Black Mirror is back for another season, and boy did it start off on an interesting foot. Fans of the show are known for having favorite episodes, and while I can easily see this becoming one of them, the episode raises some issues about the existence and future of the show itself.
The first episode, titled "Common People," follows the story of Amanda (Rashida Jones) and Mike (Chris O'Dowd) Waters, a couple celebrating their third wedding anniversary. Shortly after the couple celebrate their anniversary in their usual motel and diner fashion, Amanda comes down with a headache before fainting at work in front of her classroom of kids.
Mike runs to the hospital from his work, a construction site, to find out that Amanda has a brain tumor. The nurse informs Mike that there is only one thing for it: He must go off the beaten path to save his wife, eventually trusting in a company called Rivermind. He meets a representative called Gaynor (Tracee Ellis Ross), who assures him that the procedure is safe, so long as he keeps paying 300 dollars a month. With little choice, Mike accepts, and for the better part of a year, Amanda and Mike get back to their normal lives.
Black Mirror season 7 episode 1 cast
- Rashida Jones plays Amanda very gracefully and convincingly, with plenty of consideration to her chemistry with O'Dowd. Her ad-read voice is a particular highlight.
- Chris O'Dowd plays Mike, and was an absolutely inspired choice. Equal parts likable, desperate, and empathetic, O'Dowd displays a vast variety of emotions to a wonderful effect. I followed his joys and pains every step of the way.
- Tracee Ellis Ross plays Gaynor, the Rivermind representative. What little she had to work with was made up for with scene-stealing confidence. She was infuriatingly corporate and smug, and she deserves her flowers for it.
Common People recap
This is Black Mirror, of course, so all is not well. Amanda begins needing more sleep, she finds herself unable to return to the motel for their anniversary, and those close to her realize that Rivermind is "running ads" through her speech, crucially landing her in trouble at work.
Brooker then explores the idea of subscription-based services with Amanda and Mike. The pair are told that the only way to prevent the advertisements that take over Amanda's speech is to upgrade to the next tier, Rivermind Plus. This would also allow Amanda to visit the anniversary motel. All this, for only 500 dollars extra a month! There's just one problem: Amanda and Mike can't afford to do so, given that both work underpaid jobs.
In true Black Mirror fashion, writer Charlie Brooker invents a solution to their woes, and it involves Mike humiliating himself publicly via a website in which viewers pay to watch him torture himself. This part struck as very Shut Up and Dance from season 3, adding to an overall sense that this is an amalgamation of Black Mirror's greatest motifs: from reviving the dead to virtual humiliation rituals.
Through the wesbite, Mike can afford the Plus tier, and only for a moment are things well again. When the sleeping becomes even more of an issue, the pair return to Rivermind only to discover that a new tier has been introduced: Rivermind Lux. A hilarious trailer is shown as people with the procedure can turn up individual skills and character traits to their own liking, and once again, the price hikes to a total of 1800 dollars a month.
The situation gets more dire, as Mike gets fired from his job due to a series of events on the torture website. It results in (last call for spoilers!) Mike consensually smothering Amanda to death as her body is taken over to do an ad read. They are freed from their monthly payments, but we can only imagine what Mike will have to do once this is discovered, and the final scene sees him sit down in front of a camera, ready for further humiliation.
The episode is almost too ironic for Netflix
"Common People" was fantastically acted, shot, written and directed. I found the four things worked almost in perfect tandem to elevate the others. I liked the ideas I was presented with a lot and found it extremely gratifying that someone was addressing the subscription pandemonium. Herein lies the issue.
Ever since its move from the UK's Channel Four to Netflix, fans have been convinced that the latter is not the right home for the show. It's easy to sympathize with this take after watching "Common People." The episode takes a great idea and sours it with the very platform that it runs on. As clever and witty as this progression of subscriptions is, the episode refuses to land in quite the same way given that our entertainment subscription services work in a similar way: We get more, we pay more, and then a new tier is brought in, making the previous tiers obsolete in some way. Netflix has been criticized by many for price hikes, advertisement tiers, and more ways in which they extract money from viewers.
From the heavy irony, it's clear that Charlie Brooker was trying to satirize the Spotifys and Amazon Primes of the world, but just how successful can this be when you can't access the satire unless you subscribe to one of said platforms? I can't help but wonder how well this episode could have landed with me if it were run on Channel Four and its partners instead.
Perhaps Brooker could've gotten away with it, if the consequences of not upgrading Amanda's subscription hadn't been so intense. But the horror of the episode is really driven by the idea that Mike is forced to sell his soul to keep her alive, just for the terms and conditions to change every few months. In some ways, I want to tell Brooker not to give anyone any ideas!
Watch Black Mirror season 7 only on Netflix.