Techdirt: As you may have already heard, the latest iteration of the Black Mirror franchise on Netflix, titled Bandersnatch, is an absolute hit. You likely also have heard that it allows the viewer to influence the plot by making choices within the story's many inflection points. And, hey, perhaps you even heard that Netflix is facing legal action by Chooseco LLC, the company behind the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series that were popular in the '80s and '90s.
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Just last week, I sat down with a few friends and decided to "watch" Bandersnatch. I put "watch" in parenthesis because this movie is more than just watching it's an experience. After watching through the movie once, or at least watching it till one ending, the best part is that Netflix not only allows you to but walks you through exploring how the plot would change if you change one decision you made along the way. I loved the fact that Netflix did this and it made the experience even more enjoyable and exciting. After watching Bandersnatch, I ended up sitting down at my laptop and researching how it was made and how some decisions affect the plot line more than others. What I ended up finding was an amazingly thorough and complicated flow chart that outlined how every decision affected both later decision choices and the outcome. I think Netflix did a great job with it, and even though it is being sued, it does not sound like the suit will hold up in trial.
I love to read, and I always have. Somewhere early in elementary school I remember reading these books. Not only did Bandersnatch not tarnish my nostalgia, it actually reinvigorated those memories of staying up late to discover every ending. I also think this claim that Netflix's film is "too dark" is absolutely ridiculous. Maybe I was reading a different brand of choose your own adventure, but there were plenty that involved death and other dark themes, most of them did as that was often one of the endings which would send you back to certain choice exactly the way Netflix does. Sure in most of them I wasn't deciding whether to bury or chop up my father, but there were still many gruesome endings involved. Even if I am thinking of the wrong brand, that just shows how obvious of a cash grab this is as the company has never sued any of the other authors who ripped off not just the format but also the exact medium this company uses. I love that Black Mirror took something which I held so dear and created such a succinct and intelligent visual essay out of it. It enriched my experience of the episode and of my memories of those books. Basically, this is ridiculous. Long live Black Mirror.
To be frank, this claim is ridiculous on so many levels. To me, choose your own adventure is not even remotely related to whoever this company is. Almost all video games have some degree of choose your own adventure, with many having multiple endings depending on the choices you made. In fact, as someone who grew up after the 80s and 90s, I wasn't even aware that choose your own adventure books even existed, let alone that a company decided to trade mark it. To me, choose your own adventure is it's own specific genre of media, not a trademark specific book series. If this company wants to sue Netflix for making a choose your own adventure tv series, then they also will have to sue apps like "Episodes" or simulation games like Mass Effect, and many many more. Almost all RPG games are choose your own adventure, and just like Netflix, they don't directly use the copyrighted phrase in question here. This is money grabbing and greedy, nothing more. With big companies come increasingly stupider and stupider lawsuits, nothing more.
I vividly remember reading Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid, namely Goosebumps, and my mom would have to take me to the library multiple times at a day because I would plow through them so fast. I think I ended up reading every Choose Your Own Adventure book that our public library carried. So, I was very excited when Black Mirror – one of my favorite shows – announced that they were doing a Choose Your Own Adventure episode. I was pleasantly surprised by the execution as well. I was really happy to see that they incorporated the Choose Your Own Adventure concept to the actual plot of the episode rather than remaking Nosedive *but with choices* or some other similarly unrelated plotline. Hearing about the lawsuit is a bit jarring, mostly because I didn’t realize that anyone “owned” or could have license over a narrative format, but I suppose of course they do. Reading the article however, it really doesn’t seem like a very sound case against Netflix, and even if it were, I doubt it would slow them down. They have redefined film and revolutionized the entertainment industry and I doubt they’ll stop anytime soon.
I’ve never read or watched a “choose your own adventure” type of story so I find it fascinating that something like this even exists. Interestingly, I’ve always wanted to be able to choose what happens to character in a story, so I think I’d like “Bandersnatch”. Namely, I love the Black Mirror series, so I find it smart that they took such a successful show and added a twist to keep the audience’s attention. I find the entire lawsuit ridiculous. How can a company claim that something will ruin their name because they aren’t targeting the same audience. They don’t have a right to the idea of choose your own adventure, it’s an idea that’s been used many times with many different themes and objectives, and so Bandersnatch hasn’t done anything wrong. I think it’s important to remember that one show is not a direct commentary on the entire “choose your own adventure” series.
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