Cult sci-fi series Black Mirror returns to its roots in latest seventh season

LONDON – The much-anticipated television series Black Mirror (2011 to present) returned to Netflix on April 10 for a seventh season, promising to immerse fans once again in its dystopian worlds replete with futuristic technology.

After a two-year wait, the award-winning sci-fi anthology created by British writer Charlie Brooker aired six new episodes, including a sequel to the fourth season’s USS Callister episode – a space epic inspired by the Star Trek universe.

“There are a few episodes that are quite unpleasant,” Brooker, 54, said at the 2025 Series Mania international television festival in northern French city Lille in March.

He added they were more like the “OG (original) Black Mirror”, referring to the earlier seasons which often explored disturbing scenarios driven by technology. “There’s quite a lot of emotional (episodes)... So, it’s a mix, which is kind of what you’d expect from Black Mirror, of the familiar and the unexpected.”

Some episodes are, ironically, dripping in nostalgia, exploring technology that could let you relive a memory by entering an old photograph or recreate a black-and-white film using artificial intelligence.

Fans will see actors like Paul Giamatti, Awkwafina, Rashida Jones, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae and Emma Corrin on their screen through the season.

The cult show, which has nine Emmys to its name, first aired on Britain’s Channel 4 between 2011 and 2014, before moving to Netflix in 2016 and winning global acclaim.

The previous sixth season, written during the Covid-19 pandemic at a time when Brooker said he was “sick of technology”, was more gory and supernatural than older seasons.

Shortly after its release in 2023, it was the No. 1 show globally on Netflix, with over 11 million views in the first week.

The seventh season should appeal to long-time fans, thanks to its return to the “near-future tech themes, with the satirical undercurrent and social commentary sprinkled on top”, said Brooker.

It is a recipe for success that the season swiftly reprises in the disturbing first episode called Common People. It tells the story of a woman (Jones) saved by miraculous medical technology that her husband (Chris O’Dowd) signs up for, but which gradually consumes the couple with its cynical subscription-based model.

Black Mirror shows how technology itself is “not evil or malicious”, Brooker said. “Often the humans involved in the stories aren’t necessarily malicious, but there’s a clumsiness. In a way, we’re the problem,” he added. AFP