SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details about the "Black Mirror" episode "Smithereens."
There is nothing black and white about the new season of "Black Mirror."
True to form, the speculative fiction anthology's fifth season, which dropped Wednesday on Netflix, is chock full of introspective ideations about technology's pervasive impact on the human experience.
Unlike the majority of the series, created by British humorist Charlie Brooker, the episode "Smithereens" is set in 2018 and, in Topher Grace's words, is "a period piece."
The episode follows a disturbed cabbie, Chris (Andrew Scott, who plays The Priest in "Fleabag"), who takes a Smithereen intern as a hostage to leverage speaking with the Twitter-esque company's CEO, Billy Bauer (Grace).
"My favorite episodes are the ones that are more emotional," Grace told the Daily News of his longstanding love for the British series. "Because this wasn't centered on something that happened in the future, I found myself getting really emotionally involved just reading the script. And I think anyone who watches will have the same experience."
When he gets through to Billy, Chris reveals that he's not just after his money as authorities and Smithereen gatekeepers thought. Chris confesses that three years earlier, he was responsible for a car crash that killed his fiancee, as he was paying attention to the app rather than the road. Chris takes Billy to task for making the technology "so that you can't take your eyes off (it)."
The encounter takes place entirely via phone calls spanning different countries. Grace shot his scenes in Spain and Scott in England, and the two never physically crossed paths during rehearsal.
Instead, Grace said, director James Hawes, who helmed the third-season finale, "Hated in the Nation," hired an actor to play opposite him on-set so "it would be kind of keyed up at the level that ... Chris was going to be at so that we both find that same balance."
Grace made waves in 2018 when he played notorious white nationalist David Duke in Spike Lee's "BlacKkKlansman" and took the role of Billy assuming his personality might align with the former KKK leader.
"I thought that's why I was being offered it" Grace told The News. "That's what's so great about Charlie's writing. It's always unexpected. ... He's the great writer of our time."
In classic "Black Mirror" fashion, the conclusion is relatively ambiguous, but the credits appear to be an homage to season three's "Shut Up and Dance" ending. Here though, the audience has no idea what the unnamed characters are viewing on their phones, even though they're clearly "glued" to the devices.
Grace emphasized he didn't have a confirmation on the ending's meaning, but his own interpretation "is that whatever happened out in that field was being reported, and you're just seeing people's reactions to (that). It's funny, we all get this news beamed right to our pockets 24/7 and we have about the level of reactions that everyone had there."
Adamant on sticking to "Black Mirror" which he was "completely obsessed with" before signing on, Grace contends that he would "be the first one to sign on" to a "That '70s Show" reboot given the chance.
"We got to hang out all the time," he said, "And we got paid to do it, and we would've probably done it for free."
