What just happened?
January 6, 2019 2:28 PM Subscribe
The best interactive TV show to-date? I finally got around to watching Black Mirror's episode, Bandersnatch, which offers a level of interactivity with viewers, much like the old text adventure computer games of yore. In fact, that's the point, since the story revolves around someone creating just such a game (with a twist). I found it clever, but like other reviews, didn't find the story or the interactivity all that satisfying in the end.
I did end up killing about 2 hours of time, though, in exploring the various possibilities. Which, in the end, I guess was the point...??!?
[spoilers maybe, if you continue reading...]
I swear I did not want to like this thing. And at first the choices were of course really simple and expected. But as you got further in, the choices became a bit more... ah, disturbing?
One of the frustrations was that there were a series of "right" choices you eventually had to make to continue the story along. This takes away the "free choice" aspect of the interactivity. Which, I guess, was the meta-point of the whole story. That the choices we make -- for interactive TV much like life -- are an illusion. And maybe ultimately pointless.
Here are the five main endings, easter eggs you may have missed, the NYT's take and three reviews from the NYT on the series.
Would I recommend someone spend the time to explore the Bandersnatch universe? I'm so conflicted, it's hard to say.... Maybe? If nothing else, it was an interesting experiment of how something like this could go if someone put a fair amount of time, effort, and thought into it. But I don't think this is the future of anything, much less TV.
[spoilers maybe, if you continue reading...]
I swear I did not want to like this thing. And at first the choices were of course really simple and expected. But as you got further in, the choices became a bit more... ah, disturbing?
One of the frustrations was that there were a series of "right" choices you eventually had to make to continue the story along. This takes away the "free choice" aspect of the interactivity. Which, I guess, was the meta-point of the whole story. That the choices we make -- for interactive TV much like life -- are an illusion. And maybe ultimately pointless.
Here are the five main endings, easter eggs you may have missed, the NYT's take and three reviews from the NYT on the series.
Would I recommend someone spend the time to explore the Bandersnatch universe? I'm so conflicted, it's hard to say.... Maybe? If nothing else, it was an interesting experiment of how something like this could go if someone put a fair amount of time, effort, and thought into it. But I don't think this is the future of anything, much less TV.
This post was deleted for the following reason: This is much too editorial to be a Metafilter post, sorry -- restless_nomad
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