Black Mirror season seven dropped today, April 10 on Netflix, and the first episode is a true return to form for the series. It stars Rashida Jones and Chris O'Dowd star as Amanda and Mike, husband and wife, in “Common People”, and the episode is a real tear jerker. It is an excellent episode of Black Mirror.
SPOILERS for Black Mirror season seven episode one below.
The episode starts off by establishing the fact that Amanda and Mike are indeed common people. They've been married for a few years, they're deeply in love, and they're both hard workers. Mike works in construction and Amanda is a teacher. They certainly aren't rich, but they make enough money to have some fun and are even passively trying for children. It's a very relatable story to people around the world.
When everything seems to be going great for them, Amanda passes out while teaching a class and we later find out she has a tumor in her brain. There is no treatment for it except, naturally, for a freaky new science fiction treatment that there is much more to than meets the eye. A company called Rivermind can remove the tumor and the surrounding tissue, make a copy of it, implant the copy into the brain, then send the information that part of the brain is supposed to process through cellular signals, essentially streaming brainwaves. It’s a bit far-fetched, but not so far-fetched that it seems unbelievable.
This is when it starts to get freaky. Because Rivermind is a new company, their signal isn’t everywhere. If Amanda goes outside of their coverage, she shuts down entirely. Essentially, she goes into a coma until she goes back within the coverage range.
Of course, the subscription is expensive. It’s not outlandishly expensive for a lifesaving and preserving streaming service, which is exactly what Mike and Amanda think, but they make it work. Mike takes extra shifts and overtime to make sure they can pay for it. Amanda would do this too, but the Rivermind needs her to sleep more, just an hour or two a night, to make sure their servers aren’t overloaded.
The entire thing is an expertly written allegory for insurance and the often ridiculous cost of life saving medications. Want to stay alive? All you have to do is subscribe to this service for several hundred dollars a month.
The freakiness continues when, a bit over a year into their subscription, Amanda’s device is updated without her or Mike’s knowledge. Without her choice or consent, Amanda turns into a walking ad. At random points, but points that are still applicable to the conversation, Amanda will recommend a product to whoever is around her. She recommends Christian family counseling to a student who is expressing home troubles, lubrication to her husband while they’re being intimate, and a over-fifty dating app to her boss who is forty-nine. Now, Amanda’s job is on the line.
Of course, there’s a solution to this problem: simply upgrade to Rivermind Plus for only five hundred additional dollars a month for a total of eight hundred dollars a month. Oh, and the current plan is called Rivermind Common now, for “Common People”.
Now, the allegory for insurance and the American healthcare system has incorporated streaming services, the abuse of the consumer, inescapable advertisements, and the hijacking of data to make money. The incorporation is seamless and creates, but hopefully doesn’t predict, a real world scenario that we aren’t too far away from. It’s Black Mirror at its finest.
Now, Mike, who has already been working constantly, has to turn to other means for money. His younger, annoying coworker watches a terrifying, humiliation website called DumbDummies where people will do embarrassing, disgusting, or pain invoking things for money. Mike turns to this service to make the extra cash to pay for the upgrade so his wife can stay alive as a regular person and not as a walking advertisement. He wears a mask to keep his identity secret, but starts to drink soap, urine, and even puts a mouse trap on his tongue for money.
As the year goes on, Rivermind becomes even more demanding. Amanda is sleeping twelve hours every single night. That means Mike and Amanda almost never get to see each other. Mike is always working and, when Amanda isn’t also working, she’s asleep because she has to be.
When they go to Rivermind to ask about how much she’s sleeping, Mike and Amanda learn there has been another upgrade and change to the way the system works without their knowledge. Rivermind Plus has become Rivermind Standard, and a brand new, super premium plan has been introduced called Rivermind Lux. This plan is much more than just staying alive; it’s improvement. Emotions and physical sensations can be turned up or down as needed and new skills can be downloaded from other users. Of course, Rivermind Standard users have to sleep more because the services need more power and they’re using the brains of lesser Rivermind subscribers for that power. Good thing she’s a Rivermind Standard user and only has to sleep twelve hours. If she was a Common user, she’d have to sleep for sixteen.
Mike’s solution? Work even harder. Use DumbDummies even more. Remove the mask. Use a phallic shaped object on oneself. All of this to afford Rivermind Lux for his wife, to see her happy, to see her, at the very least, awake. The story becomes an example of how hard a person will work, how much they will sacrifice, how much humiliation they will take, to see their loved one healthy and happy, to give them what they need. To celebrate their anniversary, Mike buys Amanda just twelve hours of Rivermind Lux so she can feel good again.
However, Mike’s coworker figured out he was using DumbDummies and printed a picture of him using it on a construction site. Mike can’t take it, hits the kid, but, just after they’re pulled off each other, the kid falls and is partially crushed by heavy machinery. Mike is fired. Of course, Rivermind doesn’t care. They won’t help. They even tell Mike and Amanda that pregnancy costs an extra ninety dollars a month.
We don’t see Amanda get let go, but, as time continues onward, it’s assumed that she is no longer working. Mike is using DumbDummies and selling their belongings to get by. He’s missing a tooth. The crib they bought for their future child is sold to some kids who are going to burn it for a music video. It is absolutely heart wrenching.
On their anniversary, Mike buys Amanda thirty minutes of Rivermind Lux. He turns her serenity up to maximum so she can feel good. She says it’s time. They go to the bedroom, say their goodbyes, and, as Amanda turns back into a human advertisement, Mike smothers her with a pillow while she recommends an antidepressant. Queue the tears. The episode ends as Mike goes into a different room with a box cutter presumably to take his own life.
This was one of the saddest episodes of Black Mirror ever not only because it involved a husband and wife dying, but because it was so relatable. Everyone is struggling with money right now. People can often barely afford lifesaving medication. Insurance is expensive, medicine is expensive, treatment is expensive, living is expensive. Would you allow yourself to turn into a human ad if it meant living with your husband longer? Would you defile yourself online to keep your wife alive and human? Is this where we’re heading?
This episode was amazing. The only complaint I have is that Mike chose a slow, forceful way to kill Amanda. It felt like this was chosen just to make it extra sad for the audience. However, this is a small problem in an incredible episode.
Black Mirror season seven episode one is incredible. It’s amazing commentary on the state of the American healthcare system, abuse of the subscriber to insurance or streaming services, and how far one would go to be with their loved ones.
10/10