An interactive TV show has kept the streets of Twitter busy as Netflix recently announced the possibility that TV shows could become a platform in which viewers have more control over their experience. The Black Mirror special episode; Bandersnatch has raised a lot of online conversations especially on Twitter about how unconventional and exciting it is.
Netflix, the online streaming giant, released a new interactive TV show on Friday, 28 December 2018. The “choose your own adventure” episode “Bandersnatch” is the tale of a young coder who helps create a computer game inspired by an adventure novel. The show’s title is also based on the title of a real-life 1984 game that was developed for the ZX Spectrum but was never released.
Black mirror; one of my favorite TV shows in 2018, is an anthology series exploring a twisted, high-tech world where humanity’s greatest innovations and darkest instincts collide. It currently has 4 seasons which I really love. So, you can imagine my excitement when Netflix released a special episode called Bandersnatch. I had a couple of frustrating tries because I found it really hard to get to the end of the film. So, I decided to check out people’s thoughts about the movie. I found this: With this understanding in mind, I “played” to win which is at least make sure i get a 5 out of 5 in “my” game review.
At the end of the day, my character killed his father, made his best friend commit suicide and ended up in jail. The beauty about writing about Bandersnatch is – there are NO SPOILERS. You choose your adventure, you write your character’s story. That said, there are over 1 trillion unique story permutations to Bandersnatch, well according to the tweet (find screenshot). That’s just one of mine.
If Netflix decides to make movies this way, does that mean they need to constantly create game-like movies thereby coming up with diverse unique stories? I wonder. I’m eager to know your thoughts about this film.
An interactive TV show has kept the streets of Twitter busy and it’s Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch episode. Is this the future of Tech in the film industry? Did you find it exciting and interesting? Do you think this is a sustainable way for Netflix, going forward (ie. considering if they decide to go down this route)? Share your thoughts and experience with me.
