Choose your adventure: immersive audiences. The case study of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

Abstract

In 2019, Netflix, with an intent to seek alternatives to survive, jump on the big data trend and satisfy new audiences, released a hy-per-narrative interactive film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch based on non-linear stories and a web of decisions, following a “choose your adventure” literature structure with a solid nostalgic tone character-istic of its raison d’être and postmodern TV series. The film proves that free will is actually unattainable and that choices are already given to us in a Foucaultian panoptical manner (Foucault, 2012). Hence, immersive audiences are not as involved in the narrative as it could be perceived at first glance but are instead used as an element of big data and market segmentation. Nonetheless, Bandersnatch explores and becomes a breakthrough as another form of perceiving and con-ceptualizing television and the film spectrum. Beyond its thematic video game approach, the interactive film acts like one. It is a blend between a video game and a film. In conclusion, the experimental film does not hold onto a center with its narrative structure since it moves away from time and space but instead emphasizes the de-centralized structure with its interactive setup that wants to become more than a viewing experience for audiences.