When Black Mirror debuted on Channel 4 in December 2011, Brexit was a Nigel Farage fever dream, Donald Trump had only recently finished presenting The Apprentice and nobody had heard of The 2 Johnnies. In other words, “dystopia” was a largely abstract concept. In that climate, there was something agreeably fanciful about the anthology series’ vision of a future where technology had lathered the world into a condition of collective insanity.
Fifteen years on, things have changed, and there is the obvious question of whether future-shock science fiction is surplus to requirements. Could any future be more shocking than our present reality? Just as worryingly, an often anaemic seventh season of Black Mirror (Netflix from Thursday) suggests that showrunner and writer Charlie Brooker may be running dry of inspiration, with these latest episodes lacking, in particular, the gory pizazz of the 2023 edition.
Brooker has revealed he has leant away from the thread of horror rippling through series six. He has instead returned to Black Mirror’s core values, which are largely about all the ways technology can corrupt and corrode. With the exception of one or two standout instalments, the going is dreary and predictable. It’s like playing the remastered edition of a video game that is exactly the same as the copy you owned already.
The most egregious example is the opening instalment, Common People, in which Chris O’Dowd is a Galway migrant to the United States, whose wife (Rashida Jones) receives cutting-edge surgery that saves her life but which leaves her in hock to a cynical medical company determined to squeeze every last cent from the couple.
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While the premise is solid, it never goes anywhere. Worse yet, the conclusion is both grim and predictable. Just as disappointing in Hotel Reverie, starring Emma Corrin as a silent screen actress brought digitally to life. As a love letter to classic cinema, it goes off half-cocked – feeling like the work of someone who has read plenty about black and white films but never got around to watching one.
Better by far is Plaything, a fantastic sequel to 2018′s stand-alone, interactive Bandersnatch. Here, a scraggy-haired Peter Capaldi portrays a video game journalist driven insane by a Civilisation-style resource management game. There is no wider message (apart from warning about the addictive qualities of Civ games), but the story is a compelling showcase for the fantastic Capaldi.
The episode Black Mirror fans will have really looked forward to, however, is USS Callister: Into Infinity, a follow-up to 2017′s Star Trek homage USS Callister, again starring Cristin Milioti as a woman parachuted against her will into an online space opera. It’s a real hoot, and you wish that Brooker had agreed to spin off Callister into a stand-alone series (as was the plan at one point) rather than relegate it to a one-off 90-minute special at the end of what is otherwise a largely forgettable season. Time, perhaps, for Black Mirror to fade to grey.
