An Existential Crisis: 'Hotel Reverie' Review Black Mirror Season 7, Episode 3

Black Mirror Season 7, 2025

Episode Three Review

S7 EP03 | Hotel Reverie 

Hollywood A-list actor Brandy Friday is thrown into an unusually immersive high-tech remake of a vintage romantic movie. She must stick to the script and make sure none of the AI characters become suspicious if she ever wants to leave. 

On paper this is my idea of the perfect episode of Black Mirror, combining modern technology with classic Hollywood cinema seems like a dream come true. Imagining this sort of technology in reality is absolutely mind-blowing, imagine stepping inside classic movies and being able to interact with the characters in real time? I was ready for this episode to blow me away and honestly, it took a while but it did. 

Hotel Reverie is a poetic commentary on modern Hollywood, from the idea of interjecting modern times into classic cinema and attempting to reinvent and reimagine old movies feels incredibly on the nose and I personally liked this commentary. The reality of modern Hollywood is that it lacks control or originality, studios are terrified to cause upset and would much rather regurgitate the same stories we’ve already seen. Hotel Reverie does just this, it quite literally attempts to retell the exact same film from decades ago but things don’t quite go to plan. 

‘ReDream’ is the company that creates the technology possible to remake classic movies, the story comments on the idea of chasing vintage, reinventing the old but most of all challenging our understanding of AI. Although the fancy Hollywood storyline is enticing it is simply a facade for a deeper meaning, the ever growing question of what is technology capable of? 

Once Brandy is inside the film Hotel Reverie she must interact with the characters and recite her lines perfectly to not mess up the plot of the feature. Everything that is said or done inside the simulation has a knock on effect and therefore plays out the narrative of the film, or does it? Brandy plays the role of love interest for classic actress Dorothy, who plays the role of Clara. The two are suppose to form a love affair whilst avoiding the murder attempts on Dorothy's life - a classic film noir plot.

As the episode plays out the technology glitches and Brandy becomes frustrated with the lack of communication between her and the team in reality. In a heat of rage she tells Clara (Dorothy) that she isn’t real and she is simply an extension of an actress who is long dead. Clara begins to question her existence and later finds herself flooded with memories from her former life. This is when the episode took a turn for me, personally up to this point I was a little disconnected from the characters and the episode felt void of any emotion but, once Clara regained her memories the episode was flooded with intention and purpose. 

We finally get Dorothy’s (Clara’s) backstory and it was worth the wait to learn more about her when she was alive. This is where the concept becomes mudded and that is the intention, Charlie Brooker wants you to watch this episode and forget Clara is ‘not real’ but also, what constitutes ‘real’? This episode truly makes you think can AI life hold value? Does AI life have meaning? And what are the challenges with AI ethics?

Hotel Reverie was incredibly similar to ‘San Junipero’ (Season 3, Episode 4) and although the emotionally driven, balled episodes of Black Mirror aren’t my favourite Hotel Reverie was moving to say the least. Emma Corrin and Issa Rae were magnetic, especially Corrin who blew me away with her performance. 

There is so much to dissect within this episode, from eater eggs like the Streamberry platform. To incredibly subtle industry notes like actors spending less time working meaning the studios can pay them less - all of these moments didn’t go amiss and genuinely terrified me for the future of Hollywood. 

Charlie Brooker does it again, he brings us an intelligent, emotional love story that will leave you a little empty after watching. What is the meaning of life anyway? 

Probe Points

★★★☆☆