Black Mirror: Ranking Every Episode From Worst To Best

13. Hated In The Nation

Hated In The Nation is a peculiar episode of Black Mirror, largely by being such a conventional police thriller. It’s the kind of story we’ve seen play out on screens big and small for decades, albeit with a sci-fi bent.

Its core premise is exactly what you’d expect from the show, with a pair of detectives investigating the deaths of people who were targeted online. It looks at the culture of outrage and how people are vilified on social media, alongside robot bees for good, terrifying measure. It’s also the longest episode of the show (Bandersnatch excluded), clocking in at 89 minutes, which it doesn’t exactly stretch but never fully justifies either.

There’s a lot to like here, from Brooker’s clear ambition, to the buddy-cop pairing of Kelly Macdonald and Faye Marsay, and the mystery at its heart. But there’s also not much to love, because we’ve seen all of these things before.

Hated In The Nation has a few neat Black Mirror touches, but it’s also the only episode of the show that feels like it could exist somewhere else. This could quite easily be its own series, which robs it of that slightly more intangible uniqueness of other Black Mirror episodes, even if all its component parts more really well.

[JH]