A noticeable exception is Season 3’s “Playtest,” which stars Wyatt Russell (“Overlord”) as Cooper, a willing volunteer in a virtual reality game trial. While “Black Mirror” is indisputably horrifying in many of the themes it likes to explore, it actually doesn’t delve into what most of us would consider the horror genre very often. The episode forces viewers to wrestle with how we form our opinions about the people we think we know, who we sympathize with, and whether anyone can ever truly know what someone else is capable of. If that was all it was, it would still be an effective commentary on cyber security and the illusion of privacy in the digital age, but the episode takes an unexpected turn in its final act that turns the whole thing on its head. The episode follows awkward teenager Kenny (Alex Lawther), who is blackmailed into performing a series of increasingly mysterious and unsettling tasks by a nameless observer who has recorded unsavory footage of him via spyware. It’s a little tricky to figure out how to rank what is arguably one of the most disturbing episodes of “Black Mirror” (and that’s something, considering the rest of “Black Mirror” ), yet is also one of the best at delivering its final unsettling twist. While this episode lacks the punch and polish of others on this list, and revisits familiar themes, it earns bonus points for looping in a real-life celebrity with her own contentious media relationship to comment on our culture’s obsession with celebrity. Ashley has achieved such a high level of superstardom that she has released her own line of creepy dolls programmed to speak in her voice.Īngourie Rice (“Mare of Easttown”) costars as Ashley O’s biggest fan, who receives one of the dolls and whose dream of someday meeting her idol comes true - but not in the way either of them would have expected. In the episode, Miley Cyrus stars as an analog of herself, playing pop star Ashley O (whose songs are all reimagined Nine Inch Nails covers, adding to the familiar-yet-not vibe of the episode). In hindsight, the strangest thing about Season 5’s “Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too“ is that it took so long for the show to go quite so meta. While the episode raises some fascinating questions about gender, sexuality and monogamy, its execution falls a bit short of its intriguing premise. The three-episode fifth season of “Black Mirror” kicked off with “Striking Vipers,” which stars the MCU’s Anthony Mackie and “Watchmen’s” Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as two long-time friends who have a steamy tryst in a virtual reality “Street Fighter”-esque game called “Striking Vipers.” As their in-game VR avatars, Roxette (Pom Klementieff) and Lance (Ludi Lin), the two strike up an intense physical relationship, while remaining strictly platonic in real life. Of course, any serious “Black Mirror” viewer will probably want to experience every episode to get the full picture, but for those just looking for the crème de la crème, here are our picks for the 15 best episodes of “Black Mirror,” ranked from worst to best. Some episodes are set in the far-flung future, some in an alternate present, but most tend to sit right at the edges of where we are right now, pushing current ideas, trends, and innovations just a little bit further to create oft-disconcerting tales of where they may lead.īecause each “Black Mirror” episode is intended to function as its own self-contained story, viewers can watch them in any order they please, and even skip episodes entirely if they’d prefer without missing any information that is relevant for the others. Created by Charlie Brooker in 2011, “Black Mirror” uses each of its standalone episodes to craft a (typically) cautionary tale focusing on the intersection of human nature and technology. When journalist Daniel Mallory Ortberg famously tweeted, “Next on Black Mirror: what if phones, but too much?” there was the faint whiff of an impending backlash.With “ Black Mirror” preparing to drop its sixth season on June 15, there’s no time like the present to revisit 15 minutes in the future. In 2016, in a move that eerily recalled series one episode “The Entire History of You”, Samsung patented contact lenses with a built-in camera.īut as the show has evolved from a cult favourite, only really known in the UK, into something globally famous – largely thanks to its transition from Channel 4 to Netflix – it has risked not only toppling under the weight of its own success, but becoming something of a self-parody. The acclaimed British anthology series, which explores society’s relationship with technology, predicted the likes of Animoji, robotic bees – even, somehow, David Cameron’s “piggate”. In the 13 years since Black Mirror first aired, Charlie Brooker’s dystopian vision has started to seem less and less implausible.
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