Black Mirror Episode Rankings
Episodes ranked by an ordinary schmo.
In the excitement for the seventh season of Black Mirror dropping tomorrow (April 10th), I’ve been watching a few of my more favorite episodes leading up to the release.
I know this show gets a lot of love, even with some of its shortcomings, as the overall average IMDb rating sits around 8.7 (even if the actual average is a 7.6 when taking all the individual show rankings into consideration).
When crafting narratives around the dark turns technology can have on society, it’s natural to have some really high-highs (White Christmas), and some really low-lows (Mazey Day). But I think the overall theme threading through the series is what captivates the public into returning for each new season, every other year—except in the case of season 5 to 6, there was a 4 year gap.
You can see in the graph below the rankings as listed on IMDb for each individual episode by season:
So it’s no surprise what the general consensus is regarding each episode. What I’m going to do, is give my top 10 episodes, and reasons why. Then I’ll list episodes I feel might be a tad overrated. It may not align with others’ expectations, but take whatever I say with a grain of pink himalayan salt, and let me know in the comments if you agree or disagree!
With that said, here are my top 10 episodes of Black Mirror and why:
SPOILERS AHEAD! You have been warned.
No. 10: Shut Up and Dance (S3.E3, Rating 8.4)
The reason this episode is lower on my list (and one I also believe gets more hype than I think it should), is because even though it does deal with tech and the “stalking” element that it can facilitate, the twist at the end (while shocking) is less impactful on second watch. I believe it’s rated the way it is because of the shock twist. This isn’t an episode I return to regularly like a few of the others on this list.
No. 9: Black Museum (S4.E6, Rating 8.6)
This episode also has a twist that is less impactful on second watch, but it has more of that feeling of dread threaded throughout. The museum carries artifacts you might recognize from other episodes, but also others that the museum proprietor describes, which is the bulk of the episode. I haven’t revisited this episode in a while, so I’m going to say that I don’t have great detail as to reasons why it’s placed here, but I just feel it in my bones.
No. 8: Beyond the Sea (S6.E3, Rating 7.4)
This episode was chilling to me. It’s about two astronauts in the 1960s, who have synthetic versions of themselves back on earth that they can hack into so they can visit their families. The episode illustrates the relationships each astronaut has with their loves ones, as well as with each other. When tragedy strikes the more charismatic astronaut, he seeks to inflict the same tragedy on his partner. It’s an incredibly sad episode, and does have the technology themes in it, but it also explores the dangers of fanaticism, loneliness, and survival in wild ways.
No. 7: USS Callister (S4.E1, Rating 8.3)
I think this episode was universally loved by people that watch Black Mirror. It’s fun and campy, as well as dark. This episode follows Jesse Plemmons as Captain Robert Daly, who has recreated an entire simulation based on old school Star Trek episodes. He captains the space ship, USS Callister, and steals the DNA of his coworkers to replicate them in game to serve him. That’s the Black Mirror we love! I’m excited to see where they take part 2 of this episode in Season 7. The first ever episode to get a sequel!
No. 6: The Entire History of You (S1.E3, Rating 8.5)
There’s not a ton to say about this episode other than that it’s heart wrenching and realistic from a human behavior perspective. Rather than social media, the players here have implants that can watch and rewatch their own memories. It’s always recording them. When the main character discovers that his wife cheated on him (through watching her memory of it), it destroys their relationship and sends him on a spiral downward that he never recovers from. Very sad stuff.
No. 5: Fifteen Million Merits (S1.E2, Rating 8.0)
This is another one of those widely loved episodes, and in my opinion, the reason people continued to watch the show. As the second episode of season 1, it completely altered the trajectory of BM’s popularity after that horrific first episode debacle (which I won’t get into).
The idea of 15 Million Merits is that life is basically cycling over and over to earn “merits,” which can be used to buy very superficial things. Imagine the most lame gatcha game you can imagine. Once the main character meets a fellow cycler who dreams of being a singing star, he helps her pay for an audition, which costs 15 million merits. While she was loved on stage, the “judges” believe there are too many singers, and she would basically do much better if she worked as a porn star. She takes it, just to escape the horrible life of endless cycling, as well as (what I believe) to be an obligation to the main character who helped her.
The MC is wrecked by this, constantly tormented by his friend’s demise (it’s literally splattered all over his screens all the time), that he raises the money for his own audition, only to threaten to kill himself in front of everyone when he gets the audition. Rather than help the poor guy, the people loved his persona, and he got his very own show, gaming “skin,” and other things.
In the end, it’s hard for me to tell whether he’s happy, or still tormented even though he became famous.
No. 4: White Christmas (S2.E4, Rating 9.1)
Another episode widely loved, and there’s a reason for it. As the highest rated episode of the whole show, we are led by our narrator, Jon Hamm as Matt Trent and his coworker, Rafe Spall as Potter. Matt tells his story of how he ended up working at this wintry outpost, while Potter does the same.
It’s incredibly hard to describe all the threads in this episode, so rather than spoil it here, I encourage you to just watch it for yourself. It’s truly heartbreaking and scary as hell, as the technology described in it (called a “cookie”) is a horrifying concept that hopefully never becomes reality.
No. 3: Hang the DJ (S4.E4, Rating 8.7)
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that of all the episodes, this is the only one that has what I would consider a happy ending.
Amy and Frank meet each other in a world where dating is determined by a time clock. Each character is given a certain amount of time to date someone, whether it be years, months, or even minutes. When Amy and Frank meet, they are only given a meager amount of time (I don’t remember the number, it’s small though), but they hit it off immediately. When their time is up, both are regretful and move on, but continue to think about each other.
The episode follows them as they fight to find each other and escape the world that has been dictating their lives, and when they finally do, we realize that it’s been a simulation the entire time, where out of 1000 pairings between Amy and Frank, they come back to each other 99.8% of the time.
The episode ends with them meeting in real life, to which we can only assume to a happy ending. It was happy for me, so there.
No. 2: Playtest (S3.E2, Rating 8.0)
I just finished watching this episode again, and it’s still holds this position. Wyatt Russell (yep, Kurt Russell’s boy) plays Cooper, who is shown leaving his house hesitantly before going backpacking abroad. Along the way, he’s consistently getting calls from his mom, which he ignores. In the UK, he meets Sonja and has a decent connection with her before attempting to head back to the US. He goes to the ATM for some funds, but realizes he doesn’t have enough and resorts to an “odd-job” app to help him get some money to get back.
He finds (with Sonja’s help) an odd job to help play test an upcoming VR video game by some famous dude in the BM universe. Sonja wants details on their inner workings and asks for pictures. So, when Cooper gets there, he signs his life away and goes to the room where gets the implant. The organizer, Katie, turns his phone off and leaves the room for a moment where he turns it on to get some pictures. He doesn’t turn it back off, but during the upload procedure, his mom calls. Katie grabs the phone and turns it off.
Cooper gets to try out the VR in a horror-themed game, which goes off the rails (I won’t go into great detail), and when he wants out, he’s deceived by Katie on the other end, claiming to be stealing his memories. Poor Cooper stops remembering who he is, which was the same fate his father went through with early stage Alzheimer’s before he passed away.
We follow Cooper leaving the facility, angry as hell, and go home to his mom. She looks straight at him, telling him she has to call Cooper. He tries to scream out to her, but we are then pulled back to the moment his phone rang during the upload process. The phone disrupted the signal, throwing his brain into overload, and killing him after 0.04 seconds. So basically, the whole adventure through the game and returning home was an extended “last moment” of his life.
Honorable Mention: Loch Henry (S6.E2., rating 7.3)
I’m giving this one an honorable mention because while the episode itself isn’t very “Black Mirror,” it still has that feeling of dread behind it, and it’s a serious case study in the phrase “the devil you know.”
And my number 1 pick for the best Black Mirror episode is….
Nosedive (S3.E1, Rating 8.3)
I know a lot of people will disagree with me on this one, but I chose it because out of all the episodes, this one makes me the most uncomfortable. It’s heart wrenching and real, and not far from where we are as a society.
Bryce Dallas Howard nails it as Lacie, a woman living in a society where your social score dictates how you live and what benefits you receive. She begins the story with a fake laugh into the mirror, and it appears that she has these contacts in her eyes that give her social insight on the world around her. She lives with her brother in what she considers a cave (I think it’s nice), and wants to live in Pelican Cove, where you get a discount on the rent if you are a 4.5 or higher. Lacie sits at just sub-4.3, and works to improve that so she can get that discount.
In comes her old school friend, Naomi, who sees one of Lacie’s posts on an old doll they made together as kids and invites her to be her maid of honor at her wedding in a month. Naomi is a 4.8, and all her guests will be high 4’s as well, which would give Lacie the boost she needs to get that 4.5.
However, her trip to the airport starts with a fight with her brother, a down-rating from her driver as well as her brother, and a flight cancellation that has her panicking. Now, she can get a ticket on the overnight flight, but alas, her rating has gone down to a 4.188 (from driver and brother), which is just below the 4.2 required to get a ticket. She gets reasonably upset about this, and the guests in line start downvoting her before “security” comes to penalize her with a full point reduction for 24 hours and double damage for down votes. Ouch! And they do all of this with fake plastic smiles. It’s rather infuriating.
So, Lacie gets a rental car, but her poor rating (now at a 2.8) only allows her to get a crappy old model that doesn’t even speak her language. When she has to stop to charge it, there’s no adapter to fit her model, so she starts to hitchhike. It’s here she meets a truck driver, Susan (Cherry Jones), who has a 1.4 rating. While hesitant at first, Lacie warms up to her and Susan shares the reason why she doesn’t buy into the social rating system. It’s a sad story, but definitely tracks with that society.
After Susan drops her off 30 miles from her destination, Lacie overhears some people in the bathroom discussing their trip to a convention in the exact city she needs to get to, so she pretends to be a fan of the convention to hitch a ride. During the ride, she gets a call from Naomi, telling her not to come because her rating is too low and she doesn’t want her there. They argue about whether their exchange was nothing but a numbers game before Naomi hangs up.
Angry, Lacie tells off the convention goers, and they drop her off in a random spot where she finds a dirt biker willing enough to let her take his bike. Off she goes to the wedding, where she lands in a mud puddle in her bridesmaid’s gown, then hoofs it to the reception.
During her downward spiral, the little chime used to indicate a down rating plays on repeat in the background, adding to that uncomfortable feeling. When she gets to the venue, she’s a MESS. She steals the microphone and tries to give her fake maid of honor speech, but as they try to subdue her, she gets more and more real. It’s then we realize that their friendship was pretty much one sided the entire time, and Naomi was actually a pretty crappy friend (having been referenced as to “f*cking Greg,” whom I assume was someone important to Lacie).
She’s dragged away screaming “I love you, Nay-Nay!” and it’s so hard to watch. She ends up in a holding cell after they take the contacts out of her eyes. She reflects on the dust motes in the air, having not seen them in a long time—it’s kind of a beautiful moment, that is interrupted by the man in the cell across from her. He’s staring at her, and she tries to down vote him, but doesn’t have her phone. They start insulting each other in the most ridiculous fun ways until the episode ends with them screaming at each other with smiles on their faces.
***
This one hits hard on so many levels. The technology that completely stifles real human behavior for “likes” and “clicks” (can we relate to that? hmmmm), the credit rating that exacerbates that, and destroyed relationships because of that system—Lacie with her brother, then Naomi… Susan with her husband… there’s a lot to unpack. I also think so much of Lacie’s downfall could have been prevented if she had just relaxed and found a better friend circle.
But, with all things, this one may have just resonated with me personally more than you all, so I’d like to hear what connected with you if you’re a Black Mirror fan!
Episodes I think are overrated:
San Junipero: I barely remember this episode because it didn’t do anything for me when I watched it. I think the concept behind it is solid for Black Mirror, but I honestly have never revisited it, nor care to. There are better shows that explore the same theme, and if you’re inclined, check out the show “Upload” on Amazon Prime.
White Bear: While the theme for WB is also very Black Mirror, it’s also something that I don’t think lies in wait for us.
Hated in the Nation: This is another episode I barely remember. Even if I find robotic murder bees terrifying, it’s just another faceless episode that I couldn’t get into.
Again, please feel free to share your picks in the comments, and that’s it from me! If you liked this post, subscribe to the newsletter for free!