By GFR
| Published
Black Mirror has become the preeminent sci-fi anthology series of the streaming era.
The show has run for seven seasons with plenty of memorable episodes, so the good human beings at Giant Freakin Robot wanted to give you their picks for the absolute best.
And to get some of you raging off in the comments right out the gate, we’re not including “San Junipero.” Or “White Christmas.” Good episodes, but they didn’t make the cut.
Less surprising though, you won’t see Bandersnatch popping up.
#9. “Bete Noire”
Seven seasons in and “Betê Noir” proves that Black Mirror is still capable of cranking out a mind-bending classic.
Playing with the collective false memory phenomenon known as the Mandela Effect, the episode takes full advantage of being on Netflix by randomly changing with each viewing.
When you first watch the story of Maria, a chocolatier, small things are off in her memory once her old classmate, Verity, joins the company.
Did her boyfriend work at Barnies, or Bernies? Wait, which name was it the last time you watched the episode?
There are other changes within “Betê Noir,” including lines of dialogue, which makes it a major experiment for Netflix and makes the episode already one of the best of the series.
That’s even before the twist, which goes further than the typical Black Mirror episode, and just like the debate over Berenstein Bears or Berenstain Bears, the debate over is this a good ending, or a bad ending, will rage on among fans.
#8. “Common People”
If you had to pay exorbitant subscription fees to keep a loved one alive, would you stop at nothing to scrape together the cash, or count your losses and move on before your financial desperation gets the best of you?
When Amanda unexpectedly collapses and falls into a coma, her husband, Mike, is approached by a representative from Rivermind Technologies who has the solution to the couple’s problems.
Given a second chance at life thanks to an experimental synthetic brain tissue implant, Amanda is thrilled that she can go back to how things were.
Here’s the kicker: with each passing month, the subscription tiers, and their pricing, change, causing myriad complications to the user interface.
“Common People” demonstrates how life-altering medical advances cause more harm than good when the technology behind it falls into the wrong hands, resulting in a moral dilemma that no honest person should have to face.
As Mike resorts to humiliating himself online for money in order to keep up with the mounting costs behind Rivermind’s implant, his good intentions are no match for the strain that’s put on his relationship, making you seriously consider how you’d act under a similar set of circumstances.
Offering a disturbing glimpse at what choices we have to make when a sickly loved one gets a second chance to live a fulfilling life, “Common People” will make you question just how far you’re willing to go when presented with two equally terrible options: the death of a loved one, or tiered subscription services.
#7. “Hang the DJ”
Dating apps have added a frustrating layer of abstraction to finding your soulmate, and “Hang the DJ” elevates this concept to levels of absurdity that will make you want to hit up the singles bars and find companionship the old fashioned way.
Matchmaking isn’t easy in “Hang the DJ,” as Frank and Amy find out that they’re only destined to have a 12-hour relationship according to the dating app known as Coach.
Though the couple hits it off immediately, they’re quickly matched with new suitors because Coach is looking for the perfect level of compatibility between its subjects.
Frank and Amy wonder if the app is rigged against them as they go through the motions with less-than-desirable options each and every time they’re set up with a new companion.
Eventually, the two decide to figure out how to break the cycle so they can reunite and experience true love.
“Hang the DJ” earns its keep thanks to its willingness to put real human emotions against a soulless algorithm that may not necessarily have your best interest in mind.
Love is something that can’t be quantified through statistics or even logic.
In other words, just because a computer says you’re compatible with somebody, doesn’t mean it’s right.
A terrifying and absurd take on the future of dating, “Hang the DJ” will most certainly make you think twice about what it means to swipe right, and consider testing your luck in the real world where you can make these choices for yourself.
#6. “Nosedive”
The first episode produced by Netflix, “Nosedive” has a bigger budget than anything from the first two seasons, and you can see the difference on screen.
It’s as subtle as a hammer, but it’s also one of Black Mirror’s most memorable episodes.
As social media keeps expanding in popularity, it’s more relevant today than it was in 2016.
In a world where your social rating is everything, Bryce Dallas Howard plays Lacie, a young woman with a social score of 4.2 trying to get into a luxury apartment that requires a score of 4.5, and no amount of pleasantries with the barista or her co-workers can get her out of her rut.
From getting a replacement flight to renting a car, everything in the world of “Nosedive” is determined by your social score.
When Lacie’s score starts to plummet as she begins losing her patience and realizes how fake and artificial everything is, she finds herself thrown to the outside of society.
The result is an ending that’s both tragic, yet oddly optimistic compared to the usual downer endings that Black Mirror is known for.
#5. “White Bear”
“White Bear” is one of Black Mirror’s earliest episodes, airing during season 2, but to this day, it’s remained profoundly disturbing thanks to the twist ending that could come true any day.
A woman wakes up in the middle of an abandoned town with no memory of who she is or how she got there.
It seems she’s stuck in a place where a television signal is controlling the minds of residents to film her and a few other unaffected people.
All the while, a strange masked man is hunting her down.
Most of the episode’s story doesn’t seem to fit with what we now expect from an episode of Black Mirror, until the curtain is drawn back.
In what might be Black Mirror’s most disturbing twist, it’s revealed that the woman, along with her fiancee, kidnapped a little girl and filmed her murder.
As legal punishment, she’s now the attraction at White Bear Justice Park, an attraction where the public gets to watch her relive the same day, over and over, aided by actors and park rangers, in a perverted sense of justice.
Turning the punishment for crimes into public spectacle is a common sci-fi trope, from Death Race 2000 to the Running Man to Gamer, but the glee the attendees in “White Bear” show during the closing credits of the episode is a reminder that while the series focuses on the perils of technology, no machine will ever be as sadistic as human beings.
#4. “The Entire History of You”
Overanalysis is a form of paralysis, and Black Mirror pushes this idea to the limit with “The Entire History of You.”
In the not-so-distant future, citizens are implanted with microchip technology that records and stores their first-person experiences for them to review in perpetuity.
When Toby has reason to believe that his wife has been unfaithful, he becomes obsessed with catching her in a lie about her marital impropriety, and agonizes over exchanges she has at a party with her ex-lover, Jonas.
Scrutinizing every single visual clue and turn of phrase in his memory bank, Toby becomes increasingly jealous and vengeful, as he uncovers truths he’s not ready or willing to accept.
“The Entire History of You” uncomfortably explores how reviewing the past with such an obsessive attention to detail has the potential to destroy your current relationships, especially if you’re not an inherently trusting person in the first place.
Through Toby’s behavior, we catch a glimpse of ourselves, and wonder if we’d similarly doom scroll through our own memories if we had an app that allowed us to do so.
An intense exercise in uninhibited introspection in the worst kind of way, “The Entire History of You” is a cautionary tale about allowing the past to infect your present and future in ways that are just a little too close to home.
#3. “USS Callister”
Black Mirror takes the idea of Star Trek and turns it into a commentary about toxic fans and their feelings of ownership over art.
Our protagonist is a disgruntled programmer who lives out his wildest power trip fantasies in a virtual reality simulation where he gets to make like Captain Kirk.
But his crew is composed of sentient beings based on his coworker’s DNA, and what he ultimately does to them reveals how he uses fantasy to exercise his depraved feelings.
“USS Callister” has lots to love, including solid special effects and a standout performance from Jesse Plemons.
But the best thing about this episode is its darkly satirical analysis of Star Trek, casting this utopian franchise as a dystopian refuge for so-called fans who are heartless, dangerous, and totally misunderstand the thing they profess to love.
Don’t get us wrong, there’s plenty of fun to be had in “USS Callister” but its hard-edged look at bad fans is what makes it so special.
#2. “The National Anthem”
All these episodes later, the series premiere of Black Mirror still stands out as a profound and disturbing look at the modern social landscape.
Instead of high concept science fiction, “The National Anthem” kicks the series off with an all-too-believable tale about a British prime minister having to respond to a royal kidnapping.
The kidnapper promises to release the victim if the prime minister goes on live television and has sex with a pig.
For as bonkers as the concept is, the best thing about “The National Anthem” is how deadly serious it approaches its demented plot while still understanding the satire at play.
Facing pressure from the Royal Family and the court of public opinion, this PM must navigate an unthinkably awful situation while the entire country waits and watches.
The tension is palpable as the PM exhausts all his options.
Once you get to the ending and everything finally plays out, the episode leaves you with a lot to consider.
For as much as the idea sounds comedic, the actual statement by episode’s end sets the standard for the show’s bleak beliefs about modern society.
#1. “Fifteen Million Merits”
What if your entire lifestyle was determined by how many “likes” you got online?
That’s the basic idea behind “Fifteen Million Merits,” a Black Mirror episode in which an overworked underclass has to do things like generate energy via stationary bikes in exchange for “merits,” or money.
In this tale, future Nope star Daniel Kaluuya spends almost all of his merits so that a talented woman can enter a televised talent contest.
When things don’t go as he planned, he realizes he might have to take drastic actions to fix this broken system.
Fifteen Million Merits makes it to the top of our Black Mirror episodes list because it now feels like the world we live in.
The warping of celebrity through social media’s pervasiveness in our lives has turned the dreams of fame into the only seeming escape from the slavery of capitalism.
In a world where social capital translates to actual wealth, Fifteen Million Merits argues that such a system can’t be beaten because it will even find a way to capitalize on the rage against it.
Basically, it’s Network. And Network is also awesome.
With excellent pacing, tension, performances, and payoff, Fifteen Million Merits ranks as the best episode of Black Mirror.
