The "PM fucking a pig" one was good. Didn't see the ending coming, and it was a more subtle message of "look what you miss out on" rather than "hurdy-dur those damn sheeple spend too much time on their phones! They'll get what's coming to
them..." It's the only one so far that felt like it could really happen.
I watched maybe 2 or 3 episodes after that, can't remember anything notable about them because, well, I can't remember anything notable about them. I know there was one about people who live in tiny rooms covered with ad screens and ride stationary bicycles for an evil corporation. It was super heavy-handed, not remotely realistic, and I remember thinking the relationship between the two main characters was painfully weak and unjustified.
Then just a couple days ago, I hand-picked "Smithereens" from the middle of the most recent season--because it starred
Andrew Scott and I'm hot and bothered for him right now because of
Fleabag--and unfortunately he was the only redeeming part of it.
[Highlight for spoilers]
It started okay--the idea of an Uber driver stalking a particular type of rider is interesting, and not something an old-fashioned taxi driver could really pull off. And his panicked "oh shit I had a super well-thought-out plan and it's gone totally awry" monologue was really nicely done, right up until they started shoehorning in lines about 'everyone's always got their screens in their faces!' as if his core motivation were about others and not himself, which of course it eventually was revealed to be. Then they went on these long, self-fellating demonstrations of the Facebook-analogue's super scary technology, like we don't know that text-to-speech algorithms exist, or how easy it is to Google people's names. And then of course Topher Grace's character was super genuine and well-intentioned, just naive and regretful, because he's supposed to represent Us--we just didn't know, we never meant for it to go this far--as if his whining explanation and resolve to do something is the catalyst that will finally get all of us Audience Sheeple on the path of moderation and clean living.
And then! The dude's final act is to secure the password for his Bereavement Group friend, which is depicted as a truly kind and worthwhile thing, without the slightest examination of the woman's desperate need to read her daughter's inbox--an urge that's questionable in both utility and nobility, and one she never could have fulfilled pre-technology. That's what they could have spent time on and built a real episode around: how modern technology has actually changed the process of grieving, rather than preaching yet again about how tech is scary and manipulative and always in the wrong hands.
Sigh. Anyway. I'm on a rant, and "Smithereens" wasn't a complete waste of an hour. I just don't think the show is nearly as earth-shattering as other people do.