This article contains spoilers for the Black Mirror episode “USS Callister: Into Infinity.” Throughout its seven-season run, Black Mirror has covered a lot of ground. From sapphic digital afterlives to video game haunted houses to fulfillment center post-apocalypses, Charlie Brooker’s sci-fi/horror anthology has a penchant for boldly going where few have gone before. Still, even […]
The post Black Mirror Season 7 Episode 6 Review – USS Callister: Into Infinity appeared first on Den of Geek.
Early adopters of sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror were once able to rattle off their list of favorite episodes with ease. Back in the show’s Channel 4 days in the U.K., there were only six installments (“The National Anthem,” “15 Million Merits,” “The Entire History of You,” “Be Right Back,” “White Bear,” and “The Waldo Moment”) so it wasn’t too challenging to gather them all up in one’s brain and spit them out in a preferred order.
cnx({
playerId: “106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530”,
}).render(“0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796”);
});
Since 2016, however, Netflix has stepped in to start mass producing new episodes of Black Mirror as fast as creator Charlie Brooker can write them. The episode number (now at 34 with season 7) has become a bit more unwieldy so making sense of where they all rank is a taller order. Thankfully, it’s a a challenge we’re happy to take on.
What follows is our official list of every Black Mirror episode from worst to best. You will disagree with it because how could you not? Just be sure to let us know how foolish we are in the comments.
34. Shut Up and Dance
Season 3 Episode 3
The third installment of season 3 does indeed present a worthwhile original concept, as most episodes of Black Mirror do. Hackers contact teenage boy Kenny (Alex Lawther) and instruct him to perform an increasingly complicated series of chores or they’ll release an incriminating video taken from his webcam. He teams up with Hector (Jerome Flynn, who has been sent on a similar mission from the same hackers).
Unfortunately, “Shut Up and Dance” is simply too ugly for its own good. While the episode is able to tap into modern anxieties about loss of privacy and autonomy well, it introduces a depressing third act twist that unwittingly argues we’re all terrible animals who don’t deserve our stupid privacy anyway.
33. The Entire History of You
Season 1 Episode 3
“The Entire History of You” was a popular choice for fan favorite following the show’s tiny three-episode first season. The concept of being able to literally watch one’s own memories Dumbledore’s Pensieve-style was definitely appealing. The episode struck such a chord that Robert Downey Jr. even optioned it to make a still as of yet unproduced movie. Problem is: “The Entire History of You” has aged incredibly poorly.
The initial concept remains appealing – so much so that the mind projection “nubbin” has recurred several times – but the story wrapped around it is just awful. Lead character Liam (Toby Kebbell) is such a monstrous prick that it negates any salient point the episode may try to make. It’s hard to be taken in by the episode’s fascinating technology when it’s presented within the most standard and boring infidelity plot imaginable.
32. The Waldo Moment
Season 2 Episode 3
“The Waldo Moment” is a popular choice for worst Black Mirror episode ever and it’s not hard to see why. Central “character” Waldo is just absolutely unfunny and insufferable. The plot introduces tortured comedic genius Charlie Brooker…I mean Jamie Salter (Daniel Rigby), whose animated bear-like creation Waldo embarks upon a satirical run for office.
In a more modern context when we’ve seen creatures far worse than cartoon characters elected to office, “The Waldo Moment” isn’t quite as ridiculous. The notion of co-opting sarcastic revolutions from frustrated voters is pretty right on. Still, Waldo is just the fucking worst. He’s like how Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was a show that wanted to depict a comedic variety show but was completely unable to write believable sketches.
31. Men Against Fire
Season 3 Episode 5
“Men Against Fire” is actually pretty solid. Its biggest issue, however, is that it’s nearly impossible not to guess its big twist very early on in the episode. Once the episode gets that inevitability out of the way, a lot falls into place and “Men Against Fire’s” central message is effective and disturbing.
Still the ease in which the narrative trickery is worked out holds it back – as does its clear lack of a necessary budget. It’s a story and a concept that just needed some more time and money to marinate.
30. Crocodile
Season 4 Episode 3
“Crocodile” is one of Black Mirror‘s best-looking episodes. Director John Hillcoat (The Road) makes the absolute best of the setting’s still, disquieting Icelandic landscapes. And that interesting concept of accessing memories comes up again – only this time in a more primitive form.
The technology being developed and primarily used by insurance investigators is entirely logical and intelligent on the show’s part. The plot that Brooker creates around it is again just too bleak. It’s not clear what the episode is trying to say other than that the truly monstrous walk among us – which is a lazy theme for a show this good.
29. Hated in the Nation
Season 3 Episode 6
At this point in the list, we enter into a series of episodes that are flawed but still mostly enjoyable. “Hated in the Nation” has two big factors working against it: it is both season 3’s longest and last episode, carrying an added level of import that it just doesn’t earn.
There’s too much going on here with the show combining a modern social media terrorism plot with….robot bees? It’s all a bit much and at times flat out silly. It’s still a fun episode that combines moments of sharp humor and real intensity. It’s also one of the few Black Mirror episodes to tackle social media and does so in a pretty smart way.
28. Mazey Day
Season 6 Episode 4
“Mazey Day” feels like it should be a more consequential Black Mirror episode than it ends up being. This season 6 installment about a troubled actress and the paparazzi who want to make their riches off of her goes in an ultimately unprecedented direction for the anthology.
While that direction is pretty clever, and the episode’s breezy running time is inoffensive, Mazey Day can’t really elevate itself beyond those two slight adjectives. You’ll have some fun here but for the most part this Zazie Beetz-starring installment isn’t Black Mirror at its best.
27. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
Bandersnatch is a bit of an odd duck in the Black Mirror oeuvre. Released late in 2018 as a standalone, Bandersnatch is Netflix’s first ever “choose-your-own-adventure” showcase for adults. The story follows young programmer Stefan Butler (Fionn Whitehead) as he attempts to create a videogame based on the works of his favorite author. Sadly that author went crazy and killed his family, and as the choices for Stefan began to develop, it becomes clear that the viewer may be guiding him to a similar fate.
Bandersnatch works surprisingly well as a pure Black Mirror episode, devoid of the narrative tricks. Stefan and Colin Ritman (Will Poulter) are both strong characters and the episode’s warped version of 1984 comes across quite nicely. It’s those darn choices though that get in the way of the things. In a way that’s fitting, as Bandersnatch might be about how choice is an illusion anyway.
26. Arkangel
Season 4 Episode 2
Like its season 4 companion “Crocodile,” “Arkangel” is another episode that looks flat out beautiful. Jodie Foster is clearly in her element as a director, creating a richly realized portrait of a near-future small-town America. Not only that but she creates a touching portrayal of mothers and daughters.
So much of “Arkangel’s” runtime is staggeringly poignant, with a mother doing truly destructive things to her daughter all in the name of love. Rarely has an episode of Black Mirror fallen apart so precipitously in its third act, however.
25. Smithereens
Season 5 Episode 2
“Smithereens” follows Chris (Andrew Scott) a rideshare driver who spends most of his days outside of social networking app company Smithereen, waiting to pick an executive up. When Chris finally gets his wish (or thinks he does) he springs his hostage plan into action with one singular goal in mind: talk to the Smithereen CEO (Topher Grace) on his phone.
“Smithereens” is perfectly fine, but unremarkable. It joins other episodes like “Shut Up and Dance” and “The Entire History of You” that help establish dark sci-fi bona fides of the show in the public consciousness but aren’t the most compelling statements Black Mirror has to offer.
24. Black Museum
Season 4 Episode 6
Considering that Black Mirror itself is an anthology, maybe it’s no surprise that it’s able to handle anthologies within a single episode pretty well. “Black Museum” is the “finale” of season 4, and it’s an easter egg bonanza for Black Mirror fans wrapped around a pretty compelling story.
An unnamed woman (played by Black Panther‘s Letitia Wright) pulls into a desert U.S. rest stop where she enters a creepy museum curated by the bombastic Rolo Haynes (Douglas Hodge). Rolo takes his visitor on a tour of the museum, telling stories about how he came to acquire its many technological curiosities. “Black Museum” is in some respects just as dark as the brutal “Crocodile,” but it comes along with a winking Twilight Zone black humor that makes it all the more palatable and engaging.
23. Common People
Season 7 Episode 1
Season 7 opener “Common People” isn’t the best episode of Black Mirror, nor is it the worst, but it might just be the most Black Mirror episode of Black Mirror yet. Rashida Jones and Chris O’Dowd star as Mike and Amanda, a working class American couple just looking to get by. That goal becomes even more challenging when Amanda falls into a tumor-induced coma, only to be resurrected by the tech firm Rivermind.
There’s no catch here! The good folks at Rivermind bring Amanda’s brain back online for free. All it costs to keep it that way is $300 a month via the subscription model. Wait, did we say $300? It’s actually closer to $1300 now, you know with the upgrading of the cell towers and all. Also, can we interest you in Rivermind Luxe? It’s the only way to remove ads. Blessed with a creative concept and saddled with a typical ending, Common People is as close to a “replacement level” episode of Black Mirror as you’re likely to find.
22. Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too
Season 5 Episode 3
Each successive season of Black Mirror feels like it works harder and harder to subvert viewers’ expectations in logical yet thrilling ways. The show has indulged in Star Trek-like adventure in “U.S.S. Callister,” post-apocalyptic horror in “Metalhead,” and basically straight up romance in “San Juinpero.” Season 5’s “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too” might be the series’ most striking tonal departures yet. If not for the occasional F-bomb, this is basically a madcap childrens’ movie.
“Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too” follows sisters Rachel and Jack, who are struggling to fit in at school and come to terms with their mom’s death. Ashley O (played by Miley Cyrus naturally) is a pop star who finds herself under the thumb of her evil aunt. When Ashley O’s aunt makes a truly wild and destructive power play, Rachel, Jack, and a robot named Ashley Too seek to defeat her. Many a lesson is learned along the way. “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too” doesn’t have the depth of many other Black Mirror episodes and takes far too long to get really rolling. Still, it’s hard not to fall for the charms of this strangely wholesome installment.
21. Playtest
Season 3 Episode 2
There’s quite a bit of time-padding in “Playtest.” Despite a reasonable running time of 57 minutes, the first act feels like it’s nine hours long. Once that hurdle is cleared, however, no episode of Black Mirror is able to more succinctly accomplish what it sets out to accomplish.
In “Playtest’s” case, that’s to be the first flat out techno horror movie episode of Black Mirror. It’s hard to imagine the episode succeeding in this goal more effectively. “Playtest” is far scarier than one could reasonably expect. The episode’s success is tempered yet again by having more endings than The Return of the King but the meaty middle portion is enough to place “Playtest” firmly in Black Mirror‘s middle class.
20. Loch Henry
Season 6 Episode 2
Black Mirror does true crime in “Loch Henry” and it does so quite well! The episode picks up with young filmmakers Davis (Samuel Blenkin) and Pia (Myha’la) returning to Davis’s native Scotland to film a Herzog-ian documentary about a guy who defends endangered bird eggs. When Pia stumbles upon the story of a grueling double murder that Davis’s cop father investigated, she rightfully decides that’s their angle instead.
Loch Henry works as both an engaging crime saga and a criticism of our own seedy fascination with pop culture murder. The twist is fairly easy to guess but the absolute human devastation it eventually reaps certainly makes up for that. In an increasingly bleak series, Loch Henry might just offer up one of Black Mirror‘s bleakest-ever endings.
19. Bête Noire
Season 7 Episode 2
Oftentimes it’s the simplest of human emotions that lead to the most incisive Black Mirrors. Case in point is “Bête Noire,” the second episode of the show’s seventh season. Things are going well enough for food researcher Maria (Siena Kelly) until an old face from her past stops by work. Soon enough Verity (Rosy McEwen) is brining the concept of gaslighting to new sci-fi heights.
At the center of it all is the bête noire, or black beast, herself: jealousy. Turns out you can travel a whole multiverse of possibilities and never get over your childhood pain.
18. Beyond the Sea
Season 6 Episode 3
It’s hard to find the right spot for “Beyond the Sea” on this list. Technically-speaking, it’s one of Black Mirror‘s most impressive episodes. Beautifully-shot by director John Crowley and capably acted by leads Josh Hartnett, Aaron Paul, and Kate Mara, this brings the show’s sci-fi concept back to the 1960s space age where it fits quite well. But then there’s that ending.
Is the hard turn that Beyond the Sea takes in the end coldly logical or the result of Charlie Brooker hitting the “we’re at 80 minutes and must self-destruct” button? Opinions vary at Den of Geek and we suspect they might vary out there as well.
17. Plaything
Season 7 Episode 4
While “USS Callister: Into Infinity” was touted as Black Mirror‘s first-ever direct sequel, it is actually sneakily beat to the punch two episodes previously with “Plaything.” Bandersnatch‘s Will Poulter returns as video game developer Colin Ritman in this short and sweet ode to mankind’s love for fuzzy little guys.
The fuzzy little guys in this equation are Thronglets, digital critters created by Ritman but not in any way under his control. All the Thronglets want is to be given the chance to create their own Throng and Cameron (Peter Capaldi) is going to help them out. Despite featuring one of Black Mirror‘s many trademark bleak endings, there’s something endearing about Plaything. Maybe it’s the Thronglets themselves or the open question of who’s really the “plaything” here but this installment is firmly enjoyable.
16. Metalhead
Season 4 Episode 5
“Metalhead” is beautiful in its simplicity. It’s among the shortest, most direct, and most exciting episodes of Black Mirror. Brooker presents us with a simple black and white story of survival. Black and white literally and black and white figuratively: man (in this case woman) vs. machine.
Maxine Peake is phenomenal as our protagonist in a Walking Dead-style future in which humanity is pursued by terrifying packs of robotic “dogs.” “Metalhead” never gives us straightforward answers (though those robots do seem to like to gather around Amazon-like fulfillment centers) but what it does give us is a careful, straightforward examination of the human spirit’s drive to survive.
15. Hang the DJ
Season 4 Episode 4
Frank (Joe Cole) and Amy (Georgina Campbell) meet through a dating service app that dictates the entire direction of your dating life. “The System” takes users from relationship to relationship, gathering information to find the user’s one true love. Problem is: Frank and Amy believe they’ve already found it and yet The System isn’t ready to let them quit just yet.
“Hang the DJ” is the rare episode of Black Mirror (or anything else for that matter) that features a twist that both elevates and reinforces the original premise. It’s a wonderful, clever, and emotional love story.
14. Hotel Reverie
Season 7 Episode 3
“Hotel Reverie” is what you get when you combine a timely tech topic with some resonant emotional storytelling. That is to say: a great Black Mirror episode. Issa Rae stars as famous actress Brandy Friday, who jumps at the opportunity to play the male lead in a remake of her favorite black and white film, Hotel Reverie. Of course, like many Black Mirror characters in season 7, she doesn’t quite read the instruction manual.
Even before things go inevitably, terribly wrong, Hotel Reverie’s premise of inserting modern day actors into classic films is queasy enough. In addition to capably exploring that topic (in a post-SGA strike landscape no less), this episode makes room for a compelling, offbeat love story that transcends time, space, and celluloid.
13. White Bear
Season 2 Episode 2
“White Bear” may rely a bit too much on its third-act twist but damn, what a twist it is. Folks who have never seen Black Mirror may be under the mistaken impression that the show thrives on “tricking” its audience. That’s obviously not always the case. But it is in “White Bear” and the results are incredible.
Black Mirror is able to manipulate us into believing it’s a much simpler, maybe even derivative show with the first two-thirds of “White Bear.” That last third, however, presents a fundamental truth about the all-consuming human desire for vengeance that’s as uncomfortable as anything the show has produced thus far.
12. The National Anthem
Season 1 Episode 1
Black Mirror‘s first episode is among its most polarizing. It’s incredible that this is what Brooker chose to lead off with. Granted, he couldn’t have known what the franchise would eventually become, but the story of an English Prime Minister blackmailed into copulating with a pig on national television remains as bold and darkly funny as ever.
The prime minster in question is the uninspiring Michael Callow (Rory Kinnear). After a domestic terrorist kidnaps a beloved princess, Callow has a chance to be the hero…by doing the unthinkable. Even all these years later, “The National Anthem” serves as a fitting, and bizarrely prescient, introduction to this TV institution.
11. Joan Is Awful
Season 6 Episode 1
The cultural conversation surrounding Black Mirror in its latter seasons always seems to comes down to the question: “do we even need this show anymore? Reality has basically become an episode of Black Mirror.” Brooker himself has copped to occasionally feeling hamstrung by the world’s increasingly dystopian tendencies. But then you get an episode like season 6 opener “Joan Is Awful” and realize why this project has plenty left in the tank.
Joan Is Awful uses the Black Mirrorification of our reality to its advantage. This disturbingly plausible hour finds the titular Joan (Annie Murphy) discovering that Netflix Streamberry has finally put all that data it collected on her to good use and just made a TV show about her life. It’s a perfectly Black Mirror concept that episode writer Brooker knows just what to do. And thanks to the star power of Murphy and Salma Hayek Pinault, it’s all marvelously entertaining with an unexpectedly empowering conclusion.
10. White Christmas
“White Christmas” is the first and superior of Black Mirror‘s two anthology episodes. Jon Hamm stars as Matt Trent, a proprietor of a home-helper technology, dating expert, and all-around creep. “White Christmas” follows Trent through three seemingly unrelated stories before they cross in fascinating and terrifying ways.
White Christmas is just terrifying, good science fiction and in many ways the technological concepts presented in it have resonated throughout future seasons of the show.
9. Striking Vipers
Season 5 Episode 1
Even before the “turn” in “Striking Vipers,” this is still a beautiful and bittersweet episode of television. Anthony Mackie, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Nicole Beharie brilliantly capture the anarchic sense of freedom and joy of youth and then just as capably capture the nostalgic sadness of adulthood. At first glance, this is an episode about growing old, growing apart, and not being able to reconcile your new self and your old self.
Then the twist hits. Suddenly “Striking Vipers” explodes into a whole host of philosophical, emotional, and sexual questions that the episode invites you to ponder. Through a silly little Mortal Kombat style videogame, Black Mirror makes the audience reconsider their own relationships and values. Just like all the truly great Black Mirror episodes this is a love story. But who loves who, how do they love them, what does that love mean, and where do we all go from here?
8. USS Callister: Into Infinity
Season 7 Episode 6
When it comes to Black Mirror episodes, fans and critics sometimes get hung up in trying to Figure Out What It All Means. What’s the technology here? What’s the message? What’s the parable? Sometimes, however, Charlie Brooker and company opt to craft an episode with the mission of “what if we just make something that rips?”
Enter: “USS Callister: Into Infinity,” the follow-up to season 4’s “USS Callister” and the Black Mirror franchise’s first-ever direct sequel. While this Cristin Milioti-led installment contains some timely commentary about the nature of digital identities and mankind’s heart of darkness, it’s seemingly just an excuse for the show to revisit a cast and concept that everyone had a ton of fun exploring the first time. Lo’ and behold, it’s a ton of fun the second time around too.
7. Nosedive
Season 3 Episode 1
Bryce Dallas Howard stars as Lacie Pound, a woman living in a near future that is even more obsessed with social media and status than we are. Lacie decides she wants to get into a hip new neighborhood but to do so she must maintain a 4.0 score on the dominant social media app. The effort to do so sends her into a … well, a nosedive.
A fun aspect of Black Mirror is being able to recognize certain plot points and themes in real life. Ok, so it’s not always fun. Usually it’s terrifying. For “Nosedive,” though it’s somehow both. Despite its too close for comfort premise, the episode is a lot of fun and it will forever change the way you view your Uber rating.
6. Demon 79
Season 6 Episode 5
“Demon 79” represents the Black Mirror‘s attempt to do something completely new. In fact, this was initially written by Brooker (alongside co-writer Bisha K. Ali) to be an installment of an entirely separate companion show called Red Mirror. As such, it is an unabashedly fantasy horror experience complete with a literal demon and a grim prophecy of the world’s end. And it all works!
Anjana Vasan and Paapa Essiedu both shine as the human-demon duo who are tasked with killing three people to avoid the apocalypse. Despite its non-Black Mirror origins, Demon 79 has every spiritual element of the original show in place: it’s violent, it’s political, it’s angry, it’s funny, and it’s clever. It’s a hell of a fun watch that operates as a much-needed reset and fresh beginning for the franchise overall.
5. Eulogy
Season 7 Episode 5
If you’re bringing one of planet Earth’s best actors aboard for an episode of your silly sci-fi anthology show, you’d better know what to do with him. Thankfully, Black Mirror not only knows what to do with Paul Giamatti, it gives him an incredibly meaty role in “Eulogy.”
The technology of Eulogy is simple and certainly not what you’d call dystopian. Giamatti’s Phillip is granted a nubbin and an AI assistant to guide him through some old photos and prompted to remember some material for his old flame’s eulogy. What the episode lacks in flash, however, it makes up for his heart. This is a touching, bittersweet installment that stands out as one of Black Mirror‘s best.
4. 15 Million Merits
Season 1 Episode 2
“15 Million Merits” is all over the place. It satirizes talent shows like The Voice and American Idol. It satirizes the app culture that’s invading our phones and computers. It satirizes the weight loss industry. It’s a lot, and it’s hard to fully categorize. Instead of all these elements detracting from the story at hand, they enhance it.
“15 Million Merits” is genius dystopian fiction. It’s Brooker’s sense of humor placed neatly over Orwell’s 1984. It’s only the second episode of the entire series and it’s as auspicious a beginning as possible.
3. USS Callister
Season 4 Episode 1
“Wait, this was supposed to be the fun Star Trek parody” a viewer might think to themselves as they watch Captain Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons) use God-like powers to remove the mouth of his crewmate Nanette Cole (Cristin Milioti) so she can neither breathe nor scream. Well, “USS Callister” is Black Mirror‘s “fun” Star Trek parody. It’s also a compelling examination of bad men and the damage they do.
“USS Callister” is one of the most complete and exciting stories the show has told yet. We know TV types get testy when episodes are compared to movies, but “USS Callister” really is just a fantastic movie. Brooker has a stronger sense of story and wonder here than ever before, and “USS Callister” marks an exciting new direction for the show altogether.
2. San Junipero
Season 3 Episode 4
The success of “San Junipero” seemed to catch Brooker and Netflix by surprise. Black Mirror was always a bleak, sometimes ugly little show that had fun doing its Twilight Zone schtick in the shadows. And then season 3 debuted on Netflix and nestled within it – in the unassuming position of the fourth episode – was a romantic masterpiece. A show that was sometimes about things that go viral suddenly had a “thing that went viral.”
San Junipero won the show its first Emmy and took up more server space of discussion on the internet than any other episode. It’s all more than well earned. San Junipero is near perfect. It’s the story of the love between two people, Kelly (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), and Yorkie (Mackenzie Davis), who are only able to meet because of technology. For once technology brings people together on Black Mirror instead of tearing them apart.
1. Be Right Back
Season 2 Episode 1
“Be Right Back” is Black Mirror‘s smallest episode – its quietest, its most intimate. Domhnall Gleeson and Hayley Atwell (before they were the Domhnall Gleeson and the Hayley Atwell) star as married couple Ash and Martha. They are happily, comfortably in love, even if Ash does have a bit of a problem pulling himself away from his phone.
One night, Ash heads out for a drive on a snowy road and the unthinkable happens. Martha is faced with a lifetime on her own until one of her friends puts an idea in her head. There does exist the technology now where a company can recreate the personality of a lost loved one through all of their social media posts and online presence. So Martha goes through with it and tries to fall in love again with a facsimile of Ash. As we all know, however, technology can get pretty close to human but can it get all the way there?
“Be Right Back” is beautiful and sad because it’s human. It’s imperfect. And it gets to a truth about all technology. Life is a race to experience love against the clock of death. So much of our technology and our innovation is about extending that clock, enhancing our capacity to love or in the rarest of instances: defeating death. Death, life, love, grief, technology, and time all come together for a bittersweet little parable in “Be Right Back.” It’s Black Mirror‘s best episode.
The post Black Mirror: Ranking Every Episode appeared first on Den of Geek.
