How Fans Are Ranking ‘Black Mirror’ Season 6!

With 5 episodes in its sixth season, Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror has been a widely-discussed topic amongst long-time fans of the show with respect to how it compares to previous seasons. Let’s take a look at what fans have to say!

Black Mirror’s sixth season premiered on Netflix on June 15, and since then fans and critics have shared their personal rankings of the 5 episodes and how they measure up to previous ones. The season received a Metascore of 68, with one critic Carly Lane from Collider saying, “In many ways, this is the most ambitious Black Mirror season that Brooker has crafted, with settings and stories that don’t visually resemble anything that’s come before.” Although there is no definitive ranking among fans, who had different takes on each episode, there is a general consensus. Let’s take a look at how fans are ranking the 5 episodes and why!

1. Beyond the Sea

In the third episode of Season 6, two men on a perilous high-tech mission wrestle with the consequences of an unimaginable tragedy. Fans and critics alike seem to agree that this was one of the strongest episodes to come out of the sixth season. With Aaron Paul, Kata Mara, and Josh Hartnett guest starring, this episode is a favorite amongst fans. It received a rating of 7.5/20 on IMDB, with one user saying, “It’s classic Black Mirror at its finest”. According to IMDB, it even ranked 15th overall out of all of the Black Mirror episodes. The ending has been largely favored amongst fans due to the show’s classic theme of technology and how it will play a role in our future. Fans collectively agree that Paul and Hartnett’s performances played a key role in this episode and are part of what made it so great.

2. Joan Is Awful

In the season’s first episode, an average woman discovers a global streaming service called Streamberry has adapted her daily life into a TV show starring Salma Hayek. Joan’s deepest secrets are revealed as the show airs each day, which leads to her losing her job and boyfriend. Ranking 7.5/10 on IMDB, Annie Murphy’s portrayal of Joan, the relevancy of the technological aspects, as well as the humor injected into the script all contributed to the high fan-ranking. One IMDB user named grantss said, “Episode 1 of Season 6 is as good as ever, with a clever Christopher Nolan-like layers-of-reality plot and some great performances. Very profound and thought-provoking too (as Black Mirror usually is).”

3. Loch Henry

The second episode, “Loch Henry”, follows a young couple who travel to a sleepy Scottish town to start work on a genteel nature documentary – but find themselves drawn to a juicy local story involving shocking events of the past. With a 7.4/10 rating on IMDb, fans feel that while yes, this episode does play into darker themes, it does not do so in typical Black Mirror fashion. Generally, it seems as though fans and critics are split – some rating the episode a 10/10 while others felt it was a strong episode but missing the Black Mirror essence they expected to see.

4. Demon 79

The last episode of Season 6 takes place in the 70s in Northern England. The story follows a meek sales assistant who is told she must commit terrible acts to prevent disaster. It came out with a ranking of 6.8/10 on IMDB, with fans mostly saying that it doesn’t really fit in with Black Mirror’s central themes. This episode has supernatural elements, which is not typical of the show. It is important to note, however, that the show’s creator Charlie Brooker categorized this as a Red Mirror episode, meaning it was intentionally different from the rest and specifically possessing supernatural themes over dystopian ones.

5. Mazey Day

In the fourth episode of the season, ranked 5.3/10 on IMDb, a troubled starlet is dogged by invasive paparazzi while dealing with the consequences of a hit-and-run incident. This episode serves to comment on the paparazzi and how they affect celebrities’ lives. IMDB user jpismyname said, “The story doesn’t have technology commentary or any sci-fi elements or something that is typical of Black Mirror, which is disappointing because we waited like three years or something FOR THIS??” While all of the other episodes could have been swapped in different orders based on fan reviews, “Mazey Day” consistently seems to be fans’ least favorite of the new season, due to its lack of technological themes and the plot twist being so late in the story.