Black Mirror episode review — 5.2 — Smithereens

Original release date: June 5, 2019
Director: James Hawes
Writer: Charlie Brooker

Rating: 6/10

Chris Gillhaney (Andrew Scott) is a rideshare driver for the company Hitcher. He uses his position to abduct an employee of the powerful social media company Smithereen. There’s an attempt at satirizing the role social media plays in our day-to-day lives here, and it’s not subtle or all that interesting. This episode has surprisingly little to say, I think.

Despite my complaints, though, the story is pretty tense, and Andrew Scott does a magnificent job in his role. There’s a surprising amount of death to his character, though his character is the only one in the episode with any depth.

Scott really is the saving grace here. The episode is too long, and really wouldn’t be doing a whole lot to keep my interest were it not for the lead performance.