theconversation.com: The fifth Black Mirror season – made up of a single episode called “Bandersnatch” – represents the latest mainstream offering in interactive storytelling. Released in December 2018 by Netflix in a choose-your-own-adventure format, Bandersnatch allows viewers to make decisions at various junctures – these choices then determine the story path down which the episode proceeds.
6 comments:
When Bandersnatch was released on Netflix, it created a frenzy among my friends, it was all anyone could seem to talk about, or post about. I've seen versions of interactive television before, but none of them were as well developed as this episode was. It was a modern version of those Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books (which is actually kind of funny, considering CYOA is suing Netflix over this particular episode). As a media consumer (whether through reading, watching or listening) it adds another level of participation and interest when you are making the decisions. Now I am perhaps the opposite of a computer person, AI and coding, and algorithms are all things I leave up to people who have a much better grasp on what's going on. However, I think in this modern age, even if I'm not familiar with the concepts, I still know the terms themselves, because they are transforming the entertainment industry greatly. I also think this idea of AI storytelling is very interesting. Languages are more often than not, living. These computational language generators are getting to be incredibly sophisticated, the more they run and process, the more likely they will be able to perform a task on their own. I guess we'll just have to add the AI's name to the credits at the end of an episode.
I need to go watch or experience Bandersnatch I guess. Wow this is so cool this presents so many new things for reruns and the longevity of a tv show. This also allows for a lot more challenges and opportunities on the production side of things and the amount of things that they need to be prepared for so that when it comes to the end they allow for a number of different jobs and ideas. This is something that I know won’t be able to transform to other forms however in their current state. Theater and movies will never be able to handle this kind of medium as I don’t think people would like to go to a show that would be voted on and changed depending on how others in the audience voted it create a sort of system where the people aren’t necessarily into it as they didn’t have their choice voted on by the rest of the audience.
THIS IS SO COOL. I’m a huge fan of the Black Mirror series, so when i heard they were coming out with an interactive episode, I was thrilled. The thought of it really brought me back to games I would play on my Nintendo DS that were the interactive choice kind of games and I loved them. I played the Bandersnatch episode on Netflix twice just to see the different pathways and results, and was surprised at the end both times. The content of the episode is based on the fact that you are making the choice for the character, and they become conscious that it is happening. At one point you have a choice to tell them about the Netflix streaming service that you are watching them on. I’ve been kind of falling off of Netflix since they are getting rid of so many shows and putting up more Netflix Original shows, but since they’re coming out with great content like Bandersnatch, I think I’ll continue to check stuff out.
I watched Bandersnatch and, as the article says, I was really floored by the seamlessness of the storytelling, despite the choose-your-own-adventure format. I never noticed a single awkward cut, jump, or choppy editing to make the timing of the choices seem realistic and smooth. After watching the movie the first time, I immediately started looking for the inevitable articles and in-progress flow charts that were being made about Bandersnatch. It quickly became clear-- in varying levels of seriousness-- that the movie was affecting its audience in just the same way as the plot of the movie affects its protagonist. Committed viewers mapped out the paths of the show just as Stefan was mapping out the paths of the book and video game he was developing, and frantic viewers wondered if Netflix was manipulating its audience in the way that Netflix was made out to manipulate Stefan. As the article does a great job of explaining, Bandersnatch is not the first of its kind in its formatting. It has, however, brought about conversation and buzz that is complex, relevant, and borderline intellectual.
Bandersnatch was a very impressive episode of black mirror. The jump between scenes at the end of the bar made for seamless transitions, and had enough options to keep the reader entertained. Someone created a flow chart online, and posted of 17 possible endings (the number which is still debated because of the vast amount of choices one has when playing). The choose your own adventure style changes the nature of the experience, and of the consumer. By having options, the consumer must constantly think of themselves, to pause throughout a program and consider what they want/would do. This brings about a consciousness of one's actions that is not really shown in other types of media. Generally one does not think as much for themselves consciously till the end of a piece. Having a choose your own adventure brings a presence to television programs which get you so sucked in that you just let netflix's timer run to play the next episode instead of getting your arm up to click it. Interactive shows might be a possible future to keep us up and working with the machines.
Unpopular opinion: I did not enjoy Bandersnatch. I think I may have brought that upon myself, because I refused to watch it until I had previous the first four seasons of Black Mirror (and those episodes were AMAZING). I found the single episodes a LOT more interesting and twisted than Bandersnatch, which while it did have a really solid concept, could have been a lot longer and less dry than it was. I was excited for Bandersnatch’s interactive elements (I also grew up reading a lot of books with a choose-your-own-adventure theme), but when it came down to the the actual show, I felt like the choices did not have as much impact on the story as they could have. As one of the possible paths admits, the story lacks action and it was sort of boring to watch. Going forward with the interactive era of entertainment, I would love to see someone develop another interactive Black Mirror episode with the same complexity as the game being created by Bandersnatch’s main character. I would personally love for it to become something where the viewer needs to pay close attention, take notes, and really immerse themselves into the story in order to pass through to an ending.
Post a Comment