This does not, however, mean that we will be going low-tech. If anything, the tech in here arguably even more futuristic, dealing with uploads to the brain as opposed to "just" making copies and recordings.
The Premise
Cooper is paid to playtest a new gaming concept by gaming company Saito Geimu - an immersive horror virtual reality game. This being Black Mirror, something of course goes horribly and ironically wrong.The Characters
Wyatt Russell is Cooper Redfield. The script paints him as a nice sensitive guy, if sometimes unethical. Personally, I think he did fine even though his very prominent chin got a bit distracting in the early stages. Thankfully that beard later on took care of that. And guess what - he plays U.S Agent in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier! Dude was definitely working out after this episode, because he looks kind of doughy here.Hannah John-Kamen as Sonja, whom I last saw in Ant-Man and the Wasp and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. She's all right here. Seems like a poor man's Emily Blunt.
Wunmi Mosaku as Katie. Friendly and professional, sometimes dry and sarcastic. I enjoyed that performance.
Ken Yamamura as Shou Saito, the Japanese game designer. At first glance, he comes across as warm, friendly and enthusiastic about his craft. Near the end, when we see the real him, he's more sociopathic genius than anything. When the playtest fails and Cooper dies, he looks more bored than anything.
Elizabeth Moynihan appears near the end as Cooper's mother, who is suffering from dementia. She cuts a pretty tragic figure.
The Mood
Things start out bright, cheery, and dare I say, pedestrian. Midway through, it goes into clinically white, which seems to be a pattern with Black Mirror, and things soon become dark and sinister once Cooper begins his playtesting.What I liked
The tech visuals are nice. The equipment, the interfaces and all, don't look over-the-top. It's smooth, minimalistic design.
Cooper and Sonja has this American-vs-Brit thing going. Cooper even has this line, which was cheesy, but elicited a chuckle. Wyatt Russell really sells it too.
All right. You are a top bird. I don't know what that means, but I heard somebody say it once, and you're it.
That Whack-a-Mole game is something else!
Since the system has scanned Cooper's head, everything he is experiencing from that point onwards contains little nods to stuff that went on earlier. For example, in the game, he is reading a book with this chapter. Earlier on, Cooper and Sonja met in a place called The Raven Inn. Man, talk about callbacks!
Hot damn, that twist at the end! That was a shocker, for sure.
What I didn't
The entire ten to twenty minute montage of Cooper leaving home, going through his travels, up to the point he finally begins playtesting, just feels like filler.A Redfield in a haunted mansion? Seems to tread overly familiar ground here. What's more, Sonja's actress actually plays Jill Valentine in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City years later!
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