Since its release in 2011, Black Mirror has proved to be a unique and ahead of its time show that has changed the way visual narratives are made. And, once again, the show places itself as the leader in avant-garde entertainment with “Bandersnatch”, their newest and interactive episode that allows viewers to lead the story as they please.
Through its anthology format narrative, Black Mirror has explored the social, cultural, and scientific impacts technology has in a (not so far-fetched) dystopian, contemporary society. And it turns out that for this next “lesson” concerning human kind and technology, the creators of the series have gone to great lengths to show us where storytelling in streaming is heading to.
“Bandersnatch” tells the story of a young coder who wants to create a video game based on an adventure novel that goes by the same name. The novel is a contemporary piece that allows readers to take important narrative decisions: they’re able to chose the path they want for the story to be developed. So, in the fashion of literary authors like Cortázar, the episode becomes a metafiction in which you, as the viewer and “narrator”, are entitled to take the character towards the path you desire.
With the power of your phone or remote control (for some devices so far), you can become the author of a story that can take from forty to ninety minutes long depending on the choices you make. This gives you endless possibilities to create different story plots that affect directly the narrative, or that may not be so relevant like choosing which kind of cereal the character will have for breakfast.
Despite how innovative this format is, it’s worth mentioning that this isn’t the first time the streaming company plays narrative devices like this. A couple of children productions have adopted this format of “interactive streaming” like the animated Puss in Book (2017) in which kids are free to choose from five different endings.
However, there’s no denying that for this Black Mirror special episode, the connection between technology and viewer was pushed to its limits since it allows different interactive options, making possibilities in storytelling really high.
When the episode is streamed on a computer (which so far is the most advisable way to reach all the different options), it starts with a short tutorial on how to “navigate” through this story, giving you the power to manipulate the story on the go. Still, if you feel you’re not going on the path you wanted to, you have the chance to start over and explore other possibilities. This makes it a never-ending story you can go over and over as many times as you like.
The series is the result of a year and a half of work that delivers something we hadn’t seen so far in entertainment. “Bandersnatch” has opened doors for new and unique ways of telling stories, inviting us to consume them avidly, which at the end of the day is what Black Mirror has been trying to criticize since its release. Yet, as Carla Engelbreth, Netflix director of product innovation, pointed out, we’re taking huge technological leaps in very short periods of time and “there is so much more than we can do than just linear television.” We’ll just have to wait and see how other production companies and storytellers make use of this new way of streaming, making stories more interactive than ever and reinventing entertainment as a whole.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM0xWpBYlNM
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