# Black Mirror 5.01 Smithereens **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 5, 2019, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-mirror-5-01-smithereens/835051 "2019-06-05T04:49:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Driver8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Driver8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Driver8)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2019, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-mirror-5-01-smithereens/835051/21 "2019-06-10T19:53:11Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > The thing that always bothers me about these “guess the password” scenes is how they type in their guess, it fails, and then they cross off that entire idea. > > Hello? Maybe you have the right phrase, but did you get the case right? Maybe they had to stick a number in it somewhere, or a punctuation symbol, just to please the system at the other end? If it’s a multiword phrase, what are you using to divide – or not – the words. Every single idea leads to at least dozens of variations. > > But, no, you typed in “East Berlin” and it failed, so so much for that idea, and you will never discover that the password was EastBerlin. ): I agree with you in the general sense in that there are plenty of shows that have scenes that suffer from this. I may be misremembering, but here in particular it looked like she was crossing off guesses from a notebook that had a huge number of entries. I actually assumed at the time that it had a lot of permutations of things, but didn’t get to actually read them. It’s also mitigated in my opinion by the fact that it’s an unsuccessful strategy, as you’d expect. It comes across as a grieving ritual rather than something that has any real chance of success. But yes, shows where they guess three times and it actually works are silly for the reasons you articulate. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2019, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-mirror-5-01-smithereens/835051/22 "2019-07-02T20:16:50Z")
I’m finally catching up on the new season. I…kind of liked this one? I felt like the inevitability of the ending was a good thing, I would have been disappointed by some random twist. I didn’t find the ending at all ambiguous - Topher’s expression at the end was not “oh no, the hostage was killed,” and the sniper’s satisfied look clearly meant she was successful. I do think there was a lot of wish fulfillment for us in seeing Topher disgusted by what his invention had become. We all wish Mark Zuckerburg felt the same, but sadly I see nothing to make me believe that. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2019, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-mirror-5-01-smithereens/835051/23 "2019-07-02T22:19:43Z")
I guess we were also supposed to think the social media companies were in the wrong for not letting a grieving mother into her daughters account, but holy shit would i not want my parents to get access to my account if i died. If i wanted them to have my password they would have it. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2019, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-mirror-5-01-smithereens/835051/24 "2019-07-02T23:11:28Z")
Commenting a bit late since this bubbled to the top, but I liked this episode. For some reason we watched the episodes in reverse order starting with Ashley O, followed by this one the same night. Striking Vipers we didn’t get back to for a week or so. Perhaps my enjoyment of this one was bolstered by how lame and bright Ashley O was in comparison. The subject matter was…not trite, but certainly not very “Black Mirrory” since this subject is pretty much a daily discussion these days. In that way, I could see someone getting a Lifetime movie of the week vibe from this, but it was really well made and some of the locations they filmed at were striking. Having the tech billionaire be moderately weird but not a total sociapath was a nice change from the usual trope. The acting was terrific and the drama of the hostage situation was pretty gripping in parts. It felt much more like a run of the mill procedural at first than a Black Mirror episode I grant, but I was enjoying the dram enough that I didn’t care that much. It didn’t say anything “important” I suppose, but good TV is good TV. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2019, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-mirror-5-01-smithereens/835051/25 "2019-07-02T23:26:43Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > I guess we were also supposed to think the social media companies were in the wrong for not letting a grieving mother into her daughters account, but holy shit would i not want my parents to get access to my account if i died. Don’t worry–if the security at the site is set up correctly, then nobody in the company from the technicians up to the CEO know your password or have any way to read it–it is encrypted even to them. That was one of the most eye-rolling aspects of that particular episode. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2019, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-mirror-5-01-smithereens/835051/26 "2019-07-03T04:53:41Z")
I thought the set-up was mildly interesting, but the payoff was a dud. I liked the other two better. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-mirror-5-01-smithereens/835051.md?page=1)