Ranking all 28 Black Mirror episodes, from San Junipero to Fifteen Million Merits

The British dystopian sci-fi series has so many sharp and alarming hits.

WARNING: HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE ENTIRE BLACK MIRROR SERIES. DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU WISH TO KEEP YOURSELF FRESH!

Ready?

OK. Here we go.

Black Mirror captivates us as the spiritual successor to The Twilight Zone because its horrors are both believable and stretch our imaginations. It puts prototypical normal people through the seemingly inconceivable and keeps us on the edge of our seats.

But not every episode in this now legendary anthology series is created equal. Dystopia is a theme that usually rings true — you just have to execute it well.

For example, I wouldn’t necessarily directly compare one of the more uplifting love stories in modern media to a grating bulletin about ferocious werewolves. It simply wouldn’t be fair to the highs of Black Mirror to drag it down with its strange lows. This doesn’t mean I’m against conducting (inexact) science experiments, er, rankings.

There are now six seasons in the books for this inventory of technocratic tall tales. Six seasons and 28 episodes. I’m ranking all of them by quality and not-so-subtly hinting at the terrors I personally find most terrifying and touching.