Black Mirror: Bandersnatch Review

So here we are, the semi surprise release of the long awaited and eagerly anticipated Black Mirror choose you own adventure film. I've personally been looking forward to this for quite a while as an early fan of the show and my expectations were pretty high. So were those expectations met? Keep on reading for thoughts with some possible Light Spoilers ahead.

I've been a pretty steady player of Telltale Games as a whole, so the format of this episode is pretty familiar to me, but might be foreign to others. In this episode, the film will interrupt giving the viewer a choice to make. This choice is remembered and changes the story in interesting and meaningful ways giving the viewer something that is specific to them.

What does this all mean? Well, it means that there are at least 5 different true endings to the film. For about 4 hours today, I've explored the film and I think I can firmly say after digging through Reddit for a while that I've seen all of the so far uncovered possibilities so far (though, I'm under the belief there may be more potentially hidden in a scene where it's not a choice between two options, but a phone pad that you have to enter the number in.)

My initial reaction is that it is a game changer for sure. The first attempt at using this format to showcase a complex plot and it goes off pretty well. The format is seamless and being familiar with the show, my anxiety began to build pretty soon after I made my first choices.

But how does it function as a film? Well, considering Black Mirror is one of my favorite shows in modern history, I could say that if I were looking at this as a straight up linear story, I would be disappointed. Luckly, that's not what this is and I found something immensely interesting and complex with different thoughts coming up at every turn.

The base plot is tame enough, 80s programmer Stefan is attempting to adapt a novel called Bandersnatch into a choose your own adventure styled video game. I don't want to spoil anything too heavy, perhaps I'll do a Spoiler filled section of this review at the end, but what results is a fascinating look at free will, consumption, alternate realities, mental health, childhood trauma, and the nature of story building all in one shot and will surely have people digging through it to uncover more in the following months.

With that said, I'm giving this 9/10 and giving it huge props for being the leap forward in ground breaking storytelling I believe we will look back on and call it as. I'll be talking about some spoilers after the trailer.

WARNING!! SPOILERS BELOW!!

I'm being serious.

Reddit user Alpine has done the hard work of mapping the decisions in the episode and it is glorious. You can follow his thread on it here. https://www.reddit.com/r/blackmirror/comments/aa9oym/almost_4_hours_after_release_and_i_think_i_have/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=blackmirror&utm_content=t1_ecqccpk

Currently, I feel like I've explored all of what we have found so far and as you can see above, the narrative this film takes can wildly differ depending on what choices you make, so for a show that is normally about exploring the nature of technology and how it effects us, is there a real lesson to be learned in this film?

After thinking about this for a while, the most interesting theme that comes up to me is on its very meta criticism of the dangers of its own format and an overarching conversation about the very nature of decision making while putting the viewer in the driver seat of making decisions but simultaneously making and argument that there were never any real decisions to be made (which brings me into my point about world building from earlier).

See, the episode gives you the illusion of freedom, but inevitably pushes you into making worse and worse decisions in the promise of making the plot more interesting to you as a viewer. Yes, you could make a decision early on in the story that would effectively end the film there, but acknowledges that you choose the wrong path and ends rather disappointingly. You could prevent the protagonist from a great deal of pain and suffering, but in the end you end up pushing him down a worse and worse path, indulging him in his own delusions that he is being controlled by you as a viewer for your own entertainment.

This is laid out pretty bluntly at one point with the question of would you like to see more action where if indulging in it, the show fully breaks the fourth wall and gives you the cliched Netflix action that you claim to want to see.

Ugh, I really want to talk about this in person.

One of the funnier/scarier things in the film though is from the first choice that you make. A simple choice of what serial that you eat for breakfast. This choice has a subtle effect by changing an advertisement seen on film later in the movie to your choice.

Call me paranoid, but this feels a little bit like proof of concept for advertising in the future. Imagine a future where Netflix could insert advertisements seamlessly into your film based on your advertising preferences. It's one of those things that hasn't escaped my head since watching it today.

So what did you guys think? Excited to hear your thoughts on this one.