Black Mirror: Bandersnatch - Videogame Considerations

About a year after the release of the fourth season, B returns again to "cheer" our Christmas. However, Netflix has managed to outdo itself once again: in fact, it was not the awaited new season to be published, but a single episode entitled Bandersnatch.

Despite what has just been said, however, there is no need to be disappointed: Bandersnatch is a interactive episode, capable of keeping the viewer literally glued to the screen, also thanks to the choices that he will be asked to make, being pushed to start it again several times to "strip it" properly, thus exploring any narrative crossroads.

Bandersnatch will have managed to respect the very high standards of the Netflix series? In the following lines, we will try to give an exhaustive answer to this question.

Black Mirror: when dystopia and interaction come together

It is useless to go around it too much: among the many shows that now crowd our days, Black Mirror is one of the very few, if not the only one, to have earned its own precise identity. The Netflix series has always stood out for having created a narrative universe as dystopian as it is absolutely credible, managing to instill a "healthy fear" on any technological device through its most distorted uses.

As already happened in the episode USS Callister, Once again video games are once again the protagonists; however, if in the pilot of the fourth season video games were limited to being the central theme, this time the whole episode can be considered as such, thanks to its interactivity.

The player… er… the spectator, will in fact be called to assist (and determine) the events of Stephen Butler, a young man with a tormented past with a single, great dream in the drawer: be able to develop his video game. The title is inspired by Bandersnatch, a game book whose author, following an unspecified "nervous breakdown", was guilty of a terrible crime.

The episode is set in the fabulous Years' 80, and is full of references to videogame history that any older nerd will find it easy to recognize. Pixel graphics, Commodore 64, Betamax recorders, brick-thick librigames, CRT TVs: Bandersnatch is a real leap into the past.

During the episode, we will be called to make choices which, in an increasingly branched way, will determine the outcome of our enterprise, obviously always in full Black Mirror style.

Bandersnatch: halfway between TV series and video games

As all passionate fans will surely know, Bandersnatch is not Netflix's first "interactive experiment"; this title, in fact, belongs to Minecraft: Story Mode. However, the latest episode of Black Mirror manages to reach a degree of involvement never before seen in a TV series.

I narrative crossroads that we will have to take, having only a few seconds to decide, there are many, well structured and gradually more and more unpredictable, so much so that some roads could lead us to a premature "Game Over". In these cases, we may as well rewind time (not even we were in Life is Strange) and change our path, unlocking new scenes and getting new endings.

Just like in many graphic adventures, Bandersnatch has ben five different endings, obtainable only on condition that you explore every single ravine of the episode, crossing every narrative crossroads, even those apparently most insignificant. Needless to say, this choice is able to guarantee a longevity practically never seen before for a TV show.

Despite what has been said so far, we would like to give warm reassurance to all skeptics ...

Bandersnatch is 100% a Black Mirror episode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmS4W5BS0OU

Since the first moments when the rumors began to circulate aboutinteractive element of the episode, not a few fans had turned up their noses. Many, in fact, had doubts about the "authenticity" of the episode. Well, we can say that, after several hours of "gameplay", doubts were never more unfounded.

Bandersnatch belongs fully to the Black Mirror narrative universe. Not only are they present references to other episodes of the series, but also all the other trademarks of the Netflix show are perfectly recognizable. Anxiety, technological fear, madness, conspiracies, an unexpected breakthrough of the fourth wall: Bandersnatch is this and much more.

If we add to all this the possibility of being able to check first-hand the evolution of events, also managing to "rewind the tape" when necessary, we could safely say that the episode in question not only met the very high standards to which Black Mirror has accustomed us, but even surpassed them, aiming to become a real reference for any other "serial experiment" of similar nature.

Final judgement

Bandersnatch's wait has paid off in full. If Black Mirror has always managed to disturb and confuse its fans, this time the Netflix series has succeeded in the not easy task of amaze the viewer.

What is seen in this "Christmas episode" is a fully successful experiment, capable of merging two contiguous media such as videogames and TV series, placing itself halfway between them and creating something that, we are sure, is destined to make school.

We would never have thought of using terms like "longevity","replayability","alternative endings" why not, "gameplay”To talk about a TV show, but Bandersnatch forces us to update our vocabulary. Most likely this episode of Black Mirror will not be an isolated case, and we could find ourselves once again talking about a TV series on a video game site, being sure that it will be for a "just cause".

On the other hand, we are all used to dystopian universes by now, but are you sure you can deal with a nightmare generated by your own choices? If you want to know the answer, all you have to do is take up the joypad (or the mouse) and dive headlong into Bandersnatch, but be careful: you could be hopelessly hooked.