Each day, the world seems to slide more and more in dystopia, President Donald Trump placing prices on the islands inhabited by the Penguins and the head of the Medicare and Medicaid country praising health care in the foreground. In case you needed an even higher dose of Orwellian anxiety in your life, however, Black mirror Finally returned to season 7 with six new episodes.
(Spoiler alert: This piece contains minor spoilers for Black Mirror, season 7.))
During its new season, the anthology series on our complicated relationship with technology complicates the sensitivity of AI, subscription pricing models, lost loves, resentments in high school and the privatization of health care. He also has a lot of action, romance and aid to the terror of the technological era.
As with any anthology series, Black mirror Lots of sure, and also its share of failures, and season 7 is no exception, which makes it more perfect for the ranking. Here is the ranking of Wired of each episode of Black mirror Season 7.
6. “Hotel Reverie” (Episode 3)
The unfortunate Nadir of the new season arrives halfway, with the feature film “Hotel Reverie”, a kind in a way in the Hollywood classics of the 1940s as Casablanca. Issa Rae plays a Hollywood star, Brandy, who agrees to participate in a reimagination of Hotel CellOne of his old favorite films, using a technology that transforms the film into an original black and white into an AI infused virtual experience in order to film the remake in just 90 minutes. Emma Corrin plays the old unhappy Hollywood starlet Dorothy Chambers, who played in the photo. The rhythms of the story are all intended to play in the same way as the original, but when things start to move, Dorothy develops an awareness of his artificiality and the two begin to fall from each other.
The episode aims at this magic of “San Junipero”, but its romance seems more hollow and its premise relaxes credulity. To put it simply: it is not clear why someone would like to redo a film in this way, and it is even less clear why someone would watch it. As a rear door to a story on closed sexuality in the 1940s, the episode seems artificial, just like romance. Rae and Corrin do their best to bring a spark but cannot sell it at the end.
5. “Ordinary people” (episode 1)
“Common people” are a familiar type Black mirror Episode, identifying a few clear social ailments linked to class and technology, then playing his science fiction premise to explore these problems increased. A beautiful approach, except when she feels pat and obvious, which is “common people”. Chris O’Dowd and Rashida Jones play a couple who find it difficult to reach both ends. When Jones finds himself in a coma with a brain tumor, O’Dowd has the opportunity to save it with an incredible new technology from the Rivermind Startup. Surgeons replace the cancer area of the brain with synthetic tissues, and the parts of the memory and the personality of Jones contained in this section of the brain tissues are striped via the cloud. With LAS monthly subscription fees, of course.
O’Down and Jones are both excellent and affected in the episode, just like Tracee Ellis Ross as a frustrating and carefree representative of Rivermind. The problem is that the moment when the monthly subscription idea is introduced, it is immediately clear when history is heading. The existential dilemma of having your life linked to the whims of a subscription service is overwhelming and strikes near you. But when the message is clear in the first five minutes, sit in the next 40 is not exactly pleasant.
4. “Playfying” (Episode 4)
Located in the same universe as “Bandersnch”, The Interactive Black Mirror Special of 2018, the stars of “Playing” Peter Capaldi in the role of Cameron Walker, a man reserved to assassinate someone and stuff him in a suitcase. During his interrogation, Walker shared the story of his youth, in the 90s, when he was a video game critic. He gave an early overview of a kind of game, created by Colin Ritman by Will Poulter of “Bandersnch”. It is a game inspired by Tamagotchi called Bottleneckswhich consists in taking care of small digital creatures. Only, as Ritman explains, they are in fact a form of digital life. When a LSD trip is reminiscent of Walker that he can communicate with bottlenecks, he devotes his life to help them grow, pros and evolving. It is a fairly simple episode, largely told in narrated flashbacks, and is certainly too much exposure to be really elegant, like the best of Black mirror. That said, the premise is fun, and the twists and turns in Walker’s tale lead to an end hell.
3. “Bane black” (episode 2)
“Bane black” could be the most surprising episode of season 7. Maria, played by Siena Kelly, works as a researcher in a chocolate company whose life seems to be hazy with the arrival of a new colleague. Verity, played by Rosy McEwen, went to school with Maria, although they are in very different social spheres. Maria was popular; Truth, far from there. Already a little panicked by this person in his past presenting himself, Maria begins to feel like the reality that surrounds her slides. People around her do not remember things as she does, leading to exposed errors to work, and she begins to suspect that the truth is to blame.
It’s a strange episode. A large part is not even particularly like Black mirrorAnd he seems to turn his wheels in the first half. But as the nature of what is happening becomes more extreme – emements that seem modified, images of security cameras that have been tampered with – the pleasure of the episode emerges. The twists and turns are all changing to a perfectly shocking and hilarious final scene.
2. “Eulogy” (episode 5)
“Eulogy” is easily the most affecting episode of the season. Paul Giamatti plays a man who learns that his ex-girlfriend has died. He receives a package from the family of the woman containing a device which allows him to conclude old photographs, to resurface her memories of her as part of a praise project. The problem is that, in his anger at their breakup, he has erased all the photos of his face, and now he doesn’t really remember it. He comes into a photo after the photo, traced the story of the relationship while desperately trying to bring the image of his face back. Giamatti is fantastic, bringing a gravity to the role of a man sorting the facts of his own life, and what he did and did not understand about the woman he loved. Also a little too exposed at times, “praise” is nevertheless a beautiful story on regrets, communication errors and the way in which love remains in our hearts, even if the memories fade.
1. “USS Callister: Into Infinity” (Episode 6)
When I saw that Black mirror Was a continuation of one of his biggest episodes and the most loved, I was wary. For an anthology show, it did not seem to be the best idea. I was wrong. “USS Callister: Into Infinity” succeeds first and above all, like his predecessor, being simply a great science fiction adventure. Located as a result of the original “USS Callister”, Nanette Cole by Cristin Milioti is still at the top of the crew of the sensitive digital clones ship through the perilous worlds of the Infinity online multiplayer game. The problem is that these are not real tagged players, which means that they need to steal the players from their credits at stake to stay alive. But players are starting to notice that something is off, and that goes to James Walton, CEO of Callister Inc., played by Jimmi Simpson. He and the real world join forces to help the crew in the game to survive, while trying to hide the evidence of illegal cloning technology.
The intrigue becomes wilder from there, now the sense of humor of the original episode, while throwing even more action, and even bigger. Although this is not the most emotionally affecting episode this season, it is certainly the most entertaining, making a noisy meal from its duration of almost 90 minutes. Better still, the end is only more excited to see if they make it a third.
