The Kitchen Sink

What would you do if the most important person in your life got into an irreversible coma, and a mysterious company told you they have a solution that will bring your loved one back and all it would take would be a free surgery and a subscription of $300 a month?

That’s the premise of Common People, the first episode of Season 7 of Black Mirror, which came out just a couple days ago on Netflix, bringing the sci-fi modern classic back to the public when, let’s face it, we need it the most. 

Common People tells the common story of Michael and Amanda, a couple about to celebrate their wedding anniversary with a weekend getaway to Juniper, the inn where they got married three years ago. After a night of their traditional Juniper Brat Burgers and poking fun of the restaurant’s band, they retire to their cottage to make love and talk about their plans of maybe having a “happy accident” of a child, until Amanda starts getting what seem to be routine migraines, which, the following monday, result in her falling unconscious during her work as a teacher at the local Elementary School. 

Michael finds out, at the hospital, that Amanda has a brain tumour and has fallen into an irreversible coma, but a kind doctor recommends to him Rivermind, a trial-phase miraculous company working on a cure for brain damage. Their representative, played brilliantly by Tracee Ellis Ross, tells Michael the therapy includes backing up Amanda’s entire self into a cloud, then removing the tumour, and inserting a fake piece of brain that would then be loaded with all her memories, making her the same as she was before. 

And she is the same as she was before. Sure, she’s sleeping more and more everyday but that’s a common side effect, they can absolutely live with that. For a while. 

Out of nowhere, Amanda starts going dead behind the eyes and reciting scripted tidbits of advertisement, like how they should try Espresso Grande, a brand of coffee that roasts the beans slow and long for a richer, smoother taste; or telling her elementary school students about Honey Nugs, whole grain chunk cereal covered in golden Tupelo honey, the sweetest way to start your day! Unfortunately, Amanda has no idea she’s voicing these ads, as she’s not conscious when they came out of her mouth, so when she tells a little boy whose mother is trying to get them safely away from his abusive father that they should go visit ChristsHeart.com, a christian family-based counselling website that aims to keep families together no matter what, she doesn’t even remember it, which gets her in serious trouble with the principal of her school (although it doesn’t help that she also recommends the principal sign up for Silver Swans, a dating site for those over 50). 

That’s when Michael and Amanda find out that Rivermind has a new exciting tier, Rivermind Plus, that comes with no ads AND the ability to travel outside of the county, since their package, Rivermind Common, has now become obsolete, and if they wish to upgrade, they’d have to fork up another $500 a month, taking their subscription to $800 a month. 

While all this is happening, we have two important bits of commentary happening in the background: 

1. The reminder that teachers and manual labourers do not make nearly enough money to afford their life, much less nearly enough money to make up for how vital and dangerous their jobs are. 
2. How the gig economy, represented by Michael’s coworker’s obsession with the online gambling site Dum Dummies, which forces desperate people to continuously do more dangerous things to themselves for money, has turned the average worker into a monkey that dances and humiliates itself for spare change. 

And that’s when the episode takes the expected turn – Michael, willing to do whatever it takes to make sure his beloved wife stays alive, signs up for Dum Dummies, with a bunny mask, and starts doing increasingly more disturbing things to himself in order to afford his wife’s treatment, resulting in his coworkers finding out and mocking him, and a fight breaking between them which ends up with Mike fired and his coworker maimed or dead. 

From this point on, there’s no way out. Not only has Rivermind introduced a new subscription tier, Rivermind Lux, which comes with the ability to heighten their senses and acquire new abilities, seeing and experiencing the world like never before, but they can no longer afford to pay for even the most basic of subscriptions, leading to Michael going back to Dum Dummies. 

In the final few minutes of the episode, we see a tired Michael wake up his wife after selling the crib she once bought for their baby to a couple that intends on burning it for a video, leading to Michael revealing a toothless grin as he laughs, implying he’s ripped out teeth to pay the bills. It is again June 5, their anniversary, and Michael has a surprise for his wife. 

He takes the frail Amanda outside, telling her he’s bought her 30min of Rivermind Lux, likely all he could afford, so she enjoys a bit of serenity. She hears the birds and feels the breeze, then tells Michael it’s finally time, to which he disagrees, but she insists. She tells him to “do it after I’m gone”, and we accompany Michael as he brings an ad out of Amanda and smothers her to death with a pillow, then locking himself up in his study, with a computer and a box cutter. 

Common People brings out many reflections. To what lengths would we go to save those we love? How can we sit around and cheer human depravity and humiliation done as a desperate attempt to keep themselves and their loved ones alive? But most importantly, Common People reminds us that that is all Michael and Amanda really are, common people.

Like 99,9% of the population, they work menial jobs that pay very little and live modestly, but their love gets them through it. And like 99,9% of the population, one singular hospital bill would be enough to completely ruin their lives. 

Common People makes a blatant mockery of the healthcare system, the greed that leads corporations to force the poor into debt or death so themselves and their loved ones can survive, not live, but survive; the healthcare system that scams and murders without consequence, that forces mothers to pay hundreds of thousands to meet their babies and diabetic people to choose between heating their homes or getting insulin; the healthcare system that pulled the trigger of Luigi Mangione’s gun, and now wishes for him to die as a punishment for his rebellion. 

It is imperative that this episode was set in a world that looks so similar to our own, unlike others such as Nosedive or USS Callister, that seem so far removed we’ve no choice but to see them as entertainment, traditional sci-fi spoofs. But Common People depends on the grittiness of reality, of the everyday worker, to make its many points. 

Of course, one could say that we shouldn’t require expensive series made by gigantic corporations to tell us the reality of existing under a capitalistic society, but we must remember that art is what survives. After we are all gone, art is what will speak for us, what will tell our stories, and this story is one so incredibly common that it needs to be told one million times over, until the system either changes or its brought to its knees by the common people.