Fifteen Million Merits is the one that does it for me. Crystallizing the futility of modern existence in one small narrowly drawn set piece.

Fifteen Million Merits (S01E02) is one of the best things I've ever watched, period!

Not just the futility, it also subtly depicts the lack of power in a person who has been immersed in an environment that has

* denied them any significant agency

* ambition can only be expressed in a narrow set of avenues

* questioning the way of things is futile

There isn't any person behind the screen orchestrating things, simply each individual doing the "best" they can, and boy, that is a chilling world. Not scary in the sense of horror, just chilling because of the dread it fills me with. I won't say any more lest I give away the ending. The acting left an impression on me, even though I don't remember a single word that was said. Definitely recommended!

>There isn't any person behind the screen orchestrating things

Yeah, I love that! Even the judges on the reality show have this air of fear and desperation about them.

It's what makes the episode, IMO, and it's something that a lot of people don't seem to notice. We never see police or enforcers. The closest thing are the stage hands at the show, and they're not that close. We don't see someone carted off to become one of the janitors, for example, which a lesser show or concept would have depicted explicitly. Then at the end we see that the outside world looks fine[1], if neglected (by humans) and wild. People are where they are due to lack of will and imagination to make something different for themselves.

[1] There's some debate over whether those are real windows or viewscreens, but since one of those options acts a punch-line to this theme and the other serves basically no purpose, I'm pretty sure we're supposed to take them to be real.

Plus the advertisements you cannot skip are like an entirely plausible nightmare scenario.

Truly. I'd truly hope there is a mass rebellion before we ever get anywhere close to that. Luckily we still have adblockers and mute buttons. And lastly enough redundancy that many people can go elsewhere if you can't use adblockers or mute.

Cannot skip, or even shut your eyes! That was the part that punched me in the gut.

I thought White Bear was going to be a mediocre episode until the end. Just watch it if you haven't seen it. It's unfortunate you can only watch it for the first time once.

But every episode is nearly perfect. 15 million merits is probably my favorite, but White Christmas is incredible too.

It fascinates me - White Bear seems to be the most divisive Black Mirror episode out there. For me it's one of the weakest episodes of the series, but I know others who love it.

Personally, the Entire History of You is the pinnacle of Black Mirror.

I'm in complete agreement. I've had long, deep discussions about the implications in Entire History of You. To me, it reaches depths far beyond the other episodes.

Entire History of You is my favourite too, then the Xmas special and Be Right Back. White Bear was an interesting idea though, but not so believable.

My favorite, too. The way it unfolds is just so compelling - they're all good, but that one really hits an even higher level.

That one and the Christmas Special were the two episodes that kept me up at night.

I have to say I enjoy "Shut up and Dance" the most out of any Black Mirror episodes. It is utterly breathless in pace and the twist was a kicker.