The 10 Best “Black Mirror” Episodes

Here’s our pick of the 10 best episodes of “Black Mirror.” What’s yours?

 

Hated In The Nation (Season 3, Episode 6)

Scandi-noir meets The X-Files in this feature-length procedural drama tackling online mob outrage, but what you’ll remember most is its frighteningly unstoppable murder weapon.

 

The Entire History of You (Season 1, Episode 3)

How many times have we all wished we could play something back, to relive a memory, re-examine a moment, or prove we were right about how something played out and score a point? In this near-future, a “grain” can be implanted behind your ear to record everything you say and do.

 

Nosedive (Season 3, Episode 1)  

Do you enjoy that euphoric rush of someone liking, commenting on, or retweeting your pictures or commentary? Then you might need to do a nosedive into your own priorities after watching this episode.

 

The National Anthem (Season 1, Episode 1)

A mad-brilliant series opener so divisive that fans tend to advise their friends not to start watching with this episode; a political satire with a premise that left viewers jaw dropped.

 

USS Callister (Season 4, Episode 1)

A mix of Star Trek sci-fi to straight-up horror of a nice guy who is bullied at work strikes back against every slight, real or imagined, in ways that go beyond masculinity tropes to true sadistic cruelty.

 

White Christmas (2014 Special)

This episode tells multiple stories within the same episode, giving us our first look at some of the ideas that would later recur across the rest of “Black Mirror.”

 

Fifteen Million Merits (Season 1, Episode 2)

A sort-of Hunger Games meets environmental disaster story, the episode highlights one of its most popular themes: our society’s addiction to fame.

 

Be Right Back (Season 2, Episode 1)

It’s about a woman who tries out a cutting edge service that synthetically recreates her dead boyfriend. This is a moving exploration of grief and the drama’s most emotional hour.

 

Smithereens (Season 5, Episode 2)

Going back to its Season 1 roots, the episode centers on a man’s guilt over his girlfriend’s death in a car crash, and he takes drastic steps to voice his grief to a powerful technology executive.

 

San Junipero (Season 3, Episode 4)

This is a vision of the future, and the past, that you’ll long to relive. The ending of this episode brings humanity, technology, and nostalgia with a stunning two-minute masterfully edited sequence.