5 Best Black Mirror Episodes to Revisit Before Season 7 Premieres
There are a lot of weak episodes in Black Mirror, and about as many great ones. So we decided to focus on the best of the best.
Season 7 of the popular sci-fi anthology Black Mirror is just around the corner – the new chapter returns in April. The best way to pass the time is to re-watch the best episodes from previous seasons.
1. Be Right Back – Season 2 Episode 1
Surprisingly, the creator of one of the most pessimistic and sarcastic series in history is best at touching episodes.
Be Right Back is the best episode of the second season. The unexpected loss of a loved one plunges the main character into melancholy. She still loves him selflessly and clings to any chance to feel spiritual closeness with him again.
And modern technology gives her such a chance. Based on the information left by a person, his correspondence, photos and videos, a complete copy of the personality is created.
But is a copy capable of expressing the same emotions as a living person? And can a person be considered dead when his digital consciousness continues to live?
2. Nosedive – Season 3 Episode 1
The opening episode of the third season is a hilarious satire of modern society's obsession with social media. It takes place in a dystopian world where everyone's status depends on the ratings.
The parade of hypocrisy is ruled by those whose rating is no lower than four and a half. The main character, Lacie, has a good rating, but she is at least three tenths short of a good life. A surefire way to get the missing points quickly is to get high ratings from the "tops."
To do this, she must go to a private island for the wedding of a successful school friend, Naomi, and give an inspiring speech to her guests. The woman seizes the opportunity to rise to the top of the social ladder, but circumstances are not in her favor.
3. San Junipero – Season 3 Episode 4
In 1987, Kelly and Yorkie meet at a nightclub in San Junipero. The women are attracted to each other, but are forced to part, only to meet again a week later. Eventually a romance begins between them, but in San Junipero, not everything is as it seems.
Perhaps the most unconventional episode of Black Mirror, and also the best one, San Junipero is a deep, multi-layered parable about love, loyalty, death, and what really matters in this world.
What starts out as a sweet, nostalgic love story turns into a Ray Bradbury-style sci-fi by the middle of the episode, and ends with one of the most powerful and controversial finales in the history of not only Black Mirror, but science fiction in general.
4. USS Callister – Season 4 Episode 1
Captain Robert Daly and his crew battle alien monsters and navigate the vastness of space aboard the starship USS Callister. At first glance, the first episode of Season 4 seems like a typical Star Trek homage, but the reality of Black Mirror is much darker.
In reality, Robert is an embittered developer at a game development company who uses the DNA of his colleagues to create their digital clones in a video game. Although no one respects Daly in the real office, in the game everyone is obliged to obey him.
The virtual idyll is threatened when new prisoner Nanette suggests that the other inmates rebel against the despotic captain.
5. Hang the DJ – Season 4 Episode 4
Hang the DJ is a classic romantic comedy that offers an interesting look at how dating apps work. The events of the episode unfold in a world where the algorithm selects a partner for each user and sets an expiration date for the relationship.
The system promises to find each user's soul mate. Twelve hours after meeting, Amy and Frank question the algorithm's decision to give them a critically short amount of time.
A year later, the program reunites them, and this time they agree not to watch the allotted time. The episode has everything: a nice romantic line, a rebellion against the system, and a happy ending, rare for the series.
