So Season 5 of Black Mirror is returning with Black Mirror: Bandersnatch at the forefront. It’ll have an interactive choose your own adventure element to the story, allowing the viewer to make decisions that would alter the story. This sounds like an amazing idea in theory but how well can they execute it?
This is very reminiscent of the now defunct Telltale’s games (Tales from the Borderlands, The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, etc.). The thing about these games is that the choices you make don’t really alter the story all that much in the grand scheme of things and when you do go back to make those choices again, it gets repetitive.
So how did the creative team behind Black Mirror pull it off? In my opinion, flawlessly.
Ok so, here’s the thing. Your choices don’t matter in Bandersnatch, to an extent. But this is all part of the narrative. The way they handle the scenes that you have to rewatch is brilliant as well. Most of the scenes you have to rewatch are edited down into snippets that tells you where in the timeline you are. Then there are a few scenes where you rewatch in its entirety. Watch out for those scenes because things are not the same in those.
The first choice that I made that caused a rewind happened pretty early on in the movie. When it replayed I was immediately worried that the repetitiveness was going to set in and that it would happen for pretty much all my choices later in the movie. As soon as I had that fear, the scene proved the fear unfounded with altered dialogue that foreshadows plot points later in the movie.
The characters get a bit meta at some points and one route full on lets you break the fourth wall and the character becomes self-aware that they are not in control of their choices. That path leads to a pretty hilarious ending (think Monty Python and the Holy Grail’s ending), if you pick the right options. There are some inconsequential choices thrown in that won’t have any impact on the narrative but will alter some background things.
They also do a great job in making sure the scenes flow well into one another no matter which choice you pick, so you won’t know whether you’ve made the “right” choice until it has played itself out. There is a time limit on how long you can dwell on your choices so that helps remove the awkward pause in dialogue and actions (but then again, Telltale’s games also had a time limit) so the scene and dialogue is written in a way that makes those few seconds where you’re making your decision not feel stilted at all.
The overall narrative felt very cohesive and played out in a way that takes full advantage of the rewind instead of feeling like you’re only watching part of a story. When I say it takes full advantage of the rewind, I mean that you’re guided to an ending that the writers want you to reach (something that is hinted at in the show itself).
I can only say that I hope Netflix and other content producers would make more media like Bandersnatch, if they are all as well executed, that is.