The best science fiction is either pure spaceships and aliens escapism or intelligent present-day social commentary viewed through a more pliable lens than that available to Charlotte Bronte or even Tom Wolfe. By virtue of its title, Black Mirror is prevented from being the former, so it must succeed at the latter, which it did in the early seasons, at least often enough to maintain viewer goodwill through the episodes that were too long, too self-indulgent, or not clever enough to merit rewatching. Season 6 aired in 2023 and is broadly despised by the show’s extremely online fanbase for its largely unsuccessful detours into self-parody and horror. So, hopes were high that the latest six episodes comprising Season 7 of the anthology series would represent a return to form.

Some good news: The first episode, “Common People,” contains a reasonable share of the show’s trademark, almost plausible, techno pessimism. It’s easy to predict the highly unpleasant ending about one-third of the way through the episode, but that’s because the audience has been brutalized in real life by a subscription model in tech that applies to several modern medical devices and would be almost sure to apply to the one described in the episode, should it ever come to pass. This is what Black Mirror does best: taking an emerging awfulness and cranking up the resolution until it grates against viewers’ eyes.