From 'Bandersnatch' to 'Be Right Back' and 'Beyond the Sea,' We Ranked All 28 'Black Mirror' Episodes

Black Mirror is, deservedly, often compared to the masterpiece series The Twilight Zone, adapted for an Internet and social media age. The British anthology series offers critical examinations of the potential dystopian nature technology can bring to the world, as well as its effects on the very real human beings residing within it.

Popularized stateside after its move to Netflix in 2016 (how very timely!), series creator Charlie Brooker told The Guardian that his goal for Black Mirror isn't to demonize technology, but rather to make the show a series of potential cautionary tales. He explained, "The 'black mirror' of the title is the one you'll find on every wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the cold, shiny screen of a TV, a monitor a smartphone."

Featuring episodes with seriously star-studded casts and stellar reviews, here are all 28 Black Mirror episodes ranked, starting with the best. (Note: If you're reading this on a cellphone, well, you may well toss it out the window once you binge the show!)

Black Mirror Episodes, Ranked Best to Worst

1. "Be Right Back" (Season 2, Episode 1) 

There are few episodes of any television show more heartbreaking and haunting than Black Mirror's "Be Right Back." Hayley Atwell stars as Martha, a woman who's devastated after her boyfriend Ash (Domhnall Gleeson) dies in a car crash. Martha interacts with an artificial intelligence that mimics her lost love based on his social media posts. Gleeson said the episode made him wary of his own cellphone use in real life.

"There’s one moment where my character’s desperately searching for his phone. He just stands in the hallway and looks around blankly. I forget what the stage direction was, but it was really good," he recalled. "That’s when I realized I had done the same thing so many times, looking for my phone and feeling lost without it. So, yeah, I’ve tried to use my phone less since then. Sometimes, I fail. But at least I’m mindful of it."

2. "Bandersnatch" (2018 film) 

Going meta! Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is an interactive, choose-your-own adventure that feels much like the video game within it. The episode allows viewers to make choices that impact the story and what each of the characters does. The episode is often quite funny but can end in particularly dark ways depending on the decisions of the viewer.

The episode's stars, Fionn Whitehead and Will Poulter, said Bandersnatch was one of the most difficult projects on which they'd ever worked. “The art department, and props, and everyone involved was really on the ball in making sure that the version of the scene matched up with the choices [the audience] made,” Whitehead told Vulture, explaining that he had to focus on constants. “One of the key things is that the character doesn’t change, but the situations that the character is in do. It was more reacting to the different scenarios and versions of scenes.”

Poulter lamented, “I find it hard enough managing one character arc and emotional continuity when you shoot out of sequence. But when you’re doing it across multiple timelines and various different realities, it’s really tough.”

3. "White Christmas" (2014 Special) 

With strong performances from Jon Hamm and Rafe Spall, as well as Easter eggs referencing other Black Mirror episodes when Spall's character, Joe, channel surfs, "White Christmas" is a treasure trove of all of the elements that make the series great. Black Mirror's 2014 Christmas special combined the banal frustrations of the holiday season with themes of surveillance, social media, cyberstalking and issues surrounding artificial intelligence and technological dependence (especially Google Glass, released shortly before the episode began production). Hamm and Spall star as two unreliable narrators with seriously dark secrets that unravel over the 74-minute episode span...but time, like everything else in this episode, isn't what it seems.

Related: The Best Christmas Episodes of Your Favorite TV Shows

4. "Demon 79" (Season 6, Episode 5) 

With elements of racism, classism and xenophobia under the shadow of a nuclear threat, there are a lot of things to be scared of in "Demon 79," with technology being the least of anyone's worries in the period.

Depending on how observant you are, the twist in "Demon 79" may not even be a twist at all because it's a bit obvious to some viewers. That said, there is something so deliciously brilliant about Bobby Farrell of Boney M as a demon in training's visage that it's more than worth watching all the way through.

5. "USS Callister" (Season 4, Episode 1) 

With a star-studded cast of Cristin Milioti, Michaela Coel, Jimmi Simpson and Jesse Plemons (plus a fun cameo from Aaron Paul), "USS Callister" is a Black Mirror fan-favorite episode. The episode openly satirizes Star Trek as well as toxic workplaces, toxic gaming culture and sexual harassment. Despite employing many of Black Mirror's technologically dystopian elements, it has a lighter ending than most other episodes in the series.

6. "San Junipero" (Season 3, Episode 4) 

The uplifting "San Junipero" stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Mackenzie Davis as lovers in a beach town in California. Without spoiling too much for you, it examines nostalgia therapy and reliving the best days of your life in very literal ways.

Brooker told The Hollywood Reporter of the episode, "Certainly, I would say that because it was a departure in tone—the fact that it had an upbeat ending was a way of me resetting what I thought the scripts were—and the fact that that worked definitely had some bearing on where my head is at, script-wise. Looking at the world, it’s hard to know quite how to react because the situation keeps changing every 15 minutes and you don’t know what mindset people are going to be in when we release the season. So it’s had some bearing. We decide the order of episodes after we finish shooting."

In terms of fans clamoring for a sequel to "San Junipero," well, don't hold your breath. "When something like that lands really well—and people love or hate all the episodes—but since that one resonated so much, you don’t want to hit the same bell again, even though it’s tempting," Brooker said. "We have to be unpredictable with the show. We’re kind of back to doing more different things again."

7. "Hated in the Nation" (Season 3, Episode 6) 

A stark examination of Internet pile-on culture, technological dependency, government surveillance and media framing, "Hated in the Nation" looks at the darkest impacts of what social media can do to society. If you've ever wondered what the effects of a hive mind are, well, you're in for a treat here.

8. "The Entire History of You" (Season 1, Episode 3) 

Similar thematically to "Be Right Back," "The Entire History of You" examines the importance of letting go of the past, as well as how relationships may not always be like what they seem on the outside, even to those parties within them. Using "grains" to hang on to memories, a couple (including Dr. Who star Jodie Whittaker) learn dark secrets about one another with their ability to replay events.

This was the first Black Mirror episode not written by Brooker, and the episode takes place in the year 2050.

9. "The National Anthem" (Season 1, Episode 1) 

The very first episode of Black Mirror, "The National Anthem" examines what would happen if a British royal were held hostage and the only way to free them would be if the British prime minister had sexual relations with a pig. Seriously.

Brooker was inspired by 24 and the reality series I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!. Brooker told The Guardian that several animals were considered for the story, as well as a "giant wheel of cheese," but that a pig won out for straddling the line between horrifying and darkly hilarious.

10. "Crocodile" (Season 4, Episode 3) 

"Crocodile" is not for the faint of heart. The episode serves as a testament to how much a single decision and the memories of it can haunt you for the rest of your life. Thematically similar to "The Entire History of You," but with added commentary on living in a surveillance state (and the importance of reading opt-in and opt-out agreements), "Crocodile" takes much darker and more violent turns, especially in its final act.

11. "Playtest" (Season 3, Episode 2) 

Wyatt Russell stars in a terrifying take on memory loss, virtual reality, video games and, of course, overuse of cellphones. Resident Evil and Bioshock fans will appreciate the references to the games, and the gallows humor of the ending is Black Mirror in a nutshell.

12. "Black Museum" (Season 4, Episode 6) 

Letitia Wright owns the screen in "Black Museum," which examines a museum of artifacts with extremely dark origins. Wright earned an Emmy nomination for her role of Nish in an episode that has three stories in one, one of which was based on "The Pain Addict" by Penn Jillette. "Black Museum" honors traditional horror elements more than other episodes of Black Mirror, while examining similar themes of technological dystopia as well as racism and righteous vengeance.