Julien Neaves, Sci Fi Head Writer
The seventh season (or “series” as they say across the pond) of award-winning British dystopian Sci Fi anthology series Black Mirror (2011-) released on Netlfix on April 10 and it has been creating quite the buzz among fans. After a noticeable drop in quality in the past few series the latest batch of episodes finally felt like a true return to form and worthy of a franchise known for exploring the darker sides of technology and humanity.
But how does Series 7 compare to the previous series? How about we rank them? And just a caveat, the special White Christmas (2014) and interactive film Bandersnatch (2018), while both very good, will not be included on this list as they are standalone efforts. With that out of the way and with a weird and very depressing SPOILER ALERT let’s plug on in:
#7 Series 5 (2019)
It was pretty easy picking the worst series of Black Mirror as Season 5 was an exercise in disappointment. The video game sex antics of “Striking Vipers” felt pointless and while Yahya Abdul-Mateen II give it his best, Anthony Mackie seemed like he was sleepwalking through the role. The Miley Cyrus starring “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too” was too cutesy and on the nose (Cyrus as a pop star, how daring), feeling far removed from traditional Black Mirror, and not in a good way.
The only decent episode was “Smithereens”, but that felt more like a run-of-the-mill thriller with its very light technological elements. An okay episode and two subpar ones add up to the nadir of the show. But thankfully things got better after this.
Strongest Episode: Smithereens
Weakest Episode: Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too
#6 Series 6 (2023)
Series creator Charlie Booker tried to spice up the usual formula by adding some horror to Series 6 with mixed results. The darkly comedic “Demon 79” was thoroughly entertaining and featured great turns by Anjana Vasan and Paapa Essiedu, but paparazzi werewolf thriller Mazey Day felt by-the-numbers and featured a very obvious twist.
But the technology/science fiction episodes truly delivered. The meta episode “Joan is Awful” was hilarious and supremely meme-able and “Loch Henry” was visually arresting with a riveting and disturbing story. The standout, however, was Beyond the Sea with Aaron Paul and Josh Hartnett giving some career-best performances as alternative 1969 astronauts on a space station who transfer their consciousness into replicas to spend time with their families. It is an unnerving train wreck that you cannot look away from that culminates in a bloody ending that, while expected, still deserves that trademark Black Mirror emotional gut punch.
Strongest Episode: Beyond the Sea
Weakest Episode: Mazey Day
#5 Series 1 (2011)
While the show has been airing for 15 years and garnered numerous awards and nominations, the very first series felt like it was still finding its feet. I recall watching the very first episode, “The National Anthem”, and being turned off by the setup of a kidnapper forcing the prime minister to have sex with a pig live on television. It felt shocking just for the sake of being shocking and almost turned me off from the series entirely.
Thankfully, the next episode, “Fifteen Million Credits”, represented the core elements of Black Mirror — fleshed out characters, speculative technology, commentary on modern-day society (here reality television gets some attention) and strong twists. The heartbreaking fate of Abi and the ironic fate of Bing will remain with the viewer long after the credits rolled. And we also had “The Entire History of You” with its effective use of the memory device “grain” and Toby Kebbell and future Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker bringing their A-games to the lead roles.
Strongest Episode: Fifteen Million Merits
Weakest Episode: The National Anthem
#4 Series 2 (2013)
The second series features one of Black Mirror’s all-time greatest episodes in the “Be Right Back”. Anyone who has ever lost someone, especially a significant other, can empathise with Hayley Atwell’s Martha who signs up for an AI imitation of her boyfriend Ash (Domhnall Gleeson of the Star Wars sequel trilogy) after he tragically died in a car accident. The two actors nail their roles in this odd, heart wrenching, romantic and slightly comedic tale of letting go and moving on.
The other two episodes, though, were just okay. “White Bear” has a great mystery, and its twisted form of punishment (getting your mind wiped and daily being hunted and viewed by spectators as an amnesiac) made for a decent twist. “The Waldo Moment”, though, with the titular foul-mouthed computer-generated bear going from show host to successful political candidate to leader of a New World Order just felt silly, weird and too farfetched, even for Black Mirror.
Strongest Episode: Be Right Back
Weakest Episode: The Waldo Moment
#3 Series 4 (2017)
It was tight race for the third spot on this list, but Series 4 just got edged out. The standout is easily “USS Callister“, the four-time Primetime Emmy Award winner. The twisted take on a simulated Star Trek-like adventure spoke to my Trekkie heart and I was impressed by Cristin Milioti (The Penguin) as the resilient virtual clone of Nanette Cole and Jesse Plemmons as the vile programmer Robert Daly. The series also featured the cautionary tale of helicopter parenting with “Arkangel”, the deeply disturbing crime drama “Crocodile”, the fun dating app episode “Hang the DJ” and the anthology-within-an-anthology “Black Museum”.
The only weak spot was the futuristic “Metalhead”, which lacked the strong writing and intriguing concepts of the better Black Mirror episodes. It was as basic as its black-and-white colour palette and was better suited for a generic Sci Fi thriller film than a high concept Sci Fi series.
Strongest Episode: USS Callister
Weakest Episode: Metalhead
#2 Series 7 (2025)
Black Mirror is back baby! What an outstanding collection of episodes in Series 7 (well, except for one, which we will get to). “Eulogy” is a pitch perfect episode featuring a master class of a performance by Paul Giamatti and a riveting deconstruction of memory and relationships. I expect the awards to rain down upon this one. We also had Netflix taking a swipe at itself and other streaming services with the touching “Common People” and the unnerving psychological trip of “Bête Noire”.
Series 7 also gave us the intriguing Bandersnatch side-quel episode “Plaything” with Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi showing off his usual quality, and our very first sequel episode in the feature length “USS Callister: Into Infinity”. While “Into Infinity” failed to reach the story heights of the original episode, it still made for a well-paced, quirky, bombastic and entertaining space adventure. The only misfire here was Hotel Reverie, which tried to recapture the magic of San Junipero, but Issa Rae’s bland performance and the meandering story just couldn’t cut it.
Strongest Episode: Eulogy
Weakest Episode: Hotel Reverie
#1 Series 3 (2016)
And speaking of San Junipero, it is the icing on the golden cake that is Series 3 aka the best Black Mirror series thus far. With its intriguing concept and stellar performances by Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Mackenzie Davis, the two-time Primetime Emmy award winner remains one of the crowning jewels of the long-running franchise. Mind you, I find the idea of spending an eternity in a computer-generated reality to be more hell than heaven, but that’s just me. And I would argue that the Bryce Dallas Howard-starring “Nosedive” with its troubling, and hopefully not prescient, take on social media apps and ratings systems is equally as good as San Junipero.
We also have strong episodes with great twists like Playtest and Shut Up and Dance, and one of my personal favourite episodes, Hated in the Nation. I loved the mystery and police procedural setup and the ultimate twist of the robotic bees (“Autonomous Drone Insects” or ADIs) turning on the people who voted online for others to die remains mind blowing to this day. Even arguably the weakest episode, Men Against Fire, had a clever concept and decent execution. Black Mirror clearly peaked with Series 3, but with the strong showing of Series 7, the future of the franchise is looking bright, and I am excited for what’s next.
Strongest Episode: Nosedive/San Junipero
Weakest Episode: Men Against Fire
So that’s my ranking. How would rank the seven seasons/series of Black Mirror? And you can check out more dark Sci Fi anthology reviews below:
Julien “Editor Jules” Neaves is a TARDIS-flying, Force-using Trekkie whose bedroom stories were by the Cryptkeeper, learned to be a superhero from Marvel, but dreams of being Batman. I love promoting Caribbean film (Cariwood), creating board games and I am an aspiring author. I say things like “13 flavours of awesome sauce”.