Fans of Black Mirror have been left shocked that Netflix approved the first episode of the new season.
The streaming service has just released all six episodes of Black Mirror’s highly anticipated seventh season, and the very first episode is already sparking major conversation.
Titled Common People, the season opener from Charlie Brooker's latest dive into digital dystopia has shocked viewers, not only for its chilling storyline but for what many see as a thinly veiled jab at Netflix itself.
The episode stars Rashida Jones and Chris O’Dowd as Amanda and Mike, a couple trying to conceive. But when Amanda is diagnosed with a brain tumour and falls into a coma, Mike is approached by a representative from a cutting-edge tech company called Rivermind.
The company offers a radical fix: surgically replace the damaged part of Amanda’s brain with a synthetic version wired directly to the cloud.
There’s just one problem - Amanda’s very existence is now dictated by her subscription tier. As a basic-tier subscriber, she is restricted to a small radius around Rivermind headquarters and unknowingly has advertisements streamed straight into her mind.
The only way to stop the invasive ads and expand her mobility is by upgrading to a more expensive plan.
The parallels to real-world streaming services weren’t lost on viewers, and many were stunned that the streaming giant allowed the episode to air.
“Bold of Netflix to have this Common People episode of Black Mirror,” one user posted on X (formerly Twitter). "Netflix putting on ads right after the 'ads' scene in black mirror's common people was some (genius) evil s***," a second shared.
A third questioned, “How t* have Netflix release common people, an episode of black mirror, and not realise they are part of the problem???” while a fourth chimed in: “Black mirror has always been the idea of what a futuristic dystopian world would look like. season 7, episode 1 Common People feels more like our current reality."
"It's really ironic netflix allowed that on their platform considering it reflects them poorly. Praise the creators," they said.
When asked by Variety if the episode was a deliberate shot at Netflix, Brooker downplayed the speculation.
“Almost disappointingly, no,” he said. “I’d like to be able to say we’re such rebels and we snuck this on. But no, it actually came about genuinely from various different angles."
He explained the idea was sparked by something more every day. “One was just listening to podcasts, observing how the posts naturally drift into sort of sales pitches. They have to do a sponsored bit, and they almost do it without breaking their speech patterns. So there was a comic idea at the heart of that.”
All seven seasons of Black Mirror are now streaming on Netflix.