Andrew Scott is an acting god. With minimal effort–the shift of his eyes, the turn of his head–he somehow manages to get across more seemingly genuine emotion than some actors do with their entire bodies.

And he’s at the top of his game in Smithereens, a cautionary tale of the addictive effects of technology.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t tell it’s story very well, due mainly to Charlie Brooker, who’s the creator of Black Mirror and the writer of many of the episodes.

The problem is that he doesn’t make the connection between the technology featured in the episode and the aforementioned addiction very well.

Though it’s very watchable–due primarily to Andrew Scott’s acting and James Hawes’ direction–but they have the added burden of having to compensate for the weakness of the writing.

Which they do admirably, but you’re always aware of them doing so.

It doesn’t stop Smithereens from being a great episode–it really is–but if the story were more cohesive it would have been remarkable instead of just very, very good.