Top 5 Black Mirror episodes to stream on Netflix including ‘hopeful’ one which will ‘change your life’
Black Mirror has a whopping 33 mind-bending episodes, but there's five which have come out on top in this week's UNILAD RANKED.
Season seven of the iconic series which often makes you question your entire reality dropped on April 10 - and if you've already binge-watched your way through the whole thing? Well, thankfully UNILAD RANKED has you covered with the top five Black Mirror episodes of all time as polled in LADbible Facebook Group's 'Netflix Bangers' page.
A user took to the group to question what the 'best Black Mirror episode' is in 2023, giving 15 options from seasons one to six.
Ready to be voted on were: White Christmas, Hang the DJ, San Junipero, The Entire History of You, Nosedive, Shut Up and Dance, Black Museum, Hated in the Nation, USS Callister, Joan is Awful, Fifteen Million Merits, Loach Henry, Beyond the Sea, Playtest, White Bear, Be Right Back, Metalhead, Arkangel, Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too and National Anthem - some having been added in by other users.
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A total of 136 votes were counted and there was one clear winner...
5) USS Callister - Season 4, Episode 1
White Bear, USS Callister, Shut Up and Dance and The Entire History of You all came in with five percent of voters believing they're the best episode.
White Bear - episode two of season two - scored a Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer of 89 percent, while USS Callister scored a fresh 95 percent.
Meanwhile, Shut Up and Dance obtained a score of 67 percent and The Entire History of You scored 89 percent.
So, USS Callister took the lead.
Written by series creator Charlie Brooker and William Bridges and directed by Toby Haynes, season four aired in December 2017.
It stars Jesse Plemons (Breaking Bad), Cristin Milioti (How I Met Your Mother), Jimmi Simpson (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and Michaela Coel (I May Destroy You).
The episode centers around a reclusive programmer who creates a private virtual reality game to escape his real job, however, will the power get too much for him?
Even if you've already seen the episode, you may've missed two surprise cameos from Spider-Man star Kirsten Dunst as a Callister employee alongside fellow Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul, whose voice can be heard as 'Gamer691'.
One Twitter user wrote: "Its art. i could talk about this one for days. i love u."
So loved is the episode that season seven brought about a sequel - the first ever for the series.
One fan commented the sequel was 'even better, writing: "USS Callister was my favorite Black Mirror episode... until now. The sequel episode Into Infinity was even better. Netflix should've made that into a standalone movie."
4) Black Museum - Season 4, Episode 6
The sixth and final episode of the fourth series came in with six percent of votes, securing its spot in fourth place.
Similarly written by Brooker, this episode had one part adapted from a story by Penn Jillette - one half of magician duo Penn and Teller - and was directed by Colm McCarthy (Bagman).
The horror episode is split into three stories, all told by owner of the Black Museum Rolo Haynes to visitor Nish, each detailing the backstories to certain exhibits.
It stars Douglas Hodge (Only Fools and Horses), Letitia Wright (Black Panther), Daniel Lapaine (Muriel's Wedding) and Aldis Hodge (Cross) among others.
The Black Museum is the name of a radio program starring legendary actor and director Orson Welles (Citizen Kane), which was based on real-life cases from the files of Scotland Yard's Black Museum, IMDb notes.
With a solid tomatometer of 76, one Twitter user said: "Black museum was the black mirror episode we all deserved."
And now for another episode which similarly explores three stories...
3) White Christmas - Season 2, Episode 4
The 2014 Christmas special of the anthology series was written by Brooker and directed by Carl Tibbetts (Retreat) and obtained 13 percent of votes on the poll.
The last episode to air on Channel 4 before the series moved to Netflix, the episode explores three interconnected stories told by two men in a remote cabin on Christmas Day.
The first sees a man try to seduce a woman at a Christmas party, the second a man training digital clones of people and the third, a man refusing to let go of his relationship to an extremely problematic extent.
The episode stars Jon Hamm (Mad Men), Rafe Spall (Life of Pi) and Oona Chaplin (Game of Thrones).
And there's even a nod made to Hamm's role in Mad Men where Hamm played the role of advertising agency employee Don Draper - a character in Black Mirror guessing his occupation is a marketing person.
With a tomatometer of 90 and popcornmeter of 96, White Christmas is a firm favorite with Black Mirror fans, with one Redditor writing: "White Christmas is the greatest and saddest Black Mirror episode."
"My favorite episode. Three stories in one, awesome twist. Ugh love it," another added.
Now, the top two may spark some debate...
2) San Junipero - Season 3, Episode 4
Written by Brooker and directed by Owen Harris (Kill Your Friends), the fourth episode of season three first premiered on Netflix in October 2016 and secured 16 percent of votes on the Netflix Bangers poll.
Set in a technological afterlife of a beach resort town called - you guessed it - San Junipero, which preserves consciousnesses, the episode follows two women who are navigating being able to live forever as their younger selves.
The story was inspired by the 2010 BBC documentary The Young Ones and the soundtrack of the series was released on digital and CD, alongside a nod to the main period it's set - vinyl and cassette.
It stars Mackenzie Davis (Speak No Evil) and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (The Girl Before), alongside Denise Burse (Tyler Perry's House of Payne), Raymond McAnally (Paradise Highway) and Gavin Stenhouse (Kung Fu).
And the episode's surprisingly positive tone - compared to the rest of the anthology series - struck a chord with not only viewers, but awards shows too, with San Junipero going on to win two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Television Movie and Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie or Dramatic Special alongside obtaining a tomatometer of 92.
As one Twitter user wrote: "I love the entire list but San Junipero is just one of my fav things ever and don’t worry about it being a black mirror episode cause it is very hopeful and uplifting in my opinion."
"A FRIEND SHOWED ME SAN JUNIPERO AND IT CHANGED MY LIFE," another added.
And the winner is...
1) Hang the DJ - Season 4, Episode 4
With a Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer of 92, the episode is on par with San Junipero. And despite many viewers to-ing and fro-ing over which one comes out on top, ultimately, Hang the DJ wins in the results of the Netflix Bangers poll with a resounding win of 29 percent of voters saying it's the best Black Mirror episode of seasons one to six.
Written by Brooker and directed by Tim Van Patten (Game of Thrones) , the episode first aired on Netflix in December 2017.
A new take on a dating app, it follows two singletons, pairing them up in relationships for fixed amounts of time until eventually the algorithm figures out who their life partner should be.
The episode stars Georgina Campbell (Murdered by My Boyfriend) and Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders) alongside the likes of George Blagden (Vikings), Gwyneth Keyworth (Misfits) and Jessie Cave (Harry Potter).
A Twitter user wrote: "God tier of Black Mirror."
"Another day of Hang the DJ being the best black mirror episode," a second added.
And a third resolved: "Hang the DJ (Black Mirror) is one of the most beautiful episodes of television I’ve ever seen."
What do you think?
UNILAD RANKED is a weekly series with a new article released every Friday.
Topics: UNILAD RANKED, Black Mirror, Netflix, Film and TV, Entertainment
Poppy Bilderbeck