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Episode 2

Playtest

Playtest

2016
Drama, Sci-fi
TV Episode
57m
An American traveler short on cash signs up to test a revolutionary new gaming system, but soon can't tell where the hoot game ends and reality begins. (imdb)

Directed by:

Daniel Trachtenberg
Daniel-Trachtenberg
8 total credits
American filmmaker and podcast host. He directed the 2016 horror-thriller film 10 Cloverfield Lane which earned him a Directors Guild of America Award nomination. Trachtenberg is also the director of the 2011 short film Portal: No Escape, an episode of Black Mirror entitled "Playtest". He also directed Prey, the fifth Predator film and will be helming a TV series adaptation of Waterworld.

Writer:

Charlie Brooker
Charlie-Brooker
32 total credits
Charlie Brooker has 32 credits at Criticker, including: Black Mirror, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, White Christmas and San Junipero

Starring:

Elizabeth Moynihan
Elizabeth-Moynihan
4 total credits
Elizabeth Moynihan has 4 credits at Criticker, including: Playtest, How About You, 48 Angels and The Reluctant Royal
,
Wunmi Mosaku
Wunmi-Mosaku
26 total credits
Wunmi Mosaku has 26 credits at Criticker, including: Philomena, Loki, The End of the F***ing World, Sinners and Playtest
,
Ken Yamamura
Ken-Yamamura
4 total credits
Ken Yamamura has 4 credits at Criticker, including: The Wolverine, Playtest, Killing for the Prosecution and The Hybrid: Nue no ko
,
Wyatt Russell
Wyatt-Russell
26 total credits
Wyatt Russell has 26 credits at Criticker, including: 22 Jump Street, Escape from L.A., Everybody Wants Some!!, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Overlord
,
Hannah John-Kamen
Hannah-John-Kamen
13 total credits
Hannah John-Kamen has 13 credits at Criticker, including: Ready Player One, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Tomb Raider, Playtest and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
,
Jamie Paul
Jamie-Paul
1 total credit
Jamie Paul has just 1 credit at Criticker: Playtest
,
Jessica Neil
Jessica-Neil
1 total credit
Jessica Neil has just 1 credit at Criticker: Playtest

Franchise:

Black Mirror

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Playtest

2016
Drama, Sci-fi
TV Episode
57m
Avg Percentile 59.51% from 602 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(602)
Compact view
Compact view
Rated 20 Nov 2016
92
81st
Scary and tense. This episode becomes a nonstop rollar coaster half way through and it really unnerved me. The lead is so likable that the ending mindfuck hits really hard.
Rated 16 Nov 2016
38
2nd
Easily my least fave episode (so far). For the first fifteen minutes, nothing makes sense and things just circumstantially happen to allow the story to move forward. It's a very interesting concept relating to both mind control and video games, but its execution is awful mainly because of how smugly self-aware Brooker's script is, and the main character is insufferable. A wasted opportunity.
Rated 10 Nov 2016
70
47th
Genuinely terrifying. I've found movies in this genre (The Game, Total Recall) to overstay their welcome, so it was nice to get a condensed version. The endings to most BM episodes are excessively cruel and this is no exception.
Rated 29 May 2025
54
60th
Seen: 2.
Rated 23 Jul 2024
65
63rd
This would've been so much better if the main character wasn't so insanely annoying.
Rated 29 Aug 2022
3
65th
One of the better episodes of the show. Which isn't much, but still.
Rated 09 Jan 2021
91
88th
I love the Total Recall vibe, this was pretty good.
Rated 29 Mar 2020
45
45th
I found this particular episode to be a bit lacking. It never felt scary to me and the themes of simulated reality and losing memory are par for the course when it comes to sci-fi. Playtest isn't bad, it just doesn't do anything new, anything interesting, or even anything all that well, just passable.
Rated 28 Jul 2018
63
55th
Wunmi Mosaku was nice. I also liked the most of the beginning and build the story, but the playtest itself was not that cool.
Rated 04 Apr 2018
72
43rd
Good, but among my least favorite episodes. It just didn't have the same creativity as others, and I didn't understand why so long was spent at the beginning fleshing out this character. None of it seemed to matter.
Rated 22 Mar 2018
55
53rd
Nobody enjoys a bad trip.
Rated 14 Oct 2017
100
64th
Brilliant
Rated 02 Oct 2017
85
98th
Awesome.
Rated 02 Aug 2017
68
65th
Sufficiently creepy turn.
Rated 21 Mar 2017
50
49th
Basically a much weaker version of eXistenZ. Russell is okay - if a tad irritating - in the lead, and it's got enough going for it to kill an hour, but there's really nothing here that hasn't been seen before elsewhere.
Rated 31 Dec 2016
65
83rd
Like many Black Mirror episodes, what makes it so scary is that the tech is either available or right around the corner. How real Virtual Reality can become is a very scary premise.
Rated 30 Dec 2016
75
84th
Takes a bit of time to get going compared to other episodes but jeez, once it does it doesn't hold back. Intense is an understatement.
Rated 17 Dec 2016
3
9th
The problem with this episode is that any of the eccentric Japanese video game developers that Shou Saitou is based on (take a guess) would've made a far more interesting game given this technology.
Rated 11 Dec 2016
62
66th
Really it's that Futurama Scary Door ending that brings this down.
Rated 09 Dec 2016
86
83rd
Everything that scares us in the 21st century is in this episode. Including our knowledge of what's scaring us and the scary awareness that this shouldn't scare us because we know that this is scary. Scary.
Rated 18 Nov 2016
65
67th
Holy fuck. Tried to watch this by myself. Couldn't get through it. The extreme sadism of the piece really bothered me, and Wyatt Russell seems like such a nice guy. Had to wait for some friends to watch it with me.
Rated 09 Nov 2016
84
94th
Wyatt Russell is genuinely perfect here. [SPOILER] It captures descent into madness about as good as I've ever seen. I can count on one hand the number of times I've actually been scared by a movie/tv show, and this was one of them.
Rated 05 Nov 2016
55
38th
I really like Wyatt Russell (who reminds me a lot of Owen Wilson and is also the offspring of some guy named Kurt). It's a very watchable episode, but I'd rewatch 'Total Recall' or 'eXistenZ' over this any day of the week.

Cast & Info

Directed by:

Daniel Trachtenberg
Daniel-Trachtenberg
8 total credits
American filmmaker and podcast host. He directed the 2016 horror-thriller film 10 Cloverfield Lane which earned him a Directors Guild of America Award nomination. Trachtenberg is also the director of the 2011 short film Portal: No Escape, an episode of Black Mirror entitled "Playtest". He also directed Prey, the fifth Predator film and will be helming a TV series adaptation of Waterworld.

Writer:

Charlie Brooker
Charlie-Brooker
32 total credits
Charlie Brooker has 32 credits at Criticker, including: Black Mirror, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, White Christmas and San Junipero

Starring:

Elizabeth Moynihan
Elizabeth-Moynihan
4 total credits
Elizabeth Moynihan has 4 credits at Criticker, including: Playtest, How About You, 48 Angels and The Reluctant Royal
,
Wunmi Mosaku
Wunmi-Mosaku
26 total credits
Wunmi Mosaku has 26 credits at Criticker, including: Philomena, Loki, The End of the F***ing World, Sinners and Playtest
,
Ken Yamamura
Ken-Yamamura
4 total credits
Ken Yamamura has 4 credits at Criticker, including: The Wolverine, Playtest, Killing for the Prosecution and The Hybrid: Nue no ko
,
Wyatt Russell
Wyatt-Russell
26 total credits
Wyatt Russell has 26 credits at Criticker, including: 22 Jump Street, Escape from L.A., Everybody Wants Some!!, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Overlord
,
Hannah John-Kamen
Hannah-John-Kamen
13 total credits
Hannah John-Kamen has 13 credits at Criticker, including: Ready Player One, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Tomb Raider, Playtest and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
,
Jamie Paul
Jamie-Paul
1 total credit
Jamie Paul has just 1 credit at Criticker: Playtest
,
Jessica Neil
Jessica-Neil
1 total credit
Jessica Neil has just 1 credit at Criticker: Playtest

Franchise:

Black Mirror

Country:

UK

Language:

English
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