The Macquarie Dictionary’s 2024 word of the year was “enshittification”, the gradual deterioration of an online service or product when profits are prioritised over customer experience. Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror (Netflix) takes this concept and gallops with it in Common People, the terrific opening episode to series 7, to show where, logically, all this is taking us. It’s terrifying because it doesn’t even feel implausible.

In a multifaceted series that features its first sequel (USS Callister: Into Infinity) there will be a surprise for the fandom (I can say no more, but it’s a treat). Some episodes, as you’d expect with a potpourri, are less compelling than others but the series hits the high notes of human loss and love amid our