Black Mirror, the hit dystopian anthology series, recently went into its seventh outing. Starting out humbly on Channel 4 in the UK, created by dead-pan funny guy Charlie Brooker, the show went onto new heights after he sold it to Netflix. The Americanisation of the show hasn’t landed well with some fans of the show, but it is still majorly successful.
Although there isn’t much chance that you won’t have watched at least an episode of this show, if you’re new to it then these are the episodes we think you should watch. The beauty of Black Mirror is you don’t have to watch them in order, so here is a whistle stop tour of what the series has to offer.
The National Anthem
Okay so, ignore what I said about not watching the series in a particular order, because there truly is no other place to start than the beginning. The National Anthem is an accomplishment in so many ways, in that it sets the tone for Black Mirror as a whole, and it also acts singularly as one of the best episodes the show has ever produced. In The National Anthem, which is set in the UK, a beloved member of the Royal Family is kidnapped and the fictional Prime Minister Michael Callow (Rory Kinnear) faces a dilemma to help save the Princess before she is murdered.
This episode is very much an if you know you know deal, but if you don’t then go into it as blind as possible. The situation that Michael faces is horrifying, and more to that the episode’s twist is really one for the ages. Beyond the shocking content though, The National Anthem gives us a taste of Black Mirror’s satirical nature. Political commentary becomes a pillar of the show’s ethos.
The Entire History of You
Another pillar of the show’s ethos is its commentary on us living in a world with rapidly advancing technology, and how that might look, and how it might affect us all on a human level. No other episode than The Entire History of You takes this idea and runs to the hills with it. Can you imagine a world where you had the power to record everything you saw and heard? Well in this episode that thought is a reality, as people have an implant that gives them this power.
Jess Armstrong, of Peep Show and Succession fame, wrote this episode for the show, and it’s no surprise that it is one of the series’ best. You would think that an ability like this would remove paranoia from your life, but it becomes clear that it would only exacerbate it. Constantly replaying things that have happened in your head watching out for little details of an interaction you might have missed. The Entire History of You becomes an integral Black Mirror episode because of its exploration of a potential technology that could change the way we live. But on another note, how it could be our downfall.
White Bear
White Bear, from season 2 of the show, is certainly this writer’s favourite episode of Black Mirror. When Victoria wakes up unawares of her surroundings and who she is, she must go on a journey to find out. But when she realises there are bystanders everywhere filming her every move, she becomes even more confused.
To give any more details away about this episode would do it a disservice; the way the narrative unfolds to its sickening crescendo is something to behold. White Bear exists on the same level as The National Anthem through its satirical inspection of crime and punishment. In a world where we are more obsessed than ever with seeing everything on our phone screens, especially violence that we desensitize ourselves to, this episode which was released in 2013 is more relevant than ever.
San Junipero
San Junipero is probably the most popular episode of Black Mirror amongst the show’s fanbase, so to omit it from this list wouldn’t make sense. San Junipero is an idyllic beachside town where people meet up to get up to all sorts of hijinks. When Kelly and Yorkie meet in a nightclub, their lives change forever.
San Junipero treads different ground for Black Mirror. Beyond its dystopian imagining of a future technology, it has something that a lot of Black Mirror episodes didn’t up until this point: heart. At its core the show is pessimistic, characters more often than not end up being destroyed or even destroying themselves. To put it bluntly, the future’s looking bleak so Black Mirror, well, mirrors that. This might be one of the reasons people warm to this episode so much, it is way more optimistic. But even a nice episode wouldn’t be complete without that underlying existential dread you would come to expect with Black Mirror.
Men Against Fire
Men Against Fire sits in the show’s release order right after San Junipero so it is no surprise that it is often an episode people forget. In Men Against Fire, soldiers are tasked with protecting their citizens from feral mutants who look to destroy everything in their path. But when Stripe sees beyond his army technology, things are not what they seem.
Men Against Fire is an underrated episode of Black Mirror and one that, considering current global events, is incredibly relevant even more so nine years after its initial release. The episode’s commentary on the dehumanisation of innocent people by those in power to make them seem like the enemy is a timely message on how we view our fellow man.
USS Callister
USS Callister. Sounds familiar but not quite what you think right? That is because it is Black Mirror meets Star Trek. Jesse Plemons plays a tech CEO who is obsessed with his virtual world which is based on a TV show he watched growing up. But one of his crewmates is seemingly onto him.
Under its shiny nostalgic veneer USS Callister is one of the more gross episodes of Black Mirror. But the episode was received incredibly by viewers, so much so that the show is breaking its anthology rule and in the upcoming season we will be seeing a sequel to this episode. So if you are considering watching the new series then it would benefit you to watch this episode before it, or you might be quite confused.
Joan Is Awful
Joan Is Awful is from the most recent season of Black Mirror. In this episode, Annie Murphy plays Joan, who finds out a global streaming service has launched a TV show about her life where she is played by Salma Hayek. As the lines begin to blur between real life and the show, Joan goes fully off the deep end.
Joan Is Awful takes aim at the streaming service that hosts Black Mirror. Netflix, a service which churns out content in the hope of making massive amounts of profit. Only in this instance it is directly affecting a real life person. This episode is entirely self-serving, paradoxical, and self-referential, but it is a really fun time.
Bandersnatch
Bandersnatch is a release beyond the main seasons of Black Mirror, and it works a bit differently to them as well. Stephan is a new-on-the-block games programmer and he is looking to adapt a dark fantasy novel into a video game, but as he goes through this process his reality starts to blend with that of a dreamlike state.
Bandersnatch is different to other Black Mirror episodes because you are in control. It is a choose-your-own-adventure game that boasts about 5 hours of footage, which you can see all of if you’re willing to pass through it multiple times picking different options as you go. When it first released it felt like a genuinely revolutionary piece of TV, it was incredibly popular and Netflix even went on to produce a whole host of similar programming (which wasn’t as good naturally). But beyond the fun of it all, we are also seemingly getting an episode in the new series which will be connected to Bandersnatch, so it will be worth going through if you have the time.
Black Mirror Season 7 is now streaming on Netflix.
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