Black Mirror season 7 episode 1 review- “Common People" is its bleakest episode yet — and its most necessary one

"Common People," the thought-provoking opening episode of Black Mirror's seventh series, gets right to the point by reinstating the program's central tenet: the future is already happening, and it is scary.

Amanda is the person played by Rashida Jones in the episode. She goes through a brain operation to save her life, which, as it turns out, is a corporate plot. Keeping a private neural implant, she is obligated to set a subscription for Rivermind Luxe now — or will be cursed to talk non-stop in commercials in an uncontrolled way.

It really feels we are living in a supremely high technological world. As far as the state of our health and debts are concerned, the episode merges fiction with reality. Our world of technology is a step-by-step version of the world of The Handmaid's Tale. Our health could also be in danger due to the incorrect diagnoses of AI-powered doctors. But with all these technical complications, no one is really going beyond the limits. Isn't it?

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The Quiet Collapse of a Marriage

It's more of an account of the two who are faced with not losing the respect for each other than the technological aspect at the core.

Chris O'Dowd gives a very touching performance as Mike, Amanda's husband, whose life falls into pieces while taking care of her — he is without money, love, faith, and finally, without her. He takes a desperate step to get more money by making fun of himself on a viral live-streaming platform, only to be laid off after his secret is revealed.

The intimacy that the couple shared soon turns into a business transaction. Even the smallest moments of connection between them are infected by fake happiness and silent despair. Eventually, Amanda becomes the one who chooses death as the only way and asks Mike to help her.

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A Final Line That Haunts

Mike's fate turns out to be the ultimate blow. He kills Amanda in the middle of an advertisement, and then he says he will "be involved with a project later" — a scary vague phrase that Jones understands as a suicide plan.

"To live without me after going through what he's been through... I think he does the same."

Although the episode is not about the end of Mike, it can be easily deduced. The transition from carer to co-victim is now complete for him. Just like Amanda, he also no longer sees any way out.

A Parable with No Hope

Previous Black Mirror episodes took the audience through ironic plot twists or nail-biting escapes. “Common People” changed that; since this episode, only one solution remains: drop out. Only death can save Mike and Amanda - that is the level where the episode becomes the darkest and deepest one of the series.

It’s the study of greed driven by clinics, the power of extinguishing all other competitors, and the humanity that is stripped unreasonably. They say it is not technology if it acts like a villain, is it? It’s the concept of the game around it, the myth of freedom, the vicious circle of pain for profit.

Final Verdict

I'll definitely give this episode an 8/10⭐

“Common People” is Black Mirror at its most merciless — and most shining. Actors break the rules or are in the zone of bare emotions, the text is short and without deviations, and the claim is highly tragic: love, amid the business-minded environment of life, becomes so irrelevant as not to exist for free.

When we build systems with the primary intent to save the world, we end up getting captured by them. It is called a story.

And it is a painful one.