‘Hotel Reverie’ Is Reminiscent Of A Favorite Episode

Former journalist-turned-TV writer Charlie Brooker has gained a cult following with his Netflix sci-fi anthology series, Black Mirror, as viewers worldwide discuss and analyze each episode when new seasons air.

Since its April 10 premiere, the six-episode seventh season has had more than seven million views. The new season of Black Mirror made the Top 10, landing at No. 4 on the English TV list. Additionally, the new season has entered the Top 10 in 71 countries. For gamers, the episodes were launched alongside a mobile video game that they can download and play while binge-watching.

The new episodes have had the usual online buzz, with one being compared to a past favorite. The episode “Hotel Reverie” stands out this season with its bittersweet message of love, how it can be found unexpectedly, and how nothing can destroy it if it’s real. This story is reminiscent of season three’s “San Junipero,” about two women who find true love in a simulated afterlife.

In both stories, love prevails in Brooker’s dark landscape. Each of these tales are, at their core, love stories. The happy-ish ending in “Hotel Reverie” is a departure for Brooker; his twisted tales rarely end on a high note.

In separate sit-down interviews, Awkwafina and Issa Rae confirmed they were both huge fans of Brooker’s writing before signing on.

“The human condition is so fully realized in Charlie’s work,” said Awkwafina. Of this episode, she added, “His stories open up worlds that haven’t been traveled before. Time and space cannot stop a connection, and that’s the ultimate love story. There’s something beautiful about it.”

In “Hotel Reverie,” Rae portrays modern-day Hollywood star Brandy Friday, who is frustrated with being typecast. She believes her luck is changing when she discovers that a favorite vintage romantic film from long ago is getting a remake when Keyworth Pictures studio head Judith Keyworth (Harriet Walter) is approached by Kimmy (Awkwafina) to remake her classic film “Hotel Reverie” with the new Redream software.

Brandy has the idea of gender-swapping the male lead, Alex Palmer, and taking on that role. When offered the part, she signs on without realizing this technology inserts modern stars into classic films for interactive remakes.

Things quickly go awry as Brandy enters the immersive, AI-generated version of the movie. She finds love with the film’s original star, Dorothy Chambers (Emma Corrin), and when she misses a cue, she creates a major plot hole in the story. Trapped in this otherworld, the only way out is to keep the story moving forward until the end credits roll.

Then, an engineer working on the film spills his coffee on a computer server, knocking Redream offline with Brandy trapped inside. In real life, the program is up and running within minutes, but in the simulated reality, months have gone by, and the two women have fallen in love.

“This is about how love can exist outside of this realm, outside of this space,” explained Rae. “Time and space can’t stop this connection. It was bittersweet at the end because there was a real love there that can’t exist in her reality, and that hurt me, despite the ending.”

The episode ends with Brandy and Dorothy, who live in different eras, having an opportunity to connect in this parallel dimension of time. “I thought it was a beautiful episode. It’s interesting because I feel like the themes of Black Mirror coincide with technology gone awry, but there’s always this human element with it. The answer behind the Black Mirror is that it’s up to us how we use this technology. I think that’s the point of this series,” Rae added.

Rae connected to and understood her character immediately. “She desired to take agency over her career and to be seen outside of this box that the industry was putting her in. She felt very lonely to me, and so it felt like it was completely possible that she would enter this world and open herself up to fall in love. I was just drawn to this element of the character, and also how scary this technology would be if it existed.”

Awkwafina described this story as a warning against the misuse of ever-evolving advances in technology. “That’s the scary thing about AI. It’s so integrated into what we do in our lives, and we don’t know what it can do. Every episode of this show serves as a cautionary tale. When you have people peddling technology and they don’t know the bounds of it, then I think we’re all screwed.”