For the uninitiated,
Black Mirror is a TV series akin to a modern
Twilight Zone. Each episode (with some exceptions) are stand-alone tales often dealing with the horrors of fictional technology on society. Sometimes it can delve into horror, thriller, and mystery. The good thing about Black Mirror that has been consistently good since it debuted in 2011. There is not set release schedule for the show, and it comes out as creator Charlie Booker comes out with these fantastical ideas. The last season of the series debuted earlier this year in April 2025. With 34 total installments, we thought now would be a good time for Steve and I to disseminate our rankings and thoughts on each episode.
34. The Waldo Moment
Jay – 33, Steve – 33
Jay – Maybe this plays up for some in the current political environment, but none of it hits for me. It would be the most forgettable episode if it wasn’t for the annoying Waldo character. There isn’t a worse episode, though the next one comes close…
Steve – No one likes Waldo. No one likes this episode. I was actually surprised this was only the
3rd lowest rated episode on IMDb. This is definitely one of the most annoying episodes of
Black Mirror.
33. Metalhead
Jay – 32, Steve – 32
Jay – Another pointless episode that tells a story that doesn’t need telling. The black and white tries to give it more credit than it deserves as this is in no way ‘deep’.. In no way does this ever feel like a Black Mirror episode. It feels like a bad student film.
Steve – If I’m being honest, I don’t flat out dislike “Metalhead” like I do “The Waldo Moment” and “Shut Up and Dance”. It just didn’t feel like anything to me. The black and white presentation is something that I often welcome – for instance the flash forward scenes in
Better Call Saul are beautiful. The use of black and white does not hit here.
32. Bandersnatch
Jay – 34, Steve – 27
Jay – Look, we all love “choose your own adventures” as a kid, but this wasn’t a good one. Trying to create a cohesive story, but leaving it up to the viewer to do so doesn’t sit well for me. It sacrifices novelty for laziness.
Steve – “Bandersnatch” is kind of a failed experiment. I know I wanted it to work. I adored “choose your own adventure” books as a kid. But it’s just kind of a mess overall. I admired its ambition.
31. Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too
Jay – 31, Steve – 29
Jay – This unfortunately suffers from bad casting, as Steve mentions below. Miley Cyrus is a distraction that you can’t overlook given that the story is already flimsy and forgettable.
Steve – Miley Cyrus is super distracting in this episode, which barely feels like a
Black Mirror at times.
30. Men Against Fire
Jay – 27, Steve – 30
Jay – You can see the twist coming from a mile away and it’s fine. Xenophobia is as rampant as ever and perhaps this is another episode with significantly more meaning as it ages.
Steve – This is one of those episodes where I understand and get the premise, but it just did not hit for me at all.
29. Demon 79
Jay – 30, Steve – 26
Jay – Not often does
Black Mirror go into the supernatural and you can kinda see why given this quasi-miss. The episode has its moments, but becomes forgettable.
Steve – I 100% forgot the plot of this one and had to look up the details. This sure is an episode of
Black Mirror.
28. Smithereens
Jay – 28, Steve – 28
Jay – More of a thriller than your typical sci-fi dystopian nightmare. It is extremely well-acted and Topher Grace plays his role really well.
Steve – Rideshare driver abducts CEO, stuff happens. “Smithereens” is like a weird
Black Mirror bottle episode.
27. Crocodile
Jay – 26, Steve – 25
Jay – This is truly a diabolical episode in a number of ways and slowly gets darker until it reaches a point that might deter most folks.
Steve – On the one hand, “Crocodile” has a good theme in confronting past regrets and how you can never truly cover up a heinous crime. On the other hand, baby murder. Babies getting murdered are very dark, even by
Black Mirror standards.
26. Black Museum
Jay – 25, Steve – 24
Jay – I loved the references found in the episode to other
Black Mirror tales. Equal parts sci-fi and mystery. You can see the “twist” coming about halfway through the runtime that the ending didn’t have as big of an impact on me.
Steve – “Black Museum” is a little creepy. It’s an “almost there” episode, but ultimately feels a little flat.
25. Hated in the Nation
Jay – 18, Steve – 31
Jay – This is the rare episode that I think an extended runtime (considered “long” at the time for a
Black Mirror episode) allowed it to tell a more focused tale. As you can see I liked this one a bit more than Steve. The cyber bees are a bit silly, but I loved the eventual twist/payoff. This was also a well-acted performance from Kelly MacDonald.
Steve – Oh god not the cyber beeeeeees! If I’m being petty, I just thought this one was kind of stupid. We do need to save the bees, however. Please don’t use the eventual robo bees for ill use.
24. Shut Up and Dance
Jay – 13, Steve – 34
Jay – I’m of the group that finds the payoff ultimately shocking and rewarding. I can see why it would turn some folks like Steve off. I think the performances from Jerome Flynn and Alex Lawther make the episode. You can feel their fear and desperation through the screen.
Steve – “Shut Up and Dance” is my lowest-ranked episode and the one where Jay and I have the largest discrepancy in rankings. This episode skeeves me out so bad.
Black Mirror at its absolute worst just makes me feel gross. The source of Kenny’s blackmailing and the perpetually worse circumstances just made me feel sick to my stomach. I really hate this episode.
23. Playtest
Jay – 29, Steve – 17
Jay – This was all fine and good until the ending, which I thought ruined the entire episode. Wyatt Russell is always great, which is nice because you can excuse the nepotism there. I LOVE videogames, but I don’t think this idea was fully realized.
Steve – This is another decent sized discrepancy in rankings between myself and Jay. I think
“Playtest” is a perfectly cromulent episode of
Black Mirror, combining horror games, augmented reality, and virtual reality. The ending is a little dissatisfying, but overall I like the performance from Wyatt Rusell and the exploration of alternative forms of gaming.
22. Mazey Day
Jay – 24, Steve – 22
Jay – I love Zazie Beetz. From Joker to Atlanta to Deadpool 2 she makes everything better when she is on-screen. The sixth season of
Black Mirror had the show experiment with more horror/supernatural than ever before (see: “Demon 79” above). This one I found infinitely more entertaining than the aforementioned. It had enough interesting things to say about the world of celebrity gossip to warrant existing.
Steve – The
lowest-ranked episode on IMDb! I remember this one being…fine? I dunno, there are episodes I consider much worse than this one. It’s just forgettable. I really like Zazie Beetz.
21. Loch Henry
Jay – 23, Steve – 23
Jay – Another horror entry from the sixth season! This one is slightly better as the serial killer/murder aspect is a more believable one. Samuel Blenkin (see: Zuckerberg stand-in for
Alien: Earth) carries the episode. Always fun to see when family secrets are unearthed, though it can have deadly consequences!
Steve – “Loch Henry” is definitely in the “almost there” category. The countryside serial killer and VHS tapes aspects are cool. It’s a fine episode.
20. Plaything
Jay – 21, Steve – 19
Jay – A quasi-sequel to “Bandersnatch” that is infinitely better than its original. I thought its message about obsession and a built-in community were fun and novel. Peter Capaldi is perfect as the older Cameron has he is interviewed by police. It was fun and exciting to see if the payoff would actually be real or not.
Steve – This one is a little creepy and weird and fun. The Thronglets give off some “Lemmings” and “Sims” vibes for you over-35 gamers. Nobody likes when someone messes with the virtual community you’ve cultivated!
19. Striking Vipers
Jay – 19, Steve – 20
Jay – As Steve mentioned below. The two leads of Mackie and Abdul-Mateen II keep this way more engaging than it has any right to be. This one leaves me a lot of questions to ask on how certain aspects of this
Street Fighter-esque game is designed and can be played…out of bounds of the normal gameplay. Overall, this is a solid tale.
Steve – This is another strange one where I feel like the lead actor elevates the material above the actual premise. Anthony Mackie and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II are both very good in this story of friends that bond a biiiiit too much over a virtual reality fighting game. I thought the tone on this one was really odd, but overall a solid episode.
18. Bete Noire
Jay – 22, Steve – 16
Jay – The episode felt like it was juuuust there in terms of what it was trying to get to. It’s actually the ending that lowered the score a bit for me. I do love the overall nature of the show as it puts you in the protagonist’s shoes in terms of self-doubt and feeling delusional.
Steve – They might as well have called this episode “Gaslighting”. Overall, I enjoyed it because I related to the premise as someone who is constantly doubting the things that he says. “Oh, was that stat that I threw out there about Claude Giroux on the podcast actually right?”
17. Fifteen Million Merits
Jay – 20, Steve – 18
Jay – I like this episode, but it has fallen down a bit just because so many great episodes have been released since it aired (it was the second ever episode of the show!). It stars Daniel Kaluuya before he really blew up post-
Get Out fame. This is gorgeously shot and the music is incredible. You never can quite put together what is going on in this dystopian world, but what it has to say about popularity and capitalism makes it a good one.
Steve – Agree with Jason on his points on this one. The story is just a little too murky to be higher on the list, but the message on popularity and capitalism resonates more than ever in 2025.
16. Arkangel
Jay – 15, Steve – 21
Jay – This one has hit harder for me as I became a parent. It is ironic because before the episode even aired, my friends and I had a similar discussion “if we could put a tracking chip in our child, would we?” This takes that premise and amps it up a notch with full surveillance and the effects that could have on the parent/child relationship.
Steve – Oh hey, Jodie Foster directed this one! I wonder if “Arkangel” didn’t fully click with me because I’m not a parent. It’s another fine episode and deals with some interesting topics like surveillance of our children.
15. Hotel Reverie
Jay – 16, Steve – 15
Jay – It seems like at every turn whether it be film, television, videogames or music…we are constantly bombarded with remakes, reboots and remasters. Originality is dead, how can we still make money though? Try to make those classics “better” through technology! It is a slippery slope and this episode dives into that while also playing around with issues with Old Hollywood, AI consciousness and the such.
Steve – This is another “just missed” for me. “Hotel Reverie” plays with the ideas of remaking classic films, updating the roles for modern attitudes on sexuality and race, and using technology to to update said films. It also in a weird way kind of comments on the “choose your adventure” type interactive stories that Netflix played around with a few years ago with
Black Mirror’s own “Bandersnatch”.
14. The National Anthem
Jay – 17, Steve – 13
Jay – I know some HATE this episode and some can’t get over the actual payoff. This plays with the idea of what a high level of authority would do to save a life. Would it sacrifice all morals? Would it not give in to preserve the integrity of those it has authority over? The UK Prime Minister in this is played by Rory Kinnear who is a criminally underrated actor.
Steve – Ah, yes, the OG
Black Mirror. This is classic “well, this feels like a bit much”, but overall the idea of the Prime Minister of England being blackmailed into doing a humiliating act is a very good one.
13. Joan is Awful
Jay – 14, Steve – 12
Jay – I do love the cleverness of this episode and what it says about the current media landscape (while lambasting the mode in which it is currently released). As Steve mentions, the level of meta that this puts you through can be a bit much at times, however Annie Murphy and Selma Hayek are incredible in it.
Steve – This is a trippy meta episode that occasionally tries to be a littttttle too clever for its own good. ”Joan is Awful” is an interesting statement about cancel culture, recasting, and streaming services. Annie Murphy is a great choice for the title character of Joan, watching her life unravel on her streaming service of choice.
12. Beyond The Sea
Jay – 11, Steve – 10
Jay – Now this is some daaaaark stuff without even delving into the more traditional tropes. What happens when a nice gesture (in a scenario for which you need this person to function doing a very dangerous job) can turn into a nightmare? If
Trap told us anything, Josh Hartnett has some unexpected range. Aaron Paul and Kate Mara are also excellent.
Steve – “Beyond the Sea” has some great concepts. The idea of these astronauts being able to transfer their consciousnesses home to enjoy time on Earth is great science fiction. Seeing the jealousy that results when there ends up with only one body to share is a classic tale of human need and greed.
11. Common People
Jay – 10, Steve – 11
Jay – This one really hit for me as we dive deep into subscription culture and the sad dystopia of current US healthcare. Everything feels real and what would (has?) already happened for folks who can’t afford life-saving medical treatment.
Steve – I liked this one well enough. The strength really lies in the two leads – Chris O’Dowd and Rashida Jones. They bring a level of relatability and charisma to the roles that elevate this episode. I do like the premise of the ever increasing monthly fees being mapped onto keeping someone alive. The monthly fees especially creep up with the inflation that we have all felt in the past few years. It just felt like some of the amounts and the quickness with which O’Dowd’s character is resorting to humiliating acts on the internet are just a little bit off. This one feels like a near home run to me that ends up being more of a double.
10. White Bear
Jay – 6, Steve – 14
Jay – Absolutely love this one because of the mystery and suspenseful build-up. You have NO idea what is going on. You don’t really get that many tip-offs until the ultimate payoff and what is really going on for this woman who seems trapped in this nightmare reality. Like “Shut Up and Dance”, I love when the payoff feels so rightfully deserved and flips your feelings on its head.
Steve – This is a really interesting episode. I am in agreement that the mystery and the build-up is great in this episode. However, the payoff is where it gets me. The idea of this punishment just being perpetual (100 years!) bothered me. As I have mentioned, the constant misery on the show is grating for me at times.
9. Hang The DJ
Jay – 12, Steve – 7
Jay – I won’t give away the twist, but it is very satisfying and not so gut-wrenching for a
Black Mirror episode. The story’s take on the bleakness of online dating and algorithms are never more relevant than they are today.
Steve – I really like when
Black Mirror isn’t all doom and gloom. The show can be absolutely miserable in a way that few other shows can match. “Hang the DJ” skews the idea of dating apps and the perfect match. Dating isn’t perfect, and an app or matchmaker can’t just provide you magically with the perfect person for you. I don’t love the ending – it feels like a hat on a hat – but overall I think it’s a really nice episode of
Black Mirror.
8. USS Callister Into Infinity
Jay – 9, Steve – 9
Jay – For me it’s hard to even view this as a sequel as much as it is a continuation of its predecessor. While it continues a lot of the same themes, it also takes jabs at the morally corrupt practices of in-game monetization in the videogame industry. Milotti is still great and others like Jimmi Simpson and Billy Magnussen are given more to work with.
Steve – A sequel episode! The second USS Callister is right up there with the original as far as quality goes. “Into Infinity” gives Cristin Milloti more time to show off her acting chops than the original, as she is really the star of this one. Jimmi Simpson, who has been great on
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and
Westworld gets to have a lot of fun in this one.
7. USS Callister
Jay – 8, Steve – 8
Jay – As someone who plays videogames and is understanding of this culture, people like Jesse Plemons’ character surely do exist. Videogames are often an outlet to explore what you want to be or who you truly are. Plemons is the latter, which takes some wild turns in what it also says about counter-culture and loneliness. I love the nods to Star Trek and as mentioned, Cristin Milloti is one of the best actresses working today.
Steve – Jesse Plemons sure can play a creep. Between Todd on
Breaking Bad and Gary in
Game Night, Plemons has mastered the art of being the resident weirdo in a project. This plays perfectly to his strengths as Robert Daly in “USS Callister”. Cristin Milloti really shines as his foil, Nanette Cole. The only thing keeping this episode from being higher is the way that it bends over backwards to make the stakes feel higher. Daly has placed all of his coworkers into his hit video game and gets to boss them around in a
Star Trek-like environment. Somehow, he has created a machine that “clones” the coworkers into the game, so they are actual people and not just A.I. beings ultimately? It’s a strange one. Still, the dark take on
Star Trek makes for one of the stronger
Black Mirror concepts.
6. Nosedive
Jay – 7, Steve – 2
Jay – What a “wonderful” look at what people would do to stay popular. The obsession with being rated and the overall social media landscape is perfectly displayed in
Nosedive. To see what Bryce Dallas Howard’s character is willing to go through and her descent keeps this episode engaging from beginning to end.
Steve – I likely have this one higher than a lot of people, but I don’t care. I really love “Nosedive”. Rashida Jones and Mike Schur combined with a story by Charlie Brooker to write a scathing commentary of the gig economy and ratings systems. Bryce Dallas Howard is perfectly cast as a woman who tries to climb the social ladder through the rating system and finds herself just falling further and further to rock bottom.
5. White Christmas
Jay – 4, Steve – 5
Jay –
Black Mirror is at its best when it combines technology and mystery. Jon Hamm does a masterclass here of setting up the tale, to which you will not see coming until all is unwrapped at the end. This is a rare episode in which I don’t think there are any real strong themes, but rather just telling a robust and unique story that uses futuristic technology. Also the idea of “cookies” here is terrifying.
Steve – Jon Hamm is sooooo good in this one. This is yet another episode that deals with wearables and surveillance technology – those really make for some of the best
Black Mirror subjects. “White Christmas” nails the ending, with a satisfying punishment for a well-deserving party.
4. Eulogy
Jay – 3, Steve – 6
Jay – This is just a beautiful episode of television. Paul Giamatti elevates an already fantastic concept of reliving painful memories and reconciling long-held feelings. There is a “gotcha” moment with Giamatti’s character that really makes you feel his regrets. The imagery and how they shot this is absolutely fantastic to the eye. In the end it makes you ask a lot of questions about yourself and what you would confront.
Steve – Paul Giamatti is one of those chronically underrated actors. The best
Black Mirror episodes strike at the core of memory and emotion. “Eulogy” is about coming to terms with regrets. Revisiting painful memories is hard. It’s easier to just move forward and bury your head in the sand instead of being introspective and facing the pain.
3. Be Right Back
Jay – 5, Steve – 3
Jay – As Steve mentions, the experience of “loss” is universal to anyone who has built lasting relationships. What would you do if you were to lose someone? How far would you go to chase that feeling you once had? Would it even be remotely the same? Haley Atwell and Domhall Gleesson are stupendous in this one. The ending is both sad and a bit happy.
Steve – This one affected me because of that feeling you get when you’re running out for an errand real quick or your significant other runs out. The thought that a simple run for milk could be the last time you see someone is terrifying. This episode does a great job of exploring the loneliness of losing a longtime loved one and what you would do to cope with it. It is actually even more relevant now, given the relationships that people are forming with chatbots and LLMs like ChatGPT.
2. San Junipero
Jay – 1, Steve – 4
Jay – This is my favorite and while I heard that this was the series best episode, I didn’t quite believe it until I watched. It’s one of the most beautiful and representative looks at love you will ever see on television. Once the veil is lifted, you can’t help but feel for each of these characters even more as they have discovered something they never could before meeting in San Junipero. Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Mackenzie Davis absolutely shine and the chemistry feels undeniably real. It does make you ask yourself, do you wish something like this were to exist?
Steve – My ranking here is almost entirely a by-product of the episode being overhyped before I watched it. San Junipero really is a lovely episode of television, especially for a show as nihilistic as
Black Mirror can be. It’s a celebration of life and love, presenting a scientific version of the afterlife. There is a reason that “San Junipero” is most people’s favorite episode of
Black Mirror.
1. The Entire History of You
Jay – 2, Steve – 1
Jay – This is the only episode NOT written or have writing credits by its creator Charlie Booker. Jesse Armstrong (see:
Succession creator) creates an alarming and captivating look at how we view memories. Something like this would be conceptually revolutionary to humanity, but could have disastrous consequences. This is the third episode of the entire series, but it does really set the bench mark to which the series would go in.
Steve – This is my favorite episode. There was talk of making it into a feature length movie at one point, and I wondered what the point would be. It’s perfect as it is. The idea of being able to replay one’s memories is truly intriguing and frightening. The thought of being able to actually replay what happened and obsess over it is a slippery slope to madness. This is
Black Mirror at its best, showing the dangers of technology and crucial flaws of the human psyche.
Of course Jesse Armstrong wrote my favorite episode. I friggin’ love
Succession.
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