Black Mirror 7 episode 1 review: What if love came with a subscription fee?

Black Mirror is back with season 7, and its first episode, “Common People” is as hauntingly relatable as ever. Here’s what we thought of the latest tech-induced horror!

We’re so used to our lives running on subscriptions—Spotify playing while we cook, Netflix quietly humming our favorite sitcoms in the background as we clean, YouTube Premium keeping the ads at bay during our workout. Imagine waking up one day and realizing you can't afford any of them anymore. The comfort, the convenience—all gone. You’d adapt, right? Maybe you’d switch to a cheaper plan or discover a new app. But what if this subscription model extended beyond entertainment and productivity? What if it applied to something far more intimate—like keeping your loved one alive?

This is the haunting premise of Black Mirror Season 7, Episode 1: "Common People."
Starring Rashida Jones and Chris O’Dowd, the episode introduces us to Amanda and Mike, a sweet, working-class couple. Amanda is a schoolteacher; Mike is a metalworker. They’re just getting by, budgeting tightly while hoping to try for a baby again after a painful miscarriage. Their life is already stretched thin financially, emotionally, and physically. Then tragedy strikes. Amanda collapses at school. The diagnosis? A malignant, inoperable brain tumor. But hope arrives not in the form of a miracle doctor but a shiny tech startup called Rivermind. Their slick representative (Tracee Ellis Ross) offers an experimental, cloud-based solution. For free, the part of the brain with the tumor will be surgically removed and will be replaced by a backed-up cloud with Amanda’s memories all intact, restoring her as she was. Think iCloud, but for your brain!

Sounds revolutionarily life-saving. But, of course, there’s a catch. Rivermind is a subscription service. $300 a month, though it's a small price to keep Amanda alive. But as we all know from our own experience with freemium apps and hidden upgrade fees, 300 is just the beginning. Soon, Amanda is sleeping longer each day so the server can rest. Then, out of nowhere, she starts glitching—spewing intrusive ads in the middle of conversations, even in her classroom. The fix? Upgrade to Rivermind Plus. Want to remove the side effects altogether and get back to normalcy with high resolution? You’ll need Rivermind Lux, the premium tier—maximum clarity, maximum emotional regulation, premium-priced peace of mind that you can control at only $1000 a month! Amazing, right after all, who wouldn’t want maximum relaxation even if a war was ongoing! 

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This episode isn’t just tech dystopia—it’s a chilling mirror. Rivermind is a metaphor for our reality, where healthcare is a privilege, and survival itself is a branded, tiered experience. It interrogates the idea that scientific progress and medicine only widen the gap between those who can afford it and those who can't. If you’re rich, you get the luxury of healing. If you’re poor, well, you settle for surviving. That’s what makes you “common people.” And maybe the most terrifying part? We’re already halfway there. We live in a world where services promise to fix the insecurities we've been taught to obsess over: delivery that erases travel to supermarkets, food that satisfies mind hunger, apps that claim to fix your lack of focus (caused by other apps). It’s tech designed to cure problems tech created. A consumer loop that feeds itself. We scroll, doubt, indulge—and deep down, we know that no potion can make us immortal, no software can stop dying. But the illusion is addictive. One anxious thought bubble, and we hit “Subscribe.” What if someday, that is for your partner’s consciousness or yours? Wouldn’t you install a brain cloud if it meant getting your loved one back—even if that version came with ads? Wouldn’t you go to any length to keep that person alive, even if it meant selling yourself for it?

"Common People" is less science fiction and more a warning whispered in our ears: that we are building toward a future where denial feels safer than reality and where a subscription might be the only thing keeping all of us alive. In a world where memories are monetised and emotions are algorithmically enhanced, who decides what it means to live truly?

Black Mirror season 7 is currently streaming on Netflix!