• Black Mirror season 7 is here
  • The show has wasted no time making fans feel uncomfortable
  • Debut episode Common People has been labelled “Haunting”
Chris O'Dowd and Rashida Jones star in Common People Black Mirror episode.
Chris O’Dowd and Rashida Jones star in Common People Black Mirror episode. Credit: Netflix

It may have only just dropped onto Netflix but fans are already freaked out by the Common People Black Mirror storyline. 

In fact, the debut episode of Black Mirror season 7 has been labelled “haunting” by some viewers who were disturbed by the return of Charlie Brooker’s dystopian series. 

Read more: Nubbin Black Mirror tech: what is it?

Common People stars Chris O’Dowd and Rashida Jones as a couple put into a precarious situation. Thankfully, a new tech company offers them a glimmer of hope during their darkest hour – but like most things on Black Mirror, it comes at quite a cost. 

The episode kick starts Brooker’s six-episode seventh season. Like most instalments, Black Mirror’s latest outing begins with a plot that’ll no doubt hit home for many, albeit in a very heightened way.

Read more: Black Mirror season 7: What are the critics saying?

So what happens in Common People and why have fans been left so dismayed by it? Here’s a quick round up of all the key information you need.

Common People Black Mirror episode plot 

The Common People Black Mirror episode features an eerily relatable story.
The Common People Black Mirror episode features an eerily relatable story. Credit: Netflix

Common People follows the lives of Mike (Dowd) and Amanda (Jones), a happy couple living a seemingly idyllic life. However, their tranquil existence is suddenly thrown into uncertainty when Amanda is diagnosed with a brain tumour. 

Thankfully, a new tech company can help. As the pair quickly discover, the experimental techniques offered by Rivermind can fix Amanda’s health issues and create a digital back-up of her brain which exists on a cloud-type system. 

This solves Amanda’s problem. However, things take a sinister turn when the pair discover they must pay rapidly increasing monthly fees to maintain access to Amanda’s cloud memory. If they don’t things will fall apart – at worst Mike’s will lose his wife, at best she’ll be subjected to verbal advert-outbursts.

What are fans saying about it?

Feeling trapped into subscription services is a pain any movie or TV fan will know all too well.

After all, in recent years it feels like we’ve all been impacted by sneaky subscription fee increases if we want to avoid disruptive adverts or keep watching the entertainment we love. 

As such, many viewers strongly related to Mike and Amanda’s story.

One user called it “haunting” and “depressing,” adding that it’ll “stay with me for some time.”

Another viewer called it one of Black Mirror’s “saddest and best” episodes so far.

Others thought it was a powerful way to launch the new series.

Meanwhile, others weren’t ignorant to the irony of this type of storyline appearing on Netflix, a platform that has recently increased its own subscription tiers.

“Common People episode of #BlackMirror is cheekyy considering Netflix’s subscription tiers,” said one fan.

“Common People episode of Black Mirror is a little too realistic for me,” joked another.

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Simon Bland
Simon is a freelance entertainment journalist and SEO writer based in the UK. He writes about movies, TV and pop-culture and his work has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Beast, IndieWire, Yahoo Entertainment, Rolling Stone, Little White Lies and more.
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