re: Is Black Mirror any good?

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Yup, that's the one. It's the first and last episode I watched.

Nope. I also watched the one where the collect social media likes or some shite.

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Those are two of the worst ones IMO.

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Can you give a run down on the good ones?

I don't want to waste my time with the bad episodes.

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Weirdly, I'd recommend watching them all (in order), but that's mainly because different episodes hit with different types of people like I said earlier.

But if you want a ranked list, I'd put them them like this (in no order under each category, except that TEHOY is my #1 overall):

Top tier/Excellent television
The Entire History of You
White Bear
White Christmas
Shut Up and Dance
USS Callister

Really good
Black Museum
San Junipero (one of the only "happy ending" type stories)
Fifteen Million Merits
Playtest

Good/Decent
Men Against Fire
Hated in the Nation
Be Right Back
Crocodile
Hang the DJ
Metalhead
Striking Vipers
Smithereens

Meh
The National Anthem
The Waldo Moment
Nosedive (great premise and rings very true to today, just poor execution IMO)
Arkangel
Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too
Bandersnatch



The biggest problem with BM is that, like you, people often watch the first episode (National Anthem) and hate it, so they quit. I kept going and REALLY liked the second episode (Fifteen Million Merits), although some don't care for that one. And then the third episode (TEHOY) knocked me off my feet and I was hooked. The "highs" of this show rank up there with some of the best television ever (and I say that as not hyperbole). And at worst, most of the episodes are "pretty good" or better. Sure, there are some misses in there, but even those are loved by some people or have a great message that they just sort of misfired on, stuff like that.

But I'd say if you watch my top tier five and still don't like any of those, then the show definitely isn't for you. And White Christmas is a solid one to start out on, because it's got an overarching story with smaller standalone-type stories within it. So it really does a great job of giving you little mini episodes of BM, while also following along a larger story overall.