Black Mirror's Common People Hits Close To Home, Because It Took Something Annoying And Made It Terrifying

Warning: SPOILERS for Black Mirror Season 7, Episode 1 - “Common People,” are in play.

Netflix’s Black Mirror isn’t exactly the cheeriest show on the market. While creator Charlie Brooker’s dystopian anthology does have some upbeat episodes in its canon, it’s mostly known for shocking morality plays that highlight our modern preoccupations with technology. So for Season 7 to arrive on the 2025 TV schedule with a story so upsetting that it’s a good thing it was put into the debut slot is saying a lot.

Brace yourselves, especially if you thought “Beyond The Sea’s” chilling ending from Season 6 was a heartbreaker. Thanks to what I saw in Black Mirror Season 7’s premiere, “Common People,” the annoying habit of streaming providers raising their subscription rates has now been translated into a more terrifying and potentially deadly concept.

Common People May Be Black Mirror’s Bleakest Hour

The short, short version of Black Mirror’s Season 7 premiere sees Mike (Chris O’Dowd) and Amanda (Rashida Jones) colliding with the modern miracles of science. Thanks to a medical emergency that leaves Amanda with severe brain damage, “Common People” sees her loving husband engage in the services of the tech firm Rivermind.

Their promise is too good to pass up: a cloud-based implant that mimics the function of that area of the brain. As corporate rep Gaynor (Tracee Ellis Ross) describes in the segment of her pitch that closes the deal:

Since this is the same universe that has made us fear social media, robotics and video games, you can pretty much call where this story is going. However, that’s what makes “Common People” such a heartbreaking journey to undertake.

Each obstacle that raises the stakes is clearly going to see Amanda getting worse, and Mike becoming even more desperate. It gets to the point where a segment of the plot I thought was going to become a conflict, the couple's traditional anniversary trip to "The Juniper," didn't even pan out.

With each change to Rivermind’s services politely laid out in recurring consultations with Gaynor, the cost goes up - and the service’s offerings decrease. So instead of a bland blow-up over a routine that Amanda clearly isn't that into anymore, we something sadder.

The high cost of Rivermind is something that leads to a huge reason why I’m surprised this Netflix subscription booster was allowed to go as hard as it does. In re-reading that quote provided above, it dawned on me that one could easily draw the parallel to the Netflix story.

A fledgling by-mail rental service trying to break into the world of streaming, with free trials and affordable rates as the lure. Sure, it's not overtly built into the episode's story; but the connotation is heavily hinted at with the trivial example of subscription services scaling up prices while gating off features.

Black Mirror Season 7’s Preoccupation With Subscription Models Hits Hardest Here

While Season 6’s round of anthological storytelling naturally mocked its home platform’s business model, “Common People” uses that lens on a very essential field: the healthcare industry. Through all of this Black Mirror premiere’s pitfalls, Amanda’s quality of life declines.

One big example of that at work, which was shown off in Season 7's cryptic trailer, sees Rashida Jones’ character eventually finds herself becoming an advertising platform. Momentary, unpredictable blackouts see Amanda lose time, in which she shills everything from coffee to religious family counseling.

If she wants to have anything resembling a normal life, she needs to upgrade from Rivermind Common (the OG plan) to the ad-free/extended coverage tier known as Rivermind Plus. That leads Mike to consider increasingly desperate means to pay for this medical “miracle,” which goes in a direction that is reminiscent of Black Mirror's first season reality TV sendup "Fifteen Million Merits."

And that's before we even get to the horror that is Rivermind Lux! I'll let you discover the perils of that plan on your own, but I will recommend you pause the medical ad parody that's included in the pitch. You need to read that fine print carefully, as it's a subtle, much needed laugh in the middle of a seriously dour affair.

That example probably has you recalling Netflix’s controversial ‘Basic Tier’ removal. Even the gripes connected to Amazon Prime’s introduction of ads for subscribers who didn't even change their plan are reflected in a moment of anger for Chris O'Dowd, as Michael criticizes a plan change for not keeping in mind those patrons who helped build Rivermind's foundation.

In a way similar to how Season 6’s “Joan is Awful” criticized Netflix’s production and release methods, “Common People” takes the rising cost of entertainment and applies that methodology to a person’s health. I don’t know about you, but as a neurodivergent Type 1 diabetic, I would hate for my quality of life to be impeded by compulsory ad breaks when I try to take my meds.

A comparatively trivial matter has been given a very real face in Black Mirror’s Season 7 premiere. Sadly, while this round of speculative fiction is still not a commonplace reality, as you'll see in this article from IEEE Spectrum, writers Charlie Brooker & Bisha K. Ali are closer to the truth than most would realize.

At its heart, “Common People” is a classic example of how Charlie Brooker and his writers have continued to break our hearts through fiction, so that it does not easily become fact. So having this be the premiere and “USS Callister Into Infinity” serve as the finale makes emotional sense.

With a trio of powerful performances from Rashida Jones, Chris O’Dowd and Tracee Ellis Ross, the subject matter walks a line between humor and heartbreak - until the latter becomes too overwhelming to ignore. In a world where being “common” becomes a disadvantage, everything feels a bit crueler and colder.

But you don’t need to take my word for it, as all six episodes of Black Mirror's Season 7 are now streaming on Netflix - no matter what tier you’re subscribed to. And get used to those subscription price jabs, as they're a running thread throughout this season.