Michael Schur and Rashida Jones wrote the teleplay for the episode, based on a story by series creator and co-showrunner Charlie Brooker, while Joe Wright acted as director.

Society has embraced a technology wherein everyone shares their daily activities and user experiences through eye implants and mobile devices where one rates their interactions with others on a scale from one to five stars, cumulatively affecting everyone's socioeconomic status.

When Lacie causes a scene, security penalises her by putting her on "double damage" and subtracting a full point for 24 hours.

Susan tells Lacie that she used to care about her rating until her late husband was passed over for vital cancer treatment because his score was deemed not high enough.

[2] Alongside "San Junipero", "Nosedive" was first shown in 2016 ahead of its Netflix release at the Toronto International Film Festival.

[3] Two days prior to the series' release on Netflix, Brooker hinted that "Nosedive" is "a pastel, playful satire about modern insecurity.

[6] Due to its move to Netflix, the show had a larger budget than in previous series,[7] which one critic suggests is responsible for the "impressive line-up" that was noted by many reviewers.

[2] The original idea was of a comedy similar to Brewster's Millions, focused on a high status person trying to reduce their ranking in 24 hours.

[14] A fan of Brooker's works, Rashida Jones had been in contact with him for a few years beforehand and after the programme's move to Netflix, he suggested that she could write an episode.

The final version of the ending showed Lacie in a jail cell, the rating device removed from her, allowing her to find freedom.

[2] In 2016, Schur had an account on Twitter but not Facebook or Instagram, as "there's a bunch of strangers talking shit about you in there", and Jones expressed a similarly negative attitude, stating "I do have very strong, very conflicted feelings about rating systems and social media.

[13] Jones says the belief that "women are taught to be liked, and men are taught to be powerful", credited to Sheryl Sandberg, is relevant to the episode, with Schur agreeing that Lacie's gender is important to the story,[15] though Schur notes that edited images on social media are causing negative body image issues for men as well.

[2] Joe Wright directed the episode, Seamus McGarvey was director of photography and the production designers, working for VFX company Painting Practice, were Joel Collins[17] and James Foster.

[21] Brooker pointed out that directors of Black Mirror episodes (in this case, Wright) have more "power" than in serialised television shows, as "it is like making a short film", and he said that Wright had "been feeling quite bruised after doing Pan, and [Black Mirror] was a good thing for him to get his teeth into which wasn't the full five-year commitment of a movie".

[20] Howard gained 30 pounds (14 kg) for the role, saying in an interview with Marie Claire that body shaming is a "huge part of the subtext of the story".

[24] Richter first met the director, Joe Wright, in London before the shooting of the episode had been completed and began coming up with ideas for the score.

Richter aimed to "support" the episode's display of "incredible anxiety hovering beneath this smiley surface ... while at the same time not flattening out the emotionality of it", commenting in an interview that Wright's camerawork had a "dream-like quality" and that Brooker's "story was fantastic".

[25] In another interview, Richter said he was aiming for the episode to have "warmth and a fairytale quality throughout" with "darkness underneath it", and notes that his composition was based on "the sentiment and the emotional trajectory of the characters".

[3] The world is "extremely curated" and appears perfect, wrote Architectural Digest's Shelli Nicole, reflecting the theme of "popularity and validation from social media".

In contrast, male characters are traditionally the voice of reason: in these works, Lacie's brother Ryan, Mercer (The Circle) and Taylor's husband (Ingrid Goes West) serve this purpose.

However, "Nosedive" shows people of all genders placing importance in social media, leading Betancourt to call it "perhaps the most keen-eyed critique [...] of recent titles".

Additionally, in "Hated in the Nation", a news ticker contains the term "Reputelligent", which is the name of the company that Lacie consults for advice about her rating.

[note 1] Julien Migozzi found similarities between the episode and the segregation that South Africans face under credit score systems.

[46][47] Behind her pink and perky façade, Lacie becomes obsessed with social media status in "Nosedive", an episode that demonstrates the dangers of society's need for approval but does so with a perfect dose of humor.

[53] TheWrap authors praised how the episode tackles society's social media obsession,[54] and Mat Elfring of GameSpot said that its thought-provoking nature makes it a good choice for the season premiere.

[29] Setranah noted that Netflix's large budget is apparent in the visuals of the episode,[51] and The Independent writers suggested it is detailed enough to be revisited.

The Independent writers complimented Richter for "blending the diegetic sounds of the app with the non-diegetic score evoking our protagonist's struggle to determine reality and fiction",[49] an element which Robinson also praised.

At the end of the game, players earn points from the Lifestyle cards they own which have star ratings less than or equal to their Social Score.

[80] Tasha Robinson of The Verge criticised the game's mechanics as feeling arbitrary, as users' Social Scores are mostly determined by random factors.

However, Robinson praised the app's design, the game's pastel aesthetics and the humour of the Experience cards, which can lead to interesting discussion.