Summary: Stefan is a video game programmer in the 80s, programming a choose-your-own-adventure game called "Bandersnatch". He works alone on the project and slowly devolves into insanity. The ending of the story depends on the choices that are made throughout the film.
The Good: I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. Going into this, I was very skeptical about the idea of an interactive episode of television. I was worried that the gimmick would overshadow the story in its entirety and it would leave me feeling hollow. Thankfully, I was wrong and this short film ended up being one hell of an experience. Before I delve in any deeper, I will warn that this review will discuss the entire film and may spoil many of the endings. I liked the way that the gimmick was introduced to us. While some of the early choices may appear to be meaningless to most, they all served a purpose in getting us acquainted with how this story works. The cereal introduces us to how we get to make decisions (it also has a nice easter egg later where the selected cereal will show up in a commercial before JFD's documentary) and the music shows us how the story changes based on what we select (Colin asks Stefan what music he listens to, and his answer depends on what you selected). Some people are frustrated with the first main decision of accepting or refusing the job offer as it is restricted to force you into making one specific decision with the other being the "wrong path". But I think this is a really strong way to introduce us into how this story works. All choose-your-won-adventure books have these bad endings that you can get, so they need to be implemented into this story too. This first question is used as a way to introduce you to this because most people will select "accept" (the wrong answer), since the story heavily pushes you to picking that answer. Furthermore, there is some great foreshadowing that comes from selecting "accept" as it hints at Stefan being aware that he is being controlled and also hints at the multiple timelines thing that Colin mentions later. I thought the gimmick actually worked really nicely. I found myself projecting my own conscience onto Stefan and that made my immersion into his story so much greater than it would have otherwise been. Now that I got to make his decisions for him, I began to care about him and I had a drive to get him to succeed at making the best possible version of Bandersnatch. That's the real genius behind this format. The immersion is so much more than it could otherwise be. The only thing that is a worry is the story being told. Seeing that the writers probably had something like half a year to get the story down before they started filming, it shouldn't be a surprise that the story is written really well with lots of connections, foreshadowing, symbolism, colour and thematic exploration. The writing here is stellar and the entire film feels like a treasure trove as you uncover the multiple endings and discover how the story had hinted at these endings beforehand. There were so many details that I heavily enjoyed uncovering with a rewatch. The foreshadowing of Stefan becoming aware that he is being controlled, the foreshadowing of the hound which digs up Stefan's dad's body in one of the endings, the secret backstory of Stefan and his mother and more are all very pleasing to find. As for the emotional impact, it works for the most part. The story isn't anything special, but it gets its point across and is easy to get invested in. The endings are a bit of a mixed bag (see: The Bad), but there are some that I like. I appreciated the use of a 2.5/5 rating for Bandersnatch as a sort of game over to tell you that you've made a wrong choice. It was a clever way to motivate me to attempt to find a better ending instead of simply giving up there. I really liked two of the five endings. The history repeats itself ending is really interesting and even suggests that a sort of curse exists over the Bandersnatch novel and game since everyone involved seems to go insane. My favourite ending was the death ending though as it wrapped up Stefan's story really nicely and it left the most emotional impact with me. The idea of the story ending after we correct the one wrong decision that Stefan made in the past is really clever and is a thematically wonderful way to conclude this story. I really liked seeing Stefan's descent into madness. There were two really great sequences to illustrate this. The first was Colin and Stefan's drug trip which was conveyed beautifully with all of the lightheadedness that drugs would cause. The second was Stefan listening to the documentary and slowly beginning to accept the possibility that he may be being controlled. The words were timed wonderfully with Stefan's thoughts and Fionn Whitehead's acting conveyed everything really well. I also really like that most endings put Stefan up against his dad, who is his primary source of conflict, and it's common to see Stefan killing his dad with his cigarette tray (another thing that was actually foreshadowed very nicely). I thought there were some really interesting things about the themes in this story. It's almost as if the creators were trying to tell us about their struggles while trying to make this impossible storyline. I don't think it's a coincidence that the ending that resulted in the best game was the one where Stefan realizes that giving the illusion of free will is the proper way to go about a story like this. One of the biggest complaints I've seen is how so many decisions in this story are meaningless as the story still leads to a specific point no matter what. And while I have my problems with this (see: The Bad), I think that this is the best version of "Bandersnatch" that was out there. Stefan's epiphany that giving the illusion of free will may very well be Charlie Brooker speaking out to us through his character and letting us know how difficult it is to create a story with so many sprawling endings. It would be too messy and would only get a 2.5/5. But when the ending is pre-determined and the story is more organized, only then can "Bandersnatch" obtain a 5/5. I really liked the idea of Stefan becoming aware that he is being controlled. The breaking of the fourth wall is really clever and makes it so that this story isn't an interactive one without reason. Instead, being interactive is an actual plot point that cannot be removed from the story being told here. Furthermore, it works as a really good twist that caught me completely off guard and delighted me. I was impressed to see the story acknowledge my presence, and I was further impressed when I was given the option to reveal myself as a Netflix watcher from the future. The continued ending with the over-the-top action scene was pretty funny and I got a good kick out of it. The Bad: The biggest issue I had with this was that there is no way to find the best version of this story. All of the endings exist, but aside from the death ending, none of them really impacted me fully. Yet the death ending doesn't feel quite right since it all seems too quick and it misses out on some of the best moments in the story, such as the fourth wall-breaking plot twist and Stefan's meltdown. The history repeats itself ending is the opposite as it has Stefan's breakdown, but doesn't resolve the story with his mother at all. None of these endings leave me feeling wholly satisfied and that leaves me disappointed in the end. I understand that it's the purpose of a story like this, but it still feels unsatisfying. While the game over endings are consistent with choose-your-own-adventure books, I don't really like them that much. The only ones I actually appreciated from a story-perspective were when Stefan breaks his computer and his dad runs in to console him. Aside from those, the other game overs are pretty lame. Also, if you have an affinity for constantly getting the game over endings (like me), the story gets bogged down by the fact that you're replaying moments over and over again. It breaks the engagement of the story and leaves me feeling disappointed that so many storylines I want to trigger apparently don't exist. This must be how Mr. Thakur felt when he selected to worship the demon king only to discover that it wasn't fully programmed. Disappointed and confused. It also led to me being bored a lot of the time as I waited for the story to go through parts that I have seen several times already because I keep being sent back. It made for a rather disjointed experience that countered everything the film did well with immersion. The Unknown: I'm unsure about where the concept of interactive films goes from here. This film alone already did some major innovations to the genre by breaking the fourth wall and using interactive stories as a theme. The question is, how can anything else top what was already done here? This story used the concept to its fullest and already showed us its bag of tricks. It will be difficult to imagine a story that can meet the expectations of this new genre after this film. This genre has already shown me what it can do and I'm uncertain that there is more to it than what I've already seen. Best Moment: I thought the breaking of the fourth wall was a really stellar piece of creativity. Clever innovations like that are what made this story work as well as it did. Conclusion: This was better than I could have ever expected, but it still felt flawed. While the story did more than I expected with its theme, immersion and excitement, it was hurt by issues that have plagued choose-your-own-adventure books as a whole. While I did enjoy this a lot and had a ton of fun, I get the sense that the role of interactive films in my life will be the same as those choose-your-own-adventure books. I'll have fun with a few, but I'll always turn back to novels for a richer emotional experience, and I'll hardly ever look back. Score: Due to how different this is from most television, I'm not sure that I can accurately score this as an episode of television. Furthermore, this is technically a movie so I'll restrain on scoring it. I will say that my overall response to it is positive, but I don't think I'll be remembering much about this in a few years. If I would give it a score, it would likely be around 65-70, but take that with a grain of salt. As of now, there is nothing else to compare that score with.
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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