Black Mirror: Ranking Every Episode From Worst To Best

18. Black Museum

Black Museum had lofty ambitions. After four full seasons telling unconnected stories, this finale was built on the promise of joining all of them together, with those previous tales all being attractions located within the titular museum. Home to "authentic criminological artefacts", the episode follows main character Nish's visit to the isolated attraction, as she's shown around and given the full story on three of the items held there.

The wraparound narrative and anthology structure is evocative of White Christmas, but unfortunately Black Museum doesn't boast the same connective throughline which made that episode such a standout. There was no real show-stopping short story either, and the references to other episodes - which came in the form of key items that fans would instantly recognise - are mostly just there as background iconography, with the thrill of seeing them again overshadowing the fact that the filmmakers weren't really doing anything interesting with their inclusion.

Some of the stories are still enjoyable, and it is cool to see the entire history of Black Mirror brought together for the first time, but there's the constant feeling that the episode didn't quite live up to its true potential, and might have only subtracted some of the mystique from this universe, rather than added to it.

[JB]