Black Mirror Season 7 Is Finally Here: Is the New Chapter Worth-Watching?
The new season of Charlie Brooker's project returns to its roots, and that's a good thing.
The sci-fi anthology Black Mirror has come a long way from being a local British series to a real cultural phenomenon.
In recent years, however, Charlie Brooker's show has begun to noticeably decline. The last two seasons of the series are a clear reflection of the creative impasse in which the showrunner found himself.
The seventh season, contrary to expectations, did not repeat the mistakes of the previous two; on the contrary, Brooker finally stopped fighting against self-repetition and even allowed himself to feel a little nostalgic.
What Is Black Mirror Season 7 About?
The main characters of Black Mirror are once again people who have come into dangerous contact with high technology. The plot of the episode Common People revolves around a couple who are unable to pay for a subscription to a life support service.
The main character of Bête Noire is a former victim of school bullying who has come up with a twisted plan for revenge. Hotel Reverie tells the story of the tragic fate of a black-and-white movie star, and Plaything – the creepy obsession of a game journalist.
Eulogy sends viewers on a journey through the waves of a lonely old man's memories, and USS Callister: Into Infinity returns aboard the starship from season four.
Season 7 Returns to the Roots of Black Mirror
Brooker doesn't just go back to the roots, he actually launches a time machine through the universe of the series. The heartbreaking Eulogy is a clear echo of The Entire History of You.
In both episodes, memory is not only a property of the human brain, but also a device that allows you to review your life in retrospect. And if in the first season the technology became the cause of discord between lovers, in the second it helped to heal old wounds.
Common People is reminiscent of Be Right Back – both episodes explore the experience of grief and the inability to come to terms with the loss of a significant other. In Season 2, the technology of digitally resurrecting a lover had a therapeutic effect; in season seven, it drove the characters to bankruptcy and depression.
Black Mirror Is No Longer a Classic Anthology
Brooker never gets to the point of overt self-repeat, preferring to operate more cunningly – at the level of intertext. It is no longer possible to watch Black Mirror in isolation from the personality of the showrunner or previous episodes.
Like most modern blockbusters, Black Mirror requires the viewer to have a certain cultural background, without which the whole charm of the show is lost.