Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
A new movie has been released for Netflix's Black Mirror series, and this time around it's a little different.
It's a film that's "Choose your own adventure" style, and audience participation moves the scenes along, presumably through a prompt on screen to click a button.
Despite having a television that's only a few years old, my tv doesn't have the functionality to watch this movie. I'll have to try it out on my Xbox or phone later.
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-46699402
I'll definitely be attempting this, as I love Choose Your Own Adventure style stories, and it's an interesting concept for a movie.
I grew up with CYOA books, so I was very excited to hear about this.
I think the story is pretty uninspired (except how your choices in following tries are reflected by your previous tries), but it's definitely a unique viewing experience and so goddamn special.
My favorite moment was when you kill Colin and he tells you to bludgeon him not use a knife, and is encouraging you to do it. What a weird bro.
It was very Undertale to me with how previous choices affect future ones, and Colin is basically Sans.
Originally Posted by Fynn
I quite liked it, although the actor who played Stefan (or more likely the director directing him) made some... choices. Stefan’s face was telling me that releasing a meh video game is as deeply affecting as killing your own father or watching someone jump off a building.
Interesting, all-in-all, but the somewhat uninspired plot definitely held it back. And setting it in the 80s just felt like the lazy choice of a middle-aged writer, to be honest. Like because they were somewhat pushing the boat out with the whole “choices” thing, they just defaulted to their mental safe space to save creative energy.
I probably come across as being very negative towards it, but it was actually pretty good, I’d recommend it. I just like to talk trout about things.
But is it frumious enough? Out of 5, how many frumes would you give it?
3.5 frumes.
It was alright. Maybe as a television concept it's revolutionary but for anyone who has played games it's not much more than a Telltale game with better graphics.
The meta aspect and Colin seemingly knowing the score were interesting but never properly resolved, and the Netflix fight scene was unexpected and funny because of it, but those aside the actual story itself didn't offer much.
Also smurf that smug reviewer bloke. Where's my option to punch him in the throat?!
Also also, oh hey look it's that thing from that other Black Mirror episode!!! isn't all that clever anymore.
I've been playing it - it seems okay at the very least, but I am enjoying playing it. It is a nice touch that Stefan is aware that he isn't in full control at times, rather than just simply going through each choice - that would have been good too, but it's interesting that they took a meta approach, but I have yet to see if they really go anywhere with it, as I still haven't found every pathway yet (I have seen the "Netflix Path.")
It is pretty annoying how you can't save your progress though - you can go back a couple of choices, and even that doesn't work correctly all the time, and if you have to switch off, you start at the beginning (at least that's how it is for me.) It is interesting going back and seeing what changes depending on what you do, and whether or not Stefan is aware of the changes or the order.
I also found it a nice touch that if you choose for Stefan not to take the hallucinogen (SPOILER)Colin just slips him one anyway, and the same scene ultimately takes place - this actually fits into the Choose Your Own Adventure format - I only have Give Yourself Goosebumps to go by, ultimately, but there are moments in that where you are presented with choices where if you choose the one that would take you too far away from the storyline, the book basically makes you choose the other choice, like "You choose not to enter the place where the adventure happens, so your friends force you to go." I don't know if that was intentional, but it fits in to the format.
There is at least one mistake as well - you know how sometimes when you reach an ending, you start again and it shows you what happened before hand in clips? Well, Colin will sometimes say "We've met before" in the clip for when Stefan first meets him, even thought that should only happen if you hit the first bad ending, and had to start again. Incidentally, I have yet to hit a good ending - all of them have something bad so far (or are unfinished like the "Netflix" ones.) Even the endings that are seemingly good go badly.
To be fair, I think it was set there because that was when both Choose Your Own Adventure books and games like what Stefan was trying to design would be relatively new, so it seemed like more of a strange and unheard of idea on both accounts. That said, I have found people in modern times (some older than me) who have no idea what a Choose Your Own Adventure book is...And setting it in the 80s just felt like the lazy choice of a middle-aged writer, to be honest. Like because they were somewhat pushing the boat out with the whole “choices” thing, they just defaulted to their mental safe space to save creative energy.
I like that Stefan ultimately finishes the game by deciding to reduce the number of pathways given, which is fitting for the tv watcher's playthrough, given that they eventually railroad you to certain scenes.
I'm really glad that when you choose a "bad ending" you have the option of either watching the credits or going back and choosing a different route instead of having to start over again.
I love the concept as a Netflix movie but I ultimately probably would have preferred 6 hours of fleshed out episodes which fully explore concepts, rather than a movie which has you multiple choice your way through to the end. However, I have read that a more traditional season 5 is still coming this year at some point.
Between the different scenes and secret ending and everything else, I'm still not quite sure I've "gotten to the end". By the time I'd gotten to the 8th variation of the exact same scene I had decided I was satisfied where I landed.
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