“USS Callister”, “White Bear” and “Joan is Awful” are 3 of the craziest Black Mirror episodes and that is really saying something.
Black Mirror has certainly never shied away from its dark and unsettling storylines, but this has not made the show any less popular.
In fact, upon examining Black Mirror’s lineup of episodes, we have managed to round up three episodes which definitely earn the title of the craziest in the show’s history.
Black Mirror’s dark appeal
Science fiction may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the anthology series, Black Mirror has managed to captivate and bewilder audiences for well over a decade, at this point.
And with the most recent sixth season premiere debuting at number two on Netflix’s most-watched list it has amassed a somewhat universal appeal.
It may seem strange that a show with such dark and twisted themes has become such a fan-favorite over the years, but experts agree that much of Black Mirror’s success can be attributed to the show’s uncanny ability to invent stories that seem just believable enough to attract audiences.
Of course, it is also worth mentioning, that all of the celebrity cameos and the cool (but most terrifying) tech which is showcased on the series, make it near impossible to look away, even when it is difficult to watch.
3 craziest Black Mirror episodes
Throughout its six seasons, Black Mirror has managed to make the hairs on the back of our necks stand up quite a few times.
This show is known for pushing boundaries – whether that be examining the ideas of loss and loneliness in episodes like “Be Right Back” and more recently, “Beyond The Sea” or even the effect that our technology-driven world will have on today’s children, like in the Jodie Foster-directed “Arkangel”, Black Mirror is certainly not afraid to tackle difficult subject matter.
Black Mirror mainly focuses on emerging technologies and how these technologies may be adapted (and even misused) to bring out the worst in people.
But what really makes most of the Black Mirror episodes so truly unsettling, is that these stories are always underscored with an incredibly heartbreaking emotional journey.
It is often this emotional journey that distinguishes a fairly normal (well, as normal as it gets for Black Mirror anyway) episode from a truly crazy one.
And this means that even with its running total of 27 episodes, there are still a select few episodes which make the countdown as some of the wildest, creepiest and most unexpected episodes in the show’s history.
3. “USS Callister”
The craziest thing about “USS Callister”, the first episode of the fourth season of Black Mirror, is the fact that the episode seems so deceivingly fun and referential at first.
This episode starts out as one of the most typically sci-fi-looking episodes in Black Mirror history, clearly drawing inspiration from Star Trek with bright colors and charming characters.
But the episode’s subject matter is much darker than this cheerfully funny backdrop would have you believe, and it quickly turns into a real-life Sims-game with a sinister and truly unsettling twist.
2. “White Bear”
It is often impossible to predict which twists and turns lie ahead at the beginning of a Black Mirror episode, but “White Bear” takes ‘keeping the audience on their toes’ to a whole new level.
The beginning of the episode is creepy enough, with Victoria (Lenora Crichlow) being relentlessly tailed by a mysterious group.
Without giving too much away though, the ending of this episode, which will likely leave you conflicted about your own morality and feelings about what you just watched, is what really makes this episode one of the craziest in the Black Mirror lineup.
1. “Joan is Awful”
Black Mirror is truly at its best when the show seemingly predicts something that could very well become part of our near future. “Joan is Awful” is a relatively new entry into the Black Mirror-universe and it is the first episode of the sixth season.
This episode follows a seemingly average woman named Joan (played by Annie Murphy) as she realizes that her life is being re-told in real life on a streaming service called Streamberry after she unwittingly agreed to it by signing the platform’s terms and conditions.
However, the episode quickly evolves into an inception-like story, where everything seems like a simulation of something else.
Black Mirror has certainly tackled the subject of augmented reality in other episodes like “Playtest” and “San Junipero.”
But the mind-bending events in “Joan is Awful” seem so close to our own reality, that we suspect it left many viewers frantically paging through their terms and conditions agreements.