Eulogy is the anthology’s most ‘heartfelt and quietly devastating’ episode ever

Viewers have been “shattered” by Eulogy, an emotional new episode within the seventh season of Charlie Brooker’s sequence, starring Paul Giamatti.

Since 2011, Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones’ dystopian anthology sequence, Black Mirror, has introduced 34 tales in regards to the darkish aspect of know-how: how laptop programs and digital devices may distort, warp and even finish life for people.

There have been the surprising, twist-filled episodes – a major minister is compelled to have intercourse with a pig on reside TV to launch a kidnapped princess (Nationwide Anthem); a girl chased by bounty hunters on a sadistic actuality TV present is revealed to be a child-killer (White Bear) – however once in a while, there is a story that transcends the “what if know-how went dangerous?” theme and as a substitute manages to seize the multi-layered nuances of human existence.

This light, extra emotional aspect to Black Mirror has beforehand emerged in a number of fan-favourite episodes, resembling San Junipero, launched in 2016: a love story between two younger girls set within the 80s, that’s later revealed to be a simulated actuality the place the useless and the nonetheless dwelling can co-exist collectively on-line. Be Proper Again (2013) was prescient in its explorations of AI, and the way the expertise of grief may lead somebody to create a computer-generated model of their cherished one. And themes of infidelity and sexual obsession considered by way of an embedded reminiscence “grain” had been explored with devastating ends in 2011’s The Whole Historical past of You, written by Succession’s Jesse Armstrong.

And whereas there’s at all times a spot for barely foolish, catastrophising predictions of the endgame of computer systems and the web (Plaything and Widespread Folks in season seven are first rate new examples of this), Black Mirror excels when the know-how is only one a part of the story, not the purpose of the story. The most recent sequence seems to recognise this, and is probably probably the most heartfelt and emotional of the whole catalogue. With three of the seven episodes centred round a love story, nevertheless, it is episode 5, Eulogy, which has been the standout, quietly devastating viewers on the day of its launch. 

“Eulogy broke me in a really specific manner I wasn’t anticipating,” one viewer wrote on X, whereas one other stated it was “an completely heartbreaking but incredible piece of tv… simply superbly painful”. One other consumer added: “Actually unbelievable from each normal potential. I have been crying for the final 5 minutes… Heartbreak cannot even scrape the floor of what this has made me really feel.” One other was nonetheless in restoration from the viewing: “It ha[d] me sobbing. And I imply heavy, fats tears.”  

The critics agree. Stylist’s Kayleigh Dray stated, “Eulogy shattered me, and I can not cease serious about it,” whereas Ben Rosenstock from Vulture added that it was the “most heartbreaking episode of the season”. GameRant‘s Aayush Sharma known as it “the most effective episode of Black Mirror Season 7… Paul Giamatti is EXCEPTIONAL”, and Jake Kleinman from Huffington Publish stated: “It would even be the most effective Black Mirror episode in years.”

Eulogy – co-written by Brooker and Ella Highway – certainly encompasses a fascinating efficiency from Giamatti as Phillip, an older man who’s requested if he’ll use a digital chip to entry his recollections to create a eulogy for the funeral of Carol Royce, a girlfriend who broke his coronary heart in his 20s.

The know-how set-up is only one spectacular strand of this episode because the particular results featured enable Phillip to “soar” into previous photographs, exploring the recreated scene round him. But it surely’s the world-building exterior of those merged live-action and CGI scenes that’s really affecting. Piece by piece, the story of Phillip and Carol’s relationship and break-up is revealed by way of his previous pictures and mementos – the way it was fractured by him having an affair; the next dramatic proposal he orchestrates in London; and his humiliation when she walks out on him, by no means to be heard from once more. 

His ensuing emotional turmoil is palpable, particularly in Giamatti’s highly effective monologues. However with the assistance of an avatar “information” (performed by Patsy Ferran) within the Eulogy digital chip, Phillip discovers data that offers him a model new perspective that might have modified the course of his and Carol’s lives – however which, tragically, has come too late.

Brooker advised Vulture that Eulogy is supposed to be a companion piece to Be Proper Again and The Whole Historical past of You, and examines the blinding, subjective nature of hindsight: “We had been speaking about reminiscence and pictures, and the way a person’s tackle reminiscence may deceive them by way of who they really feel is the villain of their life.” He added to Rolling Stone: “It is any individual utilizing know-how to revisit the previous and are available out with a barely totally different perspective and put some ghosts to relaxation.” 

Brooker additionally revealed that the lack of his personal father – and having to learn the eulogy at his funeral – had made the topic much more poignant for him. Eulogy, like a lot of the anthology, performs with the thought of nostalgia. For Phillip, nevertheless, this nostalgia has curdled; any good recollections he might need had of Carol have been mentally and bodily destroyed by him, leaving him quietly seething with remorse and bitterness for nearly 30 years.

As is sort of customary for Black Mirror characters – and in life itself, maybe – there is no such thing as a neat, comfortable ending in Eulogy, however Phillip is given a bittersweet second of cathartic acceptance, which is what is de facto resonating with viewers. As Giamatti advised Rolling Stone on studying the script for Eulogy: “I used to be actually moved by it on the finish, which does not at all times occur to me.” Even probably the most cynical of Black Mirror followers must agree that this could be probably the most heartfelt episode but.  

Black Mirror season seven is offered on Netflix.