I can’t quite articulate how much I love Black Mirror. I remember reading about the show years ago when it was only available in the UK and having to seek it out via less than legal means. Then,in 2014 being extremely happy when DirecTV aired the Christmas episode and being overjoyed when Netflix picked up the series and began producing new episodes later on. So when news leaked of a new Black Mirror movie a few weeks back I was excited since any new Black Mirror is better than no Black Mirror.
At least that’s what I thought that the time.
Friday morning I’ve got the day off and go to play this movie entitled Black Mirror: Bandersnatch on my AppleTV. Unexpectedly I get a message that the movie is not compatible with my device. Which is weird because a) I’ve never gotten that before with anything else on Netflix, b) my AppleTV is relatively new and up to date and c) it’s a movie, so why would it have to be compatible with anything? Then I tried it on my smart TV which has a Netflix app and… no dice there either. I get the same “sorry” message even though the message says that “newer” smart TVs are compatible.
That’s strike one and two.
Frustrated, I go to my computer to play Bandersnatch. That works and when the film starts it turns out that this movie is really a Choose Your Own Adventure style experience where you as the viewer have choices in how the story is going to play out. You choose what kind of cereal the main character is going to eat and what kind of music he’s going to listen to on the bus, etc. etc. etc.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Steeeeeee-rike three!
Here’s the thing, when I want to watch a movie, that’s what I want to do, watch a movie. Movies aren’t video games, I don’t want to participate in them. I want to see where the storyteller is going to take me, not choose the kind of cereal the characters are going to eat.
And because there are choices like this throughout Bandersnatch it means that one character will ask another a question, but because the interactive element gives the viewers ten seconds to make a choice means there’s lots of times the characters are just staring at each other waiting for you to make a choice in this weird, uncomfortable silence.
The sad thing was that when I finally got the movie to work on my computer I just let it play and didn’t actually make a decision as to what the character was going to do next and guess what, the story progressed just fine as the first option was automatically chosen. So apparently there’s a version of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch out there that would play just fine on my AppleTV and smart TV.
As I felt more and more frustrated over Bandersnatch I kept thinking back about the very first episode of Black Mirror I ever saw — I saw them a bit out of order so the first one for me was “Fifteen Million Merits.” I came away from that one feeling like I’d seen the very first thing to be as good as the original The Twilight Zone without being a copy of The Twilight Zone. With Bandersnatch I came away feeling frustrated and with the sense that this might just be the “Jump the Shark” moment for Black Mirror.
Ultimately I made it through a few of the on-screen choices in Bandersnatch before giving up and moving onto something less “interactive.”
Dear Netflix, please never, ever do this again. I have no desire to take part in any movies or TV series like this ever.
Sincerely, Bert
