Black Mirror Season 6: Grading Each Episode of the Series' Most Unpredictable Season Yet

It's been three years since we were last given new episodes of Black Mirror, and while we can't say we've missed the demented Netflix anthology, because it feels like we've been living it over that time, we still gobbled up all five episodes of Season 6 as soon as they dropped... even after the disappointing three-episode Season 5. We can't help it! 

Charlie Brooker's sci-fi anthology has been hit and miss ever since it premiered in 2011, with more misses than hits since its move to Netflix for Season 3 and beyond. That makes its episodes ripe for grading, so that's exactly what we did for Season 6. 

Below you'll find our grades for all five episodes of the new season, on an A to F scale: A being Season 2's "Be Right Back" and Season 1's "The Entire History of You," and F being Season 2's "The Waldo Moment" and Season 4's "Crocodile" (though the guinea pig deserves a solid C). Sadly, Season 6 continues Season 5's trend of lower quality episodes that don't have the impact of Black Mirror's best, but there are a few that entertain. Just know that when Brooker said he's pushing the definition of what Black Mirror is this season, he wasn't joking. This is the most un-Black Mirror season of Black Mirror ever.

Warning! Slight spoilers — but no major twists — follow, and as everyone knows, Black Mirror is best viewed knowing as little as possible going in. Read at your own risk! 

"Joan Is Awful," Season 6 Episode 1

A woman named Joan realizes that a popular streaming service is making a show about her life... as it happens.

Black Mirror is great when it really leans in to being silly (think Season 5's "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too"), and "Joan Is Awful" sure is silly. It's also one of two episodes this season that actually center on a piece of highly specific technology, another thing Black Mirror usually pulls off well. The premise — about a woman (Annie Murphy) who discovers a streaming platform has made an eerily accurate show about her life starring Salma Hayek — is the zaniest hour of the season, and even though it spins out of control toward the end (the word "multiverse" gets thrown around by a randomly placed Michael Cera), the funny odd couple pairing of Murphy and Hayek keeps the back half afloat. The creation of a fake "Streamberry" platform that looks exactly like Netflix would probably be funnier if the show weren't streaming on Netflix, but we'll give props for the kookiness. -Allison Picurro Grade: B-

"Loch Henry," Season 6 Episode 2

Two amateur filmmakers decide to make a true-crime documentary about a local murder in a small Scottish town.

Though other episodes this season stray even further from Black Mirror's traditional techno-horror formula, "Loch Henry" is the first episode to almost ditch technology entirely as a cornerstone of its mindf---ery. It's particularly surprising this first time, though, as we're left waiting for the sci-fi twist to drop — but it never comes. Isn't that exactly why we watch Black Mirror? "Loch Henry" is the season's dud, a flat episode with 45 minutes of setup for a reveal that never lands because it's an episode without much identity. There's a fun, energetic montage about filmmaking in the middle, but not much else on either side. -Tim Surette Grade: D-

"Beyond the Sea," Season 6 Episode 3

Astronauts in an experimental scientific program beam their consciousnesses back to Earth in an alternate 1969.

To the credit of "Beyond the Sea," it has a solid performance from Aaron Paul going for it. Here, he plays an astronaut on a space mission in a technologically advanced alternate version of 1969. He's on the mission with another astronaut, played by Josh Hartnett, leaving his wife (Kate Mara) and kids at home, and things start spiraling out of control thanks to a piece of tech that allows the astronauts to beam back to Earth via avatars. I'll give the episode credit for centering its conflict around a highly specific piece of tech, but the greatest sin it commits is just being boring. For a story with sci-fi elements, it's barely even about space! -Allison Picurro Grade: C-

"Mazey Day," Season 6 Episode 4

A Hollywood star is hounded by paparazzi, and things only get worse after she gets in an accident.

If "Loch Henry" opened the door for Charlie Brooker to abandon technology as his twisted muse, "Mazey Day" bursts right through it. More of an episode of Tales From the Crypt than of Black Mirror, this is a straight-up horror chapter about a paparazzo (Zazie Beetz) seeking out a movie star (Clara Rugaard) who hides from the public after a mental breakdown. Unfortunately, the episode never gives us the commentary about celebrity and privacy that we wanted so badly, relying on a twist so out there and unexpected (for Black Mirror, anyway) that we have some admiration for the huge swing Brooker takes, even if it barely makes contact. The saving graces here are the incredible performances from Beetz and Rugaard and the 40-minute runtime, all of which make it easier to watch than it should be. -Tim Surette Grade: C

"Demon 79," Season 6 Episode 5

In Northern England, 1979, a shoe saleswoman is told to commit murders or else the world will end.

Along with "Joan Is Awful," "Demon 79" finds Brooker in his wheelhouse of playful morbidity, as a woman (Anjana Vasan) who works in a department store is told by a demon (Paapa Essiedu) that she must commit murders in order to prevent an apocalypse. It's a silly premise, but "Demon 79" knows it, putting its demonic creature in the skinsuit of a funk band singer and following a reluctant goody two shoes as she embraces her dark side. A lack of purpose dings the episode's grade — is it even saying anything? — but Vasan and Essiedu are so good, and the time and place — late '70s Northern England — so well established thanks to its sets, exteriors, and killer soundtrack, it's bumped up to mid-tier. -Tim Surette Grade: C+

Black Mirror Season 6 is now streaming on Netflix.