Charlie Brooker’s ‘Black Mirror‘ returned to Netflix for its 7th Season last week, and is proving to be as subversive as ever, particularly the episode “Bête Noire”, which will have you arguing with your friends over a specific plot point…
“Bête Noire” follows Maria (Siena Kelly), a high-flying development executive at a chocolate company. Everything is going well for her until someone she hasn’t seen since school – a woman named Verity (Rosy McEwen) – shows up for a focus group tasting session. It could be the chance for a heartfelt reunion, except there’s something very odd about Verity, and Maria seems to be the only person who notices.
SPOILER WARNING from here on in…
Verity gets a job working at the chocolate company, and from that point on, things get a little weird for Maria. Her reality seems to shift. Things she swore were true no longer are. One example of this is a discussion in the office over the name of a fried chicken franchise. Was it called “Bernies” or “Barnies”? Maria insists it was one, whereas her colleagues insist it was the other. Maria is adamant she’s correct as her boyfriend worked there and still wears their “stupid baseball cap” every day, which the audience also saw in an earlier scene. Except, when she Googles it, she’s wrong. And when she goes home and checks the cap, it isn’t the name she thought it was… and this is where the subversion comes in…
Brooker and Netflix have released subtly different versions of the show randomly to different Netflix accounts. On some, “Bernies” is “correct”, on others, they flipped it so “Barnies” is “correct”. So you can chat with friends/colleagues who have watched the episode and end up having the same argument that Maria had in the show. It’s a wonderfully twisted little bit of subversive behaviour we love from Brooker.
Alongside Kelly and McEwen, the episode also stars Michael Workéyè as Kae, Ben Bailey Smith as Gabe, Amber Grappy as Yudy, Ravi Aujla as Mr. Ditta, Elena Sanz as Camille, and Hanna Griffiths as Luisa.
Written and created by Charlie Brooker, ‘Black Mirror’ is exec produced by Brooker, Jessica Rhoades, Annabel Jones, Bisha K. Ali. The series is produced by Brooker & Jones’ Broke & Bones, under license from Banijay Rights.
‘Black Mirror‘ Season 7 is available now on Netflix UK and worldwide.
