A fifth series of
Black Mirror was commissioned by Netflix in March 2018, three months after the release of series four. Initially part of series five's production, the
interactive work
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch increased in scope to the point where it was separated from the series and released as a standalone film; it premiered on 28 December 2018. Although previous series of the programme produced under Netflix contained six episodes, series 5 comprises three episodes, as series creator
Charlie Brooker viewed this as preferable to making viewers wait longer for the next series. The three episodes—"
Striking Vipers", "Smithereens" and "
Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too"—were released on Netflix simultaneously on 5 June 2019. As
Black Mirror is an
anthology series, each instalment can be watched in any order.
Conception and writing "Smithereens" was written by Brooker, who wanted the series to contain an episode without any futuristic technology, to remind viewers that
Black Mirror is not solely a science fiction show. Previous such instalments include the first episode, "
The National Anthem", and season three's "
Shut Up and Dance". The former idea developed into a story where the protagonist was trying to get into the social media account of somebody who died by suicide, but Brooker thought it would be "extremely superficial and cheap, and also weirdly slightly intrusive" to give a "glib reason" for a character's suicide. In the final episode, the secondary character Hayley has this storyline, but the contents of her daughter's Persona account are not shown. Brooker said, "Really, she's probably just going to open another box of questions by going in there". Executive producer
Annabel Jones described Chris as "overwhelmed" and said that he "feels like an onlooker" over society. Discussing the psychological effects of technology, Brooker said that he used to "reach for a cigarette first thing in the morning" as a chain smoker, and now does the same thing with his smartphone for a "similar reward-feedback loop". Jones gave the example of a homescreen showing the number of unread emails as
gamification, one of many features that witness how phones are "subtly and incrementally... designed to absorb you". The "most important day" of Chris's life and maybe Jaden's is "reduced to the level of a pop-up".
Casting and filming , a fan of the series, played Billy Bauer in the episode “Smithereens”. Having previously talked to Brooker about appearing, Scott joined the cast of "Smithereens" as he was "really gripped by [the main] character." He described himself as less interested in technology than "the idea of the vulnerability of people that a simple mistake can be made at any given moment and you can blame it on yourself or you can blame it the powers that be". Topher Grace—who had recently filmed for
BlacKkKlansman (2018)—played Billy Bauer. He had been looking to vary the types of characters he played and was a fan of the show, having particularly enjoyed season two's "
Be Right Back" and other episodes which "are more emotional than technology-based". Damson Idris played the Smithereen intern Jaden. His first
Black Mirror audition was for the series three episode "
Men Against Fire". Director
James Hawes had previously directed "
Hated in the Nation" in the third series. Most of the filming took place in England, overlapping with production of
Bandersnatch. Grace flew to the UK to watch Scott's acting and briefly meet him before the filming of his scenes in Spain. To help Grace match the emotional intensity of Scott during the phone call, an actor was hired to read Chris's lines offscreen—usually the person in such a role is not a professional actor.
Soundtrack The episode's music was composed by the Japanese artist
Ryuichi Sakamoto, known for his
electronic music and soundtracks. It incorporates
synthesisers which, according to
Pitchfork reviewer Daniel Martin-McCormick, create "rising tension", "a looming state of emergency" and are "steadfastly integrated" with the episode. The soundtrack was released as an album two days after the episode's premiere. ==Analysis==