It was good, and obviously anything pulling off something successfully will pave the way for others to follow in its footsteps. But I don't think "choose your own adventure" style film or TV (which this was, to answer the question above) will become ubiquitous, and honestly while Bandersnatch was a good proof of concept for the technology I don't think it was a good demonstration of something that could be a new standard.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy Bandersnatch, I did, but I was enjoying something that revelled in the fact it was using this new format and was extrememely self aware about it. That was great for introducing people to the mechanics and for people to enjoy something well outside the ordinary that made good use of its unique (at this point) style. But if there's going to be a lot of films where you can choose the outcome, they can't all be things dedicated to marvelling about the format. It's like if the concept of film was just being created now, Bandersnatch would be a movie that dedicated much of itself to saying "Look! You can see me even though I'm not in the room! And I'm pretending to be a character in a story and you can see the story! Isn't that cool?" It might be good to introduce audiences to the concept, but after the novelty of the format wears off there needs to be something that just takes the format and plays it straight if it's going to be more than a novelty.
I think the real test will be if something uses this format that's just a good self contained story that isn't meta about it can be successful. I suspect that unless it's integral to the concept like Bandersnatch, it won't be worrh it for creators to film lots of additional content, and audiences might feel like it's tacked on. People might like going back and finding other outcomes, but people also don't like missing stuff, and there's a balance between something that feels like it's rewarding to find more and something that feels annoying by making content difficult to find. Bandersnatch toys with the viewer and makes wondering if you made the right choice part of the experience, in a more straight-up storyline it might be more annoying to be left feeling like you might have chosen the "wrong" decision in scene two.
And for ongoing series, it's just too impractical. If you can make a major decision about what happens in The Walking Dead, then what happens for the next 8 seasons? They just couldn't film something with divergent storylines for too long.
But, on the plus side, Bandersnatch has done it and as far as I'm aware is fairly well received, and more importantly has introduced audiences to the mechanic. I've seen jokes and memes posted putting the Bandersnatch decision graphic over scenes from other shows, and I actually think stuff like that goes a long way to show that it's in the public consciousness. Netflix is still the "in" platform at the moment so big things on it become part of the zeitgeist, and streaming platforms like Netflix are the perfect fit for the mechanics of something like Bandersnatch. So there's definitely room for more things that use the format, but I think it has a long way to go before it's even a common genre.
Topic: The Bandersnatch format will be the future of living room entertainment (Read 1182 times)