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American Horror Story Sarah Paulson , long considered one of the faces of the series, will not star in the forthcoming ninth season.
Variety AHS: 1984 , – though she may appear in a smaller cameo at some point during the season’s duration. In the case of Paulson’s complete absence, it would make the season the first to potentially not feature Paulson at all. While she appeared briefly in the show’s first season, subtitled Murder House , she has had starring roles in every additional season since.
Show all 23 1 /23Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best Click through for our ranking of every Black Mirror episode to date, including season five. Spoilers ahead
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "The Waldo Moment" Series two, episode three While supremely prescient in predicting how a pop-culture figure would one day find themselves unwittingly in a place of political power, "The Waldo Moment" lacks the bite of other episodes. The pacing is cumbersome, and the bleak ending for Daniel Rigby's failed comedian feels slightly extra.
Channel 4
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "Crocodile" Series four, episode three A new insurance company innovation allows access to people’s memories – much to the dismay of Andrea Riseborough’s Mia, who witnesses an accident but has much darker things to hide. Riseborough is typically excellent, but Mia’s behaviour is jarringly inconsistent throughout.
Netflix
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "Arkangel" Series four, episode two When an overly fearful mother (Rosemarie DeWitt) resorts to drastic measures in order to keep her daughter safe, things inevitably unravel. Quite how far they unravel is the greatest weakness of a lacklustre episode, despite being directed with vigour by Jodie Foster.
Netflix
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too" Series five, episode four Casting a globally famous pop star, Miley Cyrus, as a globally famous pop star whose entire consciousness is copied over into sellable robot dolls should have been a fun idea. But the episode unfolds at a strangely plodding pace, failing to make good use of its concept and its stars. Thankfully, when the tone suddenly changes as a result of an accidental discovery at the hands of two teenage sisters, the episode becomes a fun, high-concept heist film.
Netflix
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "Men Against Fire" Series three, episode five A group of soldiers are tasked with protecting a village from mutant humans known as “roaches”, by hunting them down and exterminating them. A typically shocking twist reveals that something even more sinister is at play, and two soldiers – played by Malachi Kirby and Madeline Brewer – must face the horrific moral implications of their actions. A shocking, troubling episode.
Netflix
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "Hated in the Nation" Series 3, episode six The show’s longest outing, after the just-released Bandersnatch , “Hated in the Nation” is Brooker’s answer to Scandi Noir dramas such as The Killing . But its murder mystery plot, involving killer drone insects, fails to reach the heights it aspires to.
Netflix
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "Playtest" Series three, episode four There’s fun to be had in the augmented reality chiller “Playtest”, an episode following an American man (Wyatt Russell) who accepts a one-time, rather bizarre, job offer from a video game company. An often thrilling instalment, that ultimately fails to live up to its brilliant potential.
Netflix
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "Nosedive" Series three, episode one A phenomenal team came together for the first Netflix-produced episode: star Bryce Dallas Howard, director Joe Wright and The Good Place creator Michael Schur. The result is expansive, expensive-looking – and strangely soulless. The world it presents, however, is scarily plausible: people must rate each other from one to five at every single interaction in a bid to improve social standing.
Netflix
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "Smithereens" Series five, episode one Fleabag actor Andrew Scott plays a grieving not-Uber driver who hates how people are addicted to their phones. He decides to take someone hostage and demands to speak to their boss – the head of a world-conquering social media website (a fictional Mark Zuckerberg-type character played by Topher Grace). By Black Mirror's standards it feels like a thin premise, and doesn't build enough to justify a 70-minute running time. Despite a moving ending, “Smithereens” feels muted rather than subtle.
Netflix
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "The National Anthem" Series one, episode one Could this be the most audacious first episode of any TV series? "The National Anthem" is a wonderfully twisted opener, a satirical comment on the terrifying power of social media via a grim story about a Prime Minister forced to have sex with a pig live on television. It set the Black Mirror blueprint perfectly.
Channel 4
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "Black Museum" Series 2, episode 3 Letitia Wright leads this unique episode, which irresistibly contains references to every other Black Mirror outing to date. With it's B-movie thrills and body horror sub-plot, this is the closest the series has come to a Hammer House of Horror film.
Netflix
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "Shut Up and Dance" Series three, episode three This episode follows a teenage boy (Alex Lawther) who is blackmailed into committing criminal acts by a mysterious hacker. Featuring arguably the show’s most distressing twist, “Shut Up and Dance” may not make for enjoyable television, but it’s a slickly-written marvel that gets under your skin.
Netflix
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best “Striking Vipers” Series five, episode three In “Striking Vipers”, Anthony Mackie – last seen sporting mechanical wings as Falcon in the Avengers series – plays Danny, a married father trying to keep a lid on his mid-life ennui. Events take an unusual turn when he has earth-shattering, chandelier-swinging virtual sex with a college friend, Karl (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). Underpinning this futuristic story are timeless themes of fidelity, family, fantasy fulfilment and the love triangle. In a series famed for its wild visions and outré set pieces, “Striking Vipers” is distinctive by its meditative tone and everyday preoccupations.
Netflix
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "White Bear" Series two, episode two This episode follows an amnesiac girl who wakes up in a post-apocalyptic wasteland pursued by weapon-wielding assailants; silent bystanders watch on, disturbingly recording events on their mobile phones. "White Bear" feels like a nightmare come to life, but it’s a gripping one, subverting your expectations every 15 minutes.
Channel 4
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "Fifteen Million Merits" Series one, episode two Every season of Black Mirror has one episode that yanks at the heartstrings, and “Fifteen Million Merits” was its first. The love story of a man (Daniel Kaluuya) and a woman (Jessica Brown Findlay) doomed to generate power on stationary bicycles for an unspecified amount of time, it presents a bleak outlook for the future of game shows. Brooker at his most Orwellian.
Channel 4
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "Metalhead" Series 4, episode five This take on the stalk-and-slash genre makes for Black Mirror 's most intense viewing experience. The camera remains right there alongside Maxine Peake’s nameless protagonist, alienated from the rest of civilisation as she's hunted by a robotic assassin for no apparent reason. Terrifying stuff.
Jonathan Prime / Netflix
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "Hang the DJ" Series 2, episode 3 With its uplifting story of two lovers fighting against the odds to be with each other, "Hang the DJ" is a season four equivalent of the uplifting “San Junipero”. Georgina Campbell and Joe Cole offer magnetic performances as Amy and Frank, who are trapped in a Centre Parcs-style holiday resort. As the ending draws near, the episode suggests that love can triumph over the most difficult circumstances.
Netflix
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "White Christmas" Series two, episode four Black Mirror went full Twilight Zone for its festive episode, an anthology treat featuring several short tales linked by what could perhaps be Brooker's most disturbing technological invention yet – a device that permits you to "block" people from your life. Jon Hamm and Rafe Spall are excellent as a storytelling duo stationed at a remote outpost in the middle of a snowy wilderness.
Channel 4
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "Be Right Back" Series two, episode one Hayley Atwell’s performance as a grief-stricken widow in this acclaimed outing is faultless, while Domhnall Gleeson’s robotic recreation of her husband (like some hellish combination of the Scarlett Johansson’s AI from Her and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein) joins the pantheon of great sci-fi robots. It came as no surprise that its director, Owen Harris, was brought back to direct the "San Junipero" episode a season later.
Channel 4
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "USS Callister" Series four, episode one Brooker basks in his own nerdiness in this glorious Star Trek -inspired tale that’s brilliantly conceived and executed. Using the DNA of his colleagues to create virtual avatars who believe themselves to be real, Jesse Plemons’s character makes for the entire series’s creepiest villain – partly because of how sorry for him you feel at the beginning of the episode, before clocking his sadistic ways.
Netflix
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "San Junipero" Series three, episode four It’s still all too rare for a queer love story on screen to have a happy ending – and rarer still for a Black Mirror episode. And yet the tender San Junipero, which sees two women fall in love in a seaside town that naturally isn’t quite what it seems, is a rare instance of optimism from Brooker’s generally fatalistic imagination, and we can’t help but love it for that. By the time Belinda Carlisle's "Heave Is a Place on Earth" plays over the end credits, you'll be doing something no other episode can make you do: smiling.
Netflix
Every Black Mirror episode ranked – from worst to best "The Entire History of You" Series one, episode three This episode often tops the list when discussing best Black Mirror episodes, and for good reason. It was the first to put Brooker's spin on disturbed technological advancements to truly devastating effect, tracking the dissolution of a marriage (of Toby Kebbell and Jodie Whittaker) in a world where memories can be re-lived as easily as switching on a television. It's the presence of Tom Cullen's charismatic male that causes Kebbell's character to frantically pore over every part of his wife's behaviour, convincing himself she's had an affair. Where other Black Mirror episodes introduce expansive worlds, this places the action in the most relatable of settings – the home – and is all the more disturbing for it. Essential viewing.
Channel 4
Paulson’s hiatus from the show coincides with that of Evan Peters , another long-time American Horror Story cast member similarly beloved by the show’s fans who will be sitting out AHS: 1984 .
On Twitter, many mourned their impending absence, with others stating they will not watch the series without the pair. “Ryan Murphy really thinks we’ll be watching AHS without Miss Sarah Paulson? Clownery luv [sic]”, one tweet read, while another read: “So no Jessica Lange , no Evan Peters, and now no Sarah Paulson? This season’s already trash.”
Variety reports that Paulson’s departure may have been due to her schedule. She is currently filming Ratched , Ryan Murphy’s forthcoming series inspired by the infamous One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest character Nurse Ratched, along with the mini-series Mrs America .
Since rising to fame on the series, Paulson has become one of Hollywood’s most in-demand actors, along with an awards show regular. She has appeared in films including Carol , Ocean’s Eight and Bird Box The Goldfinch , the thriller Run and the animated film Abominable .
AHS: 1984 , which premieres in September, remains top secret, but is believed to be a slasher movie-themed season. Emma Roberts , who has appeared in numerous American Horror Story seasons along with Ryan Murphy’s horror comedy series Scream Queens , is so far its only confirmed cast member.
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