Charlie Brooker’s career has been built upon creating satire on the real world, whether you believe his start to be his work on the satirical news show The 11 O’Clock Show or his breakout satirical series Screenwipe. In the modern landscape, it’s nearly impossible to create any form of satire nowadays both in terms of what can even be made fun of considering the state of politics and the world at large and in terms of the audience, as now more than ever we have a media literacy crisis. People are taking art entirely at face value instead of recognizing that they are the ones being made fun of. 

Arguably Brooker’s magnum opus and inarguably his most well-known work to date, Black Mirror is a show that has always been at the forefront of critiquing technology and portraying the worst case-scenarios of its usage in the future. In the early days of the show’s run, the show was being made on a relatively low budget at Channel 4, so the show was never able to go massive with their concepts and had to keep them rather small in the grand scheme of things. The show was then bought by Netflix, which ended up being the best move for Black Mirror since the show truly blossomed and became the real powerhouse of excellent TV that it is now known as. I know some people preferred when the show was an underground British show on Channel 4, but I couldn’t disagree more. Netflix allowed Black Mirror to reach its fullest potential and produced some of the show’s best material with episodes like “Hated in the Nation”, “Hang the DJ”, “Black Museum” and even “Striking Vipers”. standing out. However, there was a noticeable decline in seasons 5 and 6 of Black Mirror, which gave us some of the worst episodes of its entire run. It felt as though the show had run out of things to say, with seasons 5 and 6 giving us some of the worst episodes of the show’s entire run, so it was uncertain if season 7 would be more of a decline. The episodes’ synopses sounded interesting, and I liked many of the cast members they got onboard, but both facts applied to the disappointing season 6. Thus, I went into season 7 with tempered expectations. 

I’m happy to say that my expectations were not only met but in some ways completely shattered. This is the show’s best season in years, proving Charlie Brooker still has a bit more left in the tank. This is one of Black Mirror’s more interesting seasons, partially due to its fascinating links to prior seasons. Some previous episodes have background details and references to other episodes, but this season has actual connective tissue. The episode “Plaything” features the return of Will Poulter and Asim Chaudry (reprising their roles from Black Mirror: Bandersnatch), while “USS Callister: Into Infinity” is a direct sequel to the season 4 episode “USS Callister”. If I’m being honest, I was skeptical on both episodes’ need to exist. 

However, I liked both episodes quite a bit! Though “Plaything” has more of a tangential connection than anything else, “USS Callister: Into Infinity” felt like a natural continuation of that previous episode that wasn’t just resting on the laurels of the original fan favourite episode. If anything, it’s bolstered by Cristin Milioti’s inherently likeable presence. “Plaything” on the other hand is a far more sinister story with some very unnerving moments that get under your skin that is anchored by a great Peter Capaldi performance.

That being said, this season’s highlight for me was episode 5, “Eulogy”. Black Mirror very rarely gets emotional, but when it does, a truly powerful episode of television is born. Season 3’s “San Junipero” is often held as one of the best episodes of the show and while I may not agree, I cannot deny its impact. There’s also season 4’s “Hang the DJ”, which is my favourite episode of the entire show. The episode just taps into something beautiful and thought-provoking while also being a damn entertaining episode of TV while it’s at it. “Eulogy” is the newest episode to join the “emotional but still Black Mirror” club, and it’s the best episode we’ve had in years. 

“Eulogy” has a simple but fairly universal premise: a man searches through his memories to assist with the funeral of his former lover. The idea of looking back on your memories and having to reevaluate who you once were and how that affected the people around you is one that I’m sure most of us can connect with on a deep level. In Black Mirror fashion, there’s a technical component to all of this, but the tenderness of the concept is one the episode strangely never shies away from. The episode is all the better for it. But while the writing is certainly touching, the reason “Eulogy” works is because of Paul Giamatti’s powerhouse performance. He is wonderfully subtle as the achingly lonely Phillip, but when he does cry, it’s hard to stop tears from welling up in your eyes too. 

The other three episodes—“Common People”, “Bête Noire” and “Hotel Reverie”—are all very solid, standard Black Mirror episodes. “Common People” is classically unnerving Black Mirror, “Bête Noire” is genuinely scary with its mindfuckery, and “Hotel Reverie” is the clear weak link of the season due to not utilizing its premise to its full potential. Yet these episodes range from great to decent, a far cry from the outright misses many of the later Black Mirror seasons provided. All in all, this is a solid season of television and some of the strongest material Black Mirror has produced in nearly a decade. 

8/10