Black Mirror returns with mostly favorable reviews of the seventh season of the Charlie Brooker-created series. The April 10 drop featured six episodes, including a sequel to 2017’s “USS Callister” episode with Cristin Milioti and has a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Some episodes, as you’d expect with a potpourri, are less compelling than others, but the series hits the high notes of human loss and love amid our relationship with tech and the search for life’s meaning with flashes of Brooker brilliance,” writes Carol Midgley (The Times).
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One episode receiving high praise is titled “Eulogy.” It stars Paul Giamatti, who gives a powerful performance as a man who can step into old photographs to relive certain moments with a former love. “One could watch this episode entirely divorced from the world of Black Mirror and witness one of the best short films of 2025,” writes Brian Tallerico (RogerEbert.com ), and Daniel D’Addario (Variety) calls Giamatti’s work, “one of the series’ best acting performances ever.”
The series’ first sequel, “USS Callister: Into Infinity,” brings back most of the original cast, including Jesse Plemons, Milioti, and Jimmi Simpson, and is also getting high marks. Variety stated it is “an actual sequel episode, ‘USS Callister: Into Infinity’ dazzled me with how far it was able to push beyond the premise of its seemingly closed-ended predecessor.”
Meanwhile, Judy Berman (Time) praised the work of Tracee Ellis Ross, Rashida Jones, and Chris O’Dowd in Episode 1, “Common People,” saying it had a, “balance tenderness with dark humor, Ellis masters the art of cold corporate politesse.” In the episode, a woman (Jones) who gets a brain tumor seeks help through an experimental biotech product called Rivermind.
Yet not all the episodes are getting such rave reviews. Nick Hilton (The Independent) said the episode “Plaything” is, “just so fantastically stupid, yet played with utter po-faced seriousness” and also gave two out of five stars to an episode titled “Bête Noire” about a rivalry at a confectionery company between two women who knew each other in the past.
The Black Mirror franchise has been a favorite of the Television Academy, with 16 overall nominations (including two international Emmy bids) and nine wins (including an international Emmy). Black Mirror last won at the Emmys in 2019 for the standalone movie Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.
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