live and breathe, this is one of the better Netflix era chapters of “Black Mirror,” a heartbreaker that’s almost too depressingly real. B+

“Bête Noire”

It’s kind of amazing that it took “Black Mirror” this long to tackle The Mandela Effect, but they’ve done so in a way that’s clever and unpredictable, even if the ending feels a little rushed and less than fully satisfying. Siena Kelly plays Maria, a hotshot food developer at a company called Ditta, working on a new flavor of Hucklebuck. She recognizes someone in the new focus group from her school days, a mysterious figure named Verity (Rosy McEwen), who works her way into Ditta and Maria’s life in a way that seems impossible. Maria appears the only one who can sense that something is off with Verity, even as reality seems to be literally rewriting itself. Again, this one seems to rush the revelations and conclusions in the final act, but Kelly and McEwen are great, and it’s a fun twist on TikTok’s favorite conspiracy theory. B

“Hotel Reverie”

Phenomenal ideas abound in this third chapter, which suffers really only due to its near-feature film length. Issa Rae is excellent (second to only one or maybe two performances this year as season MVP) as Brandy, an actress whom Awkwafina’s Kimmy hires for a new movie that feels like a vision of the future. Imagine if studios could create fully-realized AI versions of old movies and then drop new actors into them like VR to act out the film as they choose. Emma Corrin is perfectly cast as a classic movie star named Dorothy Chambers, who, of course, discovers that she’s not exactly real. It’s sort of a movie version of “USS Callister,” asking moral questions about boundaries if tech creates AI that can think and feel like real people. Again, it’s too long and repeats some of its best ideas, but it’s stylish, fun, and thought-provoking. B

“Plaything”

The only true dud this season buries the great Peter Capaldi in a quasi-sequel to the award-winning “Bandersnatch.” Capaldi plays a writer named Cameron Walker, who is arrested after the authorities find a body with his DNA all over it. He tells them a story of his life as a gaming journalist in the ‘90s, where Colin Ritman (Will Poulter) gave him a new game called “Thronglets,” to which poor Cameron became woefully addicted. Taking acid and talking to his thronglets, Cameron developed an obsession that led him to this interrogation in a way that can’t be spoiled and feels a bit like a thud of an ending. At least it’s a short one. D+

“Eulogy”

One could watch this episode entirely divorced from the world of “Black Mirror” and witness one of the best short films of 2025. The brilliant Paul Giamatti gives an all-timer performance in the history of this show as Phillip, a man who gets a call one day that informs him that an old love from his youth has passed. He’s told of a technology that can be used to help him participate in a virtual eulogy, but he’ll need to walk through old photographs to spark the memories required for the event. A guide (Patsy Ferran) walks him through snapshots of his youth, in which the deceased’s face is just out of view, like a memory that comes through fuzzy. Philip tried to bury the memories of this love, recalling his selfish responses to their life together and how he handled the break-up. This episode, written by Brooker and Ella Road, reminded me of “45 Years” and, of course, Charles Dickens, as this Scrooge was guided by his Ghost of Christmas Past through what he threw away. It’s a moving, phenomenal hour of television. A

“USS Callister: Beyond Infinity”

The first direct sequel to an episode of “Black Mirror” returns viewers to the crew of the USS Callister, left to explore the entire universe of the game “Infinity” when we last saw them. It turns out that this was a blessing and a curse. Most of the players of “Infinity” want to kill them and take their in-game currency, which keeps them alive. When the real world starts to uncover their illegal existence—actual AI in a game that should be just avatars—it leads Walton (Jimmi Simpson) to try and cover it up and Nanette (Cristin Milioti) to try and save them. It’s an undeniably enjoyable episode that seems a bit overloaded with ideas, trying to justify its existence with a few too many twists and thematically charged jumps. Through it all, the entire cast, especially the always-great Milioti, hold it together, but it suffers a bit from the malady that afflicts most sequels: It stands in a mighty big shadow. B