The genius of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror cannot be understated. In a world where plenty of TV falls by the wayside, (we're up to something like 450 TV shows at present , and that's just across America), this is one show that really can't. As far as I'm aware, there isn't anything else like it.
For those that haven't heard of Black Mirror, it's an anthology series that depicts alternate realities wherein "futuristic" technology shows its ugly side. I air quote the word futuristic because, while the technology is generally out of our reach at the moment, it's not all that far out of reach. And what it does is show us ways that we could get it wrong, or ways that it could go wrong if we didn't take the right precautions, often through very shocking or controversial plot premises (see 1x01 "The National Anthem", 2x02 "White Bear" or 3x03 "Shut Up and Dance"). What better way to make us question ourselves and our addiction to the black mirror in our hands (the off screen of a phone or TV), the metaphorical phrase that encompasses a burgeoning technology-based world.
Each self-contained episode has an entirely different storyline, an entirely different technology (sometimes multiple technologies) and an entirely different cast. No theme or message is ever repeated (or at least, in the show's short run so far, hasn't been repeated yet). But one thing is pretty much guaranteed: a happy ending is not ensured. (There is, thus far, the one exception to the rule, although even that's bittersweet at best.)
It's a very bleak show, to use a word Charlie Brooker enjoys. But it is so unusual in what it does. It's such an oddball show in the midst of a quagmire of good shows that follow rules and tropes and techniques. Black Mirror follows some, but it's so unique in its concept that you rarely ever notice it.
There's only 13 episodes so far, so it requires no real commitment, and you can watch the episodes in basically any order. And I absolutely recommend that you do.
What I want to do now - for those who have seen the show - is rank my favourite episodes from worst to best, so if you haven't watched the show yet, go away and watch it and then come back and fervently disagree with me. (Consensus is boring, after all.)
RANKINGS
13. 2x03, "The Waldo Moment"
Bottom of the pile is the closing episode of season two, "The Waldo Moment", a political satire about an animated character whose popularity leads to network pressure on the comedian who voices him to enrol Waldo in politics. Following a few bumps in the road to flesh out the story (like the comedian, Jamie, having a fling with the by-election's Labour candidate, and then angrily reacting to her decision to distance herself from him because of her political aspirations), "The Waldo Moment" concluded with Waldo losing the political race, but becoming a worldwide brand, while Nick is jobless and homeless after refusing to participate.
It may be very simple to understand what the episode is satirising, but it doesn't really have anything else to say and I'm not sure the plot holds up well enough to make the point. Entertaining enough, but an unusually low quality episode.
12. 2x02, "White Bear"
The mother of shocking twists; I'm not sure Black Mirror has done a more unguessable reveal than this. The episode is two stories in one: the false dystopian, apocalyptic front half, and the real dystopian world following the reveal. In the front half of the episode, an unnamed woman wakes in a room with a picture of a man and a girl, presumably her husband and daughter, and when she leaves the house seems to enter into some weird world where people are trying to kill her whilst mutes passively record the unfolding events on their phones. A few people hurry along to help the woman, all the while secretly directing her to the episode reveal: the people helping the woman are all actors and the mutes are park visitors. The woman is named Victoria Skillane, and the man and girl in the photo are her husband and a young girl her husband kidnapped, tortured and murdered, which Victoria filmed on her phone. The episode title refers to the symbol of the manhunt, the girl's white teddy bear. This torture of helplessness and horror is something Victoria must suffer every day as punishment for her heinous crime.
Turning the apocalypse into an interactive torture game because the main character partook in child murder was a twist I doubt even the most adventurous of gamblers would have dreamt up, but I have to admit to being unimpressed. I didn't like the apocalyptic feel of the front half of the episode, and I have even less time for the script flip. I feel like the episode pulls the viewer in two wildly different directions, and I was never convinced they fitted together.
The message about technology and people being bystanders to what they are viewing rather than intervening is abundantly clear, both in the way the public follows and records Victoria's torment and in the way she stood by and let Iain kill young Jemima. Again, I just wasn't convinced the plot was good enough.
11. 3x01, "Nosedive"
"Nosedive" isn't down in eleventh place because I disliked the episode more than others, but simply because of how difficult it is to watch. (That is, in one sense, to its credit.)
The episode takes place in a world where access to everything relies upon positive social media ratings: for example, higher ratings mean better healthcare, living conditions and social circles; lower ratings mean the reverse. The world of "Nosedive" is one of the most consistent worlds created in any Black Mirror episode, but the constant fake acting to gain good social standing just makes the episode a ballache to sit through. The only real relief is the final scene, where, imprisoned, the main character and another person bucking the trend insult each other simply because they are free of the binds by which the necessity of good social standing shackled them.
"Nosedive" has an important message, however, about how our social media standing in the current world shapes our self-esteem (or lack of), and the dangers if that premise were expanded. I'm just not sure the moral - which is we should all just say and do what we want - is quite the right moral of the story. Then again, a second interpretation is that what is actually important is the freedom to say and do what we want, rather than that we just go ahead and speak freely all the time. And that's a better moral. But again, I just struggled to sit through it.
10. 3x05, "Men Against Fire"
This was an interesting one. I felt like the episode tipped its hand a little too soon with a rather derivative plot surrounding an army being brainwashed to do what it is told without question (I should know better by now). Although that is a central theme and it's very easy to spot early on, less clear is the gradual build-up of the glitches in main character Stripe's MASS implant, a device designed to expedite drone scanning, and which can also project emails and virtual maps etc etc.
Eventually, the episode builds to a riveting scene where Stripe's psychologist (played by Michael Kelly, who I know as Mark Snow from Person of Interest), reveals that the army actually have
control of his MASS implant, and have been using it to manipulate his view of the enemy, who are in fact just normal human beings that aren't actually trying to hurt anyone. The subtle military/political aspect is nice, as well as the accurate portrayal of how technology influences people into thinking the way it wants people to. It also makes you think about the consequences of high-tech warfare.
The problem was that, besides the scene with Arquette torturing Stripe with the truth of his manipulation, the episode doesn't really present any other interesting moments. It asks you to invest in the technological aspect without really making it anything of note until the end, and the rest is just military warfare, something I seldom enjoy in TV or film.
9. 1x02, "Fifteen Million Merits"
It's only by virtue of other episodes' failings that "Fifteen Million Merits" ranks so highly on this list. A satire on the entertainment industry built around a sci-fi world where people are forced to work like slaves for "merits", live in tiny square cells and can't skip advertisements (that latter idea may be the most frightening of all). When Bing gives his inheritance of fifteen million merits to Abi to give her a shot at escaping the drab lifestyle, he unintentionally signs her over to the gluttonous porn industry. Resolving to take on the system in response, he earns another fifteen million merits and pays for another ticket onto the entertainment show, under the guise of dancing, before taking out a shard of glass and threatening to kill himself because the industry was corrupt and people are heartless.
The last fifteen minutes of this episode are the most important - they include Bing's livid speech and, horrifically, him giving up his initial ideal in return for comfort and merits. Stunning, on-point speech about the nature of today's entertainment industry followed by an all-too-familiar image of people becoming what they hate the most made the ending to "Fifteen Million Merits" one of the strongest of the series.
But that's really about it. A sixty-minute run time was unnecessarily long. The sci-fi aspect was the only thing holding the first forty-five minutes together, because plot was lacking and filled with adverts that we, as the audience (ironically), couldn't skip either.
8. 1x01, "The National Anthem"
On the other end of the spectrum, "The National Anthem" is only this low by virtue of other episodes' successes. Not only was it out there, it was a brave choice for episode one (this must have turned a good few people off the show), it was edgy, disgusting, intense, shocking - it was just a downright rollercoaster of emotions on a different scale to most other Black Mirror episodes. It wasn't horrible because of a message alone, but the content of the episode.
First of all, I don't buy that Charlie Brooker had never heard of Piggate before writing this. I'm not saying he didn't, just that it seems far too big a coincidence that after claims of a Prime Minister committing a sex act with a pig, comes an episode of TV where a Prime Minister commits a sex act with a pig.
The allure of the topic of bestiality in "The National Anthem" isn't that it's so shocking - it is, of course, shocking - but it's the slow, intense build-up, as the situation rises from disbelief to contingency plans to panic to, eventually, the horrible act itself. And then the sad aftermath where the Prime Minister's marriage suffers. All of which was possible because a member of the royal family had been kidnapped, and the PM was being blackmailed into the sex act.
The simple technological moral was that if people just looked away from their screens (ie the news that the PM might have to shag a pig), they would notice a whole lot more (ie the princess was released before the PM caved to the blackmailer's demands). One of the simplest Black Mirror lessons, but what a controversial and gross and incredible way to teach it.
7. 3x02, "Playtest"
I have to admit, I knew the punchline to "Playtest" before going in. I just didn't know anything else. But I'm not sure that mattered. What "Playtest" was was a glimpse into a world where virtual gaming goes wrong. The heart of a well-versed American traveller in Cooper Wyatt finding a wonderfully characterised hookup in England (Hannah John-Kamen made the character of Sonia so real), helped lead the story to the fraud which prevented him from flying home, and the virtual game playtest in an attempt to raise money that all went wrong. Ironically, it was Cooper's greed that condemned him: he tried to leak classified details of the uber-secret game to Sonia for more money, and in doing so suffered his death because a phone call from his mother caused the VR system to malfunction. But we still are treated to his imaginings in the VR game house, from arachnophobia to an impersonation of Sonia to Cooper melting down from fear.
And all this with the emotional tug of Cooper's run-away-from-it-all motivation after his father died from dementia, which only strengthened the emotional impact of his rapid meltdown in the game house.
Visually, "Playtest" was one of the strongest episodes of the series. It also had two great leads in Wyatt Russell and Hannah John-Kamen - I believed their characters were more real than most others, and that's down to great acting.
I'll admit I didn't understand the penultimate scene, where Cooper returns home to his mum (apparently, this is him seeing the moment she made the phone call that led to his death) and for that I've ranked this episode mid-table. But it was a solid entry with a harrowing look at how video games may progress - and malfunction.
6. 3x03, "Shut Up and Dance"
I also knew the punchline for "Shut Up and Dance" going into watching it, so the impact of the end reveal was lost on me. But because of it, I was able to see scenes early on in the episode in a light I shouldn't have been able to on the first viewing. I do wonder if I would have made the connection had I not known the punchline, but I wouldn't like to say either way.
But enough exposition. In "Shut Up and Dance", Kenny is sent on confusing and odd missions by his anonymous blackmailers, eventually joining Hector (played by Jerome Flynn of Ripper Street fame), as they both did anything they were asked to prevent the blackmailers leaking their secrets. Again, Black Mirror showed its aptitude for creating well-rounded characters that feel real and casting the right actors for the roles. Alex Lawther stunned as Kenny, especially in the scene where he was forced to rob a bank, and Jerome Flynn got the fear of a man who'd cheated on his partner perfect.
This was probably the closest to the current world of all Black Mirror episodes thus far - the technology to hack computers and blackmail people exists now - Black Mirror just showed us this horrible truth of our world. It wasn't visually great, but it was intense, mysterious and one of the most human portrayals of two characters throughout the series.
5. Christmas Special, "White Christmas"
And so we've reached the top five! And it begins with the Christmas Special, starring Jon Hamm and Rafe Spall. At the time the longest episode of the show, "White Christmas" featured three mini-stories which would explain the reasons why the two main characters were alone in their remote, snowy outpost. Along the way, we were introduced to some pretty hard-hitting technology, including what it would be like if people could block each other in reality in much the same way they do on social media, and the mental breaking of self-aware AIs that act as intermediaries controlling the lives of their real-life counterparts. I also liked the end examination of being on a futuristic Sex Offenders' register - blocked by everyone and visible to everyone as a sex offender.
Stupendously cast and brilliantly written, "White Christmas" has a very different feel to it than the rest of the Black Mirror episodes. That's likely because the typical slow build-up technique favoured by Charlie Brooker wasn't present on the usual scale; each segment built up at its own pace, but each segment was small and broke up the monotony that often fills an episode's time.
It's only real fault is the first mini-story, which takes up a huge chunk of time to act only as explanation for a plot point that wasn't actually all that necessary. But still, the shocking twist in that first segment proves its worth being in the Black Mirror canon. As do the ending punchlines. I've not explained much here because it's space-consuming, but "White Christmas" is a fantastically full and twisty glimpse into a number of misappropriated technologies. And that's what Black Mirror is all about.
4. 2x01, "Be Right Back"
One of the most horrific episodes of Black Mirror starred Hayley Atwell and Domnhall Gleeson as Martha and Ash, a loved-up young couple who are moving into a new house together - only for Ash to be die in a car crash shortly after. What follows is Martha's attempts to fill the void in her life, first through an app that speaks to her as Ash did (simulating his manner of speaking from what it measures on his social media feeds), and then her foray into a synthetic version. All that occurs is a tragic, disturbing, heartbreaking spiral as Martha's grief, amplified by the synth's inability to truly simulate the real Ash, becomes all-consuming.
But the episode's conclusion is perhaps even darker than all that came before it: after trying to rid herself of the synth and move on, Martha has resigned herself to having it live in her attic, where the daughter she had with the real Ash tenderly visits. That's truly disturbing.
Of course, this gets a couple of places higher on the list because I'm a huge fan of Hayley Atwell (R.I.P. Conviction), but anyone who isn't can only be sold on her by the strength of her performance as grief-stricken Martha. That's without offering praise to Domnhall Gleeson for how eerily well he portrays a robot portraying a human guessing at emotions. It's one of the most tear-jerking episodes of Black Mirror, and one of the most disturbing, and unlike some has the technology front and centre the entire episode, reminding us of the horror at every turn. If this is peak Black Mirror, and it might be, then the next three must be mind-blowing.
3. 1x03, "The Entire History of You"
The first in my top three is the final episode of season one, "The Entire History of You", which bases itself around a technology that records everything everyone sees and does for future playback, and then showcases that technology through a relatable scenario: a husband concerned his wife has been cheating on him and that his daughter may not be his. As the episode progresses, Liam grows increasingly more paranoid that Ffion has cheated, searching through old footage to pick apart her expressions and reactions to Jonas, until it destroys his relationship.
I understand criticisms of this episode - mainly that the scenario used (a cheating partner), isn't the best example of the technology because this scenario will occur regardless of a playback function - but I don't think it points out an inherent flaw in the premise: of course these scenarios occur in real life without databanks to replay, but the point of Black Mirror is to show a world where this technology can destroy relationships. And "The Entire History of You" does that extremely well.
Its pacing is fantastic, especially for such a pedestrian premise; it's again, brilliantly cast, and the technology is just fascinating. I just can't praise this much more.
2. 3x06, "Hated in the Nation"
Tonal switches episode to episode in season three created a wild variety of stories and technological premises, but the feature-length finale "Hated in the Nation" tops nearly every episode yet. It's a ninety-minute who-dunnit following a Scotland Yard detective and her trainee as public hate figures are mysteriously murdered. It soon transpires these deaths are coming about due to an online hashtag game called Game of Consequences, and the murders are being committed via Autonomous Drone Insects, or robot bees (which nicely tackles a severe present-day issue).
I'm a huge fan of the detective genre. I've watched plenty of cop procedurals. Some brilliant, some pretty mundane, some utter garbage, some all three at various points (looking at you, Elementary). But "Hated in the Nation" was a one-off hit in the genre, and a perfect entry into Black Mirror's portfolio. This is also because of the nature of a who-dunnit: where in most previous episodes the build-up to the punchline was slow, the who-dunnit had to break this cycle by creating a mystery that twisted, turned, had action, drama, intrigue and red herrings. We were therefore not waiting for the shoe to drop quite as much as we usually are - which I liked. Of course, the shoe did drop and completely upend what we thought we knew, and I figure it was all the more powerful for coming after some audience manipulation with the murder mystery itself. Clever stuff, interesting premise, great technologies, stunning final twist. The few flaws in the plot didn't amount to anything worth noting.1. 3x04, "San Junipero"
But now for the best of them all, and it's going to take a lot for any future episode to top what was achieved in "San Junipero". Nostalgia therapy for older people indeed, what "San Junipero" represented was the biggest tonal shift of any episode across the series so far. Inside a virtual world where people could choose to be uploaded before their deaths, Charlie Brooker penned a quite stunning romance story, which he also approached from the correct angle, hiding the truth of San Junipero's virtual reality until halfway through, instead allowing the budding relationship to blossom before tipping his hand. Of course, subtle inconsistencies in the laws of time and physics pervaded this front half of the episode, enough to keep us questioning, as well as relationship queries. Why was Yorkie engaged but a virgin? Why was she engaged to a man but clearly interested in a relationship with Kelly? Those questions do have simple current-world answers, but they are questions we were clearly meant to ask ourselves within this scenario.
In the end, we learn that San Junipero is a virtual world: Yorkie is in real-life a 60-something-year-old quadriplegic and has been for 40 years, whose marriage to Greg was a falsehood so he could override her religious parents' authority and allow her to "pass over" into San Junipero. Meanwhile, sixty-plus cancer patient Kelly was married to a man for 49 years, lost a daughter before San Junipero was invented and lost her husband too, who made a conscious decision not to enter San Junipero. That serves as Kelly's quandary: die normally and be with her family, or be uploaded to San Junipero and live happily with Yorkie?
As it transpires, she could have both. Her body was laid to rest with her husband and daughter, but her consciousness was also uploaded to San Junipero. Which was an almost positive ending for a Black Mirror episode, although I'm not fooled: they're still dead.
"San Junipero" is an almost perfect episode of TV. Not only does it tell a wonderful love story, but it does so in a very eye-catching setting, using some pretty exciting technology, great music ("Heaven Is A Place On Earth" by Belinda Carlisle is a beautifully ironic piece to lead the score) and it doesn't break our heart in the process. If it has a flaw, it's only that the jump from casual sex to Kelly having real feelings for Yorkie is a bit sudden (which is a shame since, with carte blanche over run time, Charlie Brooker could have padded this out a bit more). But that's pretty much it.
I'll give it a magical 10/10 rating anyway.
LOOKING BACK AT THE RANKINGS
One thing strikes me immediately is the similarities in my top six episodes: aside from "Hated in the Nation", the other five all feature just two primary characters whose lives are ruined or affected by the abused technology. They tend to be the most concise, focused, emotional and interesting plots: with so few characters, the technology has to tie them together more closely. And that always makes the episodes stand out.
It's also not for no reason that four of my top seven episodes are from season 3. I don't usually praise Netflix for the lack of oversight (some might say creative control) when allowing episodes to be made, but Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror has been one of Netflix's successes in that respect. But regardless of run time, Netflix has enabled the scope of Black Mirror to improve. While its storylines and morals are typically interesting, a bigger budget has at least allowed for more aesthetic visuals.
Final thoughts
Get watching. The more people that watch the show that reveals modern nature to us, the more people can think about modern nature and crave more of this genius show and its lessons. Lessons we learn through our black mirrors.
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