Black Mirror is a treat of a sci-fi experience onNetflix. Each episode comes with a wildly imaginative dark storyline tied to AI and technological advancements that also generates effective social commentary while raising deeper questions. You can’t say there are any truly ‘bad’ episodes, as they’re all well-written and continue to have some incredible ideas.
However, there are always those episodes that are just so popular and universally well-liked that result in others sadly getting cast aside despite having the same level of creativity and innovative storytelling. The following are the more underrated ones that might become your new favorites.
11Bête Noire
Season Seven, Episode Two
The seventh season of Black Mirror is fantastic all around, with the top three easily being Common People, the sequel to the USS Callister episode, and Eulogy with a beautiful performance by Paul Giamatti. Bête Noire is one of the lower-rated episodes that didn’t land with everyone, but it’s still a solid Black Mirror experience, mixing a bit of Promising Young Woman with a darker version of Everything Everywhere All at Once and delivers one of the best endings.
This episode takes place in the unique setting of a chocolate bar dessert company, where the successful Maria works as a researcher, testing out new recipes. That is until her old high school acquaintance Verity suddenly shows up one day in a focus group and gets hired at the company. You learn Maria was part of a group that bullied Verity, and now it seems she has come to take her revenge, upending Maria’s relationships by making everyone believe things differently from her recollection.
10Men Against Fire
Season Three, Episode Five
Men Against Fire is an episode that should get more attention for its reflection on fascism and the military. You follow a squadron of soldiers who are commanded to eliminatezombie-like mutated humans called ‘roaches’that are wreaking havoc in a Danish village. The premise feels very Starship Troopers meets 28 Weeks Later.
The soldiers are also given a neural implant known as a MASS, and the augmented reality VFX to display their map, and other information is really well-designed and creates a unique future soldier aesthetic. However, you soon find out that these ‘roaches’ aren’t what the soldiers were initially led to believe and are tied to something darker and more devastating. And among the cast, you have Roots and A Thousand Blows star Malachi Kirby, The Handmaid’s Tale star Madeline Brewer, and Succession’s Sarah Snook.
9Hated In The Nation
Season Three, Episode Six
Hated in the Nation feels like a more sci-fi episode of the BBC’s Luther that also deals with themes of public ridicule and death threats to public figures. It all starts when right-wing journalist Jo Powers becomes the most hated person in the UK after publishing an indefensible article that goes scorched Earth on a disabled activist and is then dragged online with threats and heinous messages.
Well, Jo Powers actually ends up dead,which triggers a police investigationthat soon sees more victims who’ve done some sort of wrong succumb to the same fate, seemingly over a deadly social media hashtag known as #DeathTo. There’s getting canceled and receiving death threats and hate, and then there’s this kind of scenario from the mind of Charlie Brooker. The combination of detective story, social commentary, and scary Autonomous Drone Insect (ADI) bees is excellent.
This episode’s director, James Hawes, is also the director of the Season Five episode, Smithereens, as well as the 2025 feature film The Amateur starring Rami Malek.
8Crocodile
Season Four, Episode Three
It’s hard to compete against the USS Callister and Hang the DJ episodes in Season Four, but another that really comes close is Crocodile, starring Andrea Riseborough, who you may know from Mandy, Birdman,and Neon’s Possessor. If you enjoyed The Entire History of You, this is another episode dealing with gaining access to people’s recorded memories, though tied to a more high-stakes plot involving murder.
Riseborough plays Mia Nolan, a woman who’s now culpable in two separate killings and is at the center of an investigation for an entirely different accident involving a self-driving car striking a pedestrian. A witness saw Mia looking at the accident, sending insurance investigator Shazia Akhand to use her Recaller device and pry into Mia’s memory of the event, which threatens to expose her memories of the homicides.
7Metalhead
Season Four, Episode Five
It’s not hard to see why some would consider Metalhead a more lackluster episode from Black Mirror, and it continues to be underappreciated. The post-apocalyptic wasteland setting is nothing grand or new as well as the plot of AI robots going rogue and killing humans, but what makes it masterful is the use of score, the harsh sound design, the stunning black-and-white cinematography, and the design of the killer robot machines themselves.
If you’ve seen those robot dogs that are now even more prominently available in the wild, and that you can even buy on Amazon, and find them to be a little creepy, Metalhead imagines them as disturbing murderous creatures that will haunt you in your nightmares. The setup of the episode is also a lot like the show Falling Skies, with a perfectly bleak ending as always, and directedby Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’s David Slade.
6Be Right Back
Season Two, Episode One
If you’ve seen the first episode of Season Seven, Common People, about a husband trying to keep his wife alive through a cloud-based memory subscription service, Season Two’s Be Right Back is a terrific companion episode to watch next. It’s a thought-provoking sci-fi premise very classic of Black Mirror, centering around the idea of creating an android replica of your deceased loved one. It stars the MCU’s Peggy Carter and Mission: Impossible actress, Hayley Atwell, as Martha, who tragically loses her husband Ash, played by Domhnall Gleeson before his fame in Star Wars andGarland’s Ex Machina.
After his death, Martha is presented with the opportunity to have an AI version of her deceased husband, who can then become a full-on android model. She’s not open to it at first but eventually agrees when she finds out she’s pregnant. It then shows you how strange, unorthodox, and surreal this situation could be, especially as you go through grief. Also, the android being named Ash isa clever, or coincidental, Alien reference.
5Loch Henry
Season Six, Episode Two
Season Six of Black Mirror was its biggest mixed bag. Beyond the Sea with Aaron Paul and Josh Hartnett was the most anticipated but also the most overrated episode. The one before it, however, Loch Henry, is one of the best-written episodes of Black Mirror due to its characters, clever spin on true crime, and the sinister murder mystery plot reminiscent of The Clovehitch Killerthat unravels with some excellent twists.
Loch Henry is the name of a fictional Scottish town where a young couple, Davis and Pia, go to visit the former’s mom and also film a documentary. When Pia learns of Loch Henry’s notorious serial killer, Iain Adair, and that Davis’ dad died from a gunshot wound trying to apprehend him, the duo then shift their focus to a true-crime documentary on Adair, which unearths some dark secrets. It’s also beautifully shot and has an impactful ending.
4Striking Vipers
Season Five, Episode One
Striking Vipers was Black Mirror’s next video game-centric plot after Playtest, and it remains highly underrated for its thought-provoking discussion of sexual identity and technology. The episode stars the amazing duo of Anthony Mackie, known for playing Sam Wilson in the MCU and John Doein Peacock’s Twisted Metal series, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who’s been in HBO’s Watchmen series, the 2021 Candyman sequel, and Aquaman.
Mackie and Abdul-Mateen II are former college buddies Danny and Karl, respectively, who reunite and start playing a highly advanced virtual realityfighting game reminiscent of Street Fightercalled Striking Vipers, where they can feel every punch and kick. This soon sparks something more romantic, ultimately changing their lives.
3Rachel, Jack, And Ashley Too
Season Five, Episode Three
With how Blumhouse’s popular M3GAN film took off, it may be time to reassess the criticisms hurled at Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too. First off, the concept of a technology company transferring the consciousness of a singer into an AI companion toy robot for children is highly original and brilliant. It also brings compelling commentary on the control over a pop star’s life, who here is portrayed by singer Miley Cyrus, so it’s also quite meta.
The episode follows the story of two young sisters, Rachel and Jack, the former of whom is gifted an Ashley Too doll by their father due to her obsession with the singer Ashley O. Its overall tone and vibe are much more fun and light rather than being depressing and grim, which may have thrown a lot of people off, but an episode like this is also very welcome when Black Mirror is full of nightmarish material.
2The National Anthem
Season One, Episode One
The inaugural episode of Black Mirror remains one of its darkest and most chilling. It was a bold episode to start with, as the plot could have turned viewers away, but it quickly set the tone that the series wouldn’t be afraid to go to dark places. And while The Entire History of You is rightfully considered the best episode from Season One, The National Anthem deserves more recognition.
This episode presents a disturbing dark comedy and political thriller combo that you’d get from a Yorgos Lanthimos film (a high compliment). 007, Penny Dreadful, and Men star Rory Kinnear plays UK Prime Minister Michael Callow, who faces an intense decision of his circumstances to secure the safe release of the kidnapped royal, Princess Susannah, facing her captors demands.
