(Warning: This post contains spoilers for the “Black Mirror” Season 5 episode “Smithereens.”)
On the surface, “Smithereens,” the Season 5 episode of “Black Mirror,” can feel a bit like a departure from the rest of the glossy sci-fi anthology series — for one thing, it takes place in the past — but upon closer inspection, it bears many of the show’s most recognizable hallmarks.
Set in the year 2018, the episode features no futuristic technology or lavish special effects, just a good old-fashioned phone call between two men, played by Andrew Scott and Topher Grace, who both have come to feel a growing sense of isolation in a world ruled by big tech companies, though in two very different ways.