Black Mirror Episode Rankings

I finally caught up on all four seasons (so far!) of the anthology television series "Black Mirror". I was a little late to the bandwagon... I probably started watching this show around... hmm... six months ago? It was not long before season four appeared. This is not a television show that you can "binge watch." You have to spread them out or else your brain will melt. Even though there are only nineteen episodes so far, I did my best to watch them sparingly as I did not want to run out of new content. Now I'm stuck with the rest of the world waiting for Season 5. In the meantime, I came up with my current personal rankings of how all of the episodes stand. I like to think of every episode as an entirely separate entity. Like Pixar, it's fun to notice little Easter eggs here and there, but I think it actually takes away from the clever diversity of the show if the episodes are thought of as being in a combined universe. That said, I want to do a lengthy, cohesive review of the entire show as a whole whenever it finishes (hopefully not in the near future!!!). I will reserve my final numerical ranking(s) for then. Right now, these are just ordinal, and subject to change. Without the numbers, I may seem highly critical of some episodes, but know that this entire show ranks up in the 90's for me. I absolutely love it.
**on 12/28/18 I updated the list with Bandersnatcher
**on 7/7/19 I finished Season 5!! Time to add those to the list - although it's been so long since I've seen some of the earlier episodes that the list is becoming even more subjective than it already was.

#23: "Metalhead" S04E05
I do not dislike any "Black Mirror" episodes except for maaaaybe this one. It was beautifully shot and directed, however, it's just too sparse in storytelling. There were no explanations, no clever plot twists, no unique premise or set up. It was just a well-executed dystopian world with robots. Some people liked that, but I didn't. Not my genre. The episode managed to be simultaneously boring and stressful at the same time. I just felt on edge (and not in a good way).

#22: "Hated in the Nation" S03E06
The freakin' bees episode... I hate bees and this made me hate them more. I don't want to hate bees because I know how much we need to keep them from extinction, and this episode proved that. The setup for this episode was phenomenal and incredibly entertaining. However, once it got to the swarms of bees attacking everyone, it felt a little bit more like a B-rated horror film. I also did not appreciate the ending. Many episodes of "Black Mirror," including this one, show that two wrongs do not make a right. It's actually ethically worse to punish people who have committed wrongdoings than to show remorse. Justice is just a way of hiding revenge. It's a very, very controversial perspective on justice of which I actually agree. Yet, at the very end, the woman tries to get justice with the bee-killing guy. Granted, we don't get to see this punishment, which is the director showing us that we should not be getting the satisfaction of watching others get revenge.

#21: "Smithereens" S05E02
This episode struck me for being the only one that is identified as taking place in the "past" (or I suppose present at the time that they filmed it) because it labels itself as taking place in 2018. There's no dystopian future about it - the dystopia is now. I liked how it was about police deescalation techniques (or lack thereof), and about finding ways to empathize with a madman whose desire to kill himself is stronger than his desire to kill others, but ultimately he does pose a violent threat. It's a very, VERY current issue, particularly around the topic of guns. However, the episode's tie to technology was a bit flimsy. It had enough to say about technology corporations having better resources than the police/FBI, as well as the dangers of phone addiction, but I don't think all of these separate threads tied together as well as they could have. And it was a bit on the slow side.

#20: "The Entire History of You" S01E03
I like this episode; it just wasn't as clever or revolutionary as some of the others. The big plot twist is that the guy's wife cheated, and the cameras in their eyes help catch it. As dramatic as that is, there are a lot of other episodes that take a much more twisted and darker route.

#19: "Arkangel" S04E02
I appreciated this episode because of the young girl. I found it fascinating to sort of examine her as a psychological case study, to understand how her emotions and behaviors had been influenced by this system. I am hoping to be a psychologist for adolescents (typically adolescent girls), and have done a lot of research on exposure therapy (of which this system is basically the opposite as it blocks experiences). I also think a lot about the negative consequences of "hover parenting" on these kids who start acting out. The whole idea of the system bothered me so much, and I had so much empathy for the girl. However, it was a little slower than other episodes.

#18: "Crocodile" S04E03
The title of this episode still feels like a stretch to me. I had to look up what people's interpretations were, and I guess it's the idea that the main character is cold-blooded and fakes emotion (ie crocodile tears). This was definitely a dark episode with a lot of murder to it. However, I liked how it made me think a lot about memory processes. With some technology, I'm uneducated enough about it to go, "ok maybe scientists could do that?" With this, my cognitive psychology brain had its gears turning the whole time thinking about the mechanics of how this wouldn't work. Or at least, if it did, it would not hold up in court or for insurance companies.

#17: "Shut Up and Dance" S03E03
Best part of this episode was the musical montage at the very end when everyone gets reprimanded. I like the episode because of the mixed reactions. Thinking in line with other "Black Mirror" episodes commentating on the ethical consequences of revenge, the ending is a tragedy. I was horrified. But others go, "Yes! Justice!" It's very common in "Black Mirror" to explore what is acceptable as punishment for crimes and sins. I don't believe this was justified at ALL, and I am incredibly fascinated by the ambiguity of how we are supposed to feel. However, I disliked the episode because of its predictability. A guy was willing to commit murder because there's some video of his penis? No, I knew from the beginning it had to be child porn.

#16: "Striking Vipers" S05E01
This episode is very thought provoking when it comes to gender identity, sexuality, and the fluidity of each. There is definitely a theme of lack of direct communication, and having to connect through technology, even in the most intimate of actions. But there's not enough plot, just a lot of sex. I do like how it featured a whole cast of fully three-dimensional black characters, though.

#15: "White Christmas" S02E04
Oooh see this one is a great episode, and it ranks as #15. You can start to see that I like them all. My issue with "White Christmas" is that it wasn't as thematically cohesive as I would have liked. There are a number of short stories that get tied together at the end through plot. Thematically, the short stories fit together too, in that they are all about justice (yup, big theme for "Black Mirror"), but the technology in the episode differed so widely. As more and more "Black Mirror" episodes have been written, the cookie technology and such that originated in this episode seems to fit together better. However, upon the first viewing, it felt a little hodge-podge. I loved the individual short stories, though.

#14: "The Waldo Project" S02E03
This episode freaks me out because of its realism - especially the ending. Does the bear win the election? No, but he splits the vote with the liberal candidate, so the conservative candidate ends up winning, which (imho) is the worst case scenario. I could absolutely see that happening - a political circus splits the vote, and people lose sight of the big picture. It was almost too realistic. I found it unsettling. It's also a very unpopular episode among Black Mirror fans, so I wanted to give it some deserved recognition.

#13: "Be Right Back" S02E01
This is a very, VERY powerful episode that I somewhat want to rank lower because it just makes me sick. It reminds me of the film Her in some respects, which also made me feel sick. I think it's specifically the sex with the robot that is off-putting. Everything else is disturbing and sad, but when she had sex with it was when the show was crossing the line for me. I do absolutely love Domnhall Gleeson though, and I thought the premise was extraordinarily creative and well-executed.

#12: "Playtest" S03E02
This is the first episode of "Black Mirror" where I actually had to google interpretations of the ending because I was so mind blown. If the guy was sitting in the chair the whole time, then the ENTIRE premise of the episode was imagined by him (if we are to take the events of the episode at face value). We know that Seito games was developing some revolutionary game, but the concept of evoking fear was all imagined. What this episode has to say is that when your entire brain lights up and fires all its synapses, the net emotion and cognitions will be surrounding intense fear, as fear is the most innate and powerful sensation. Interesting stuff, and that's just tapping the surface of this episode's implications. The main actor's performance was also extraordinarily strong.

#11: "Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too" S05E03
Overall, season 5 was a bit of a disappointment for me apart from this episode. I spent many years fully obsessed with Miley Cyrus and I loved how this served as an analogy to her own personal career - a pop star in a wig who doesn't feel like herself, but a corporate manufactured doll. The idea of turning her image into a hologram that can perform is also a hot topic of today - could that be done for deceased stars like Tupac? I think I heard that was already being done? What are the ethics of that? Also, I thought the structure of the episode was successful. There are two stories, one of Ashley O, and one of her fan, and their adventures collide.

#10: "Black Museum" S04E06
I consider this the better executed version of "White Christmas." It follows almost the exact same format as "White Christmas," with better thematic cohesiveness. For both "White Christmas" and "Black Museum" I took a lot of enjoyment out of the sub-stories (the Pain Addict section in this episode was particularly intriguing). What "Black Museum" successfully accomplishes is better linking the technological implications of each of the sub-stories. I wasn't sure where to rank it, because most of this episode ranks extraordinarily high. The ending, however, doesn't sit well with me, as our protagonist also does the unthinkable and puts the curator's consciousness through endless torture. The only thing keeping her from being "just as bad" as the villain is that she is punishing a guilty person instead of an innocent one. Either way, I don't think anyone deserves that fate. Music in this episode was great, though.

#9: "Bandersnatcher" Special episode
The choose your own adventure episode - what a cool concept! My only problem with it is that it takes so long to watch if you want to get through all of the different pathways. I spent a significant amount of time (maybe 2 hours?) and don't think I hit everything. I thought I did, but my sister had a different ending altogether. Also, depending on which pathways you choose, the actual ending-ending can be more or less anticlimactic. 

#8: "Nosedive" S03E01
What a great episode, and what a fantastic performance by Bryce Dallas Howard! She really sold the episode for me. The production felt closer to a film than most other episodes, and I particularly loved the sound design. "Nosedive" is also rare for having a (somewhat) uplifting ending and message. We are our happier selves when we aren't trying to impress anybody, but at least that means that we do have the potential to be happy. I believe the universe presented in this episode to be far more realistic than most, and that is what hits so close to home about it. This episode is more comedic than others as well, which I liked. However, because it is not as dark and twisted as others, my sadistic mind has to rank it slightly lower.

#7: "The National Anthem" S01E01
The very first episode of "Black Mirror," and still the most infamous and disturbing. Be warned, there is sexual intercourse between a man and a pig in this episode. I think what still stands out to me in this episode was that there was no new, fancy technology at all. It literally could have taken place the year it premiered (2011 or so?). And if something like this were to occur, how would it realistically play out? Quite frankly, I think it would turn out a lot like this episode did. That's what is so disturbing about it. It is really, REALLY disturbing so... I'd be weird to rank it higher.

#6: "USS Callister" S04E01
 I really enjoyed the dark comedy of this episode! I consider it like a "Black Mirror" version of Jumanji, where real people get stuck inside a video game. This "Black Mirror" version, of course, is much more twisted and sadistic than Jumanji, as they are stuck forever with no way of escaping, and they were put there on purpose by a terrible man. The ending, though, was not as straightforwardly happy as the episode suggests. They are still stuck forever. And their real life counterparts? None of them change for the better.

#5: "White Bear" S02E02
This episode is strange because I did not particularly enjoy it while watching it. Why did I rank it so high then? THE TWIST ENDING, THAT'S WHY. I think it's one of the most famous twist endings in "Black Mirror" history. I still think about the ending to this episode sometimes, and it makes the entire episode worth watching again. So many episodes of "Black Mirror" are about how technology can create cruel and unusual punishment under the name of justice. None of the episodes do this as disturbingly as "White Bear."

#4: "San Junipero" S03E04
I think this is the most famous episode of all of "Black Mirror," and deservedly so. I was incredibly surprised by the ending, and just how happy I felt. "Black Mirror" never makes me feel happy; it makes me feel like shutting off from existence. This episode, however, was romantic, funny, and satisfying. I would love to live forever on an island in a computer! I know it sounds creepy when put like that, but I'm one of those people who wouldn't hate immortality. I would love to have my consciousness saved. This is the one episode of "Black Mirror" that says it's okay to use technology for your own selfish reasons.

#3: "Men Against Fire" S03E05
I believe this is an underrated episode. It is one of the most profound pieces of television I have ever watched. I hate war, I hate violence, and I hate xenophobia. This is a twisted, sci-fi commentary on all of these concepts. The episode starts out unimpressive, as a dystopian world with monster creatures that the military is trying to erase. Simple, right? Kill the creepy monsters, save the humans. It becomes a lot more complicated when you realize that no monsters exist. They are created by a filter that allows the military to see monsters instead of people so the enemy is easier to kill. It is an empathy mask. Empathy is seen militarily as a weakness, so it is artificially obscured. This is taking the idea of racism, xenophobia, and demonizing the enemy to an extreme.

#2: "Fifteen Million Merits" S01E02
This was my favorite episode for a long, long time! I absolutely adore Daniel Kaluuya and Jessica Brown Findlay, and they both gave fantastic performances. This episode seems to take place further in the future than most as well, which allows for a heavy creative leeway. This is an episode about fame, consumerism, and selling out. A man willing to kill himself on live television just to show how much he hates selling out, STILL ends up selling out. It's an incredibly discouraging commentary on free will in a consumerist world.

#1: "Hang the DJ" S04E04
MY FAVORITE EPISODE OF ALL TIME!!!!! It's soooo romantic and adorable and emotionally moving. Like "San Junipero," it has a romantic, happy ending that suggests we can use technology for our own selfish reasons. Also like "San Junipero," it's not as simple as a regular old happy ending as there are still some ethically ambiguous sacrifices made in order to do that. Thousands of digital copies are put through psychological torture in order to find the "one." However, the digital copies are then erased, and they all still get the opportunity to fall in love, soo... it's ethical, right? This episode is such a powerful exploration of what love is, and what it means to be a perfect match. They have to defy the system in order to pass the system. It's Shakespearean. I could write for days about this episode but I just want to say if you put a digital copy of myself through a simulation where I watched "Black Mirror" for the first time for 1,000 times, I would pick this episode as my favorite at least 99.8% of the time.