Against interactivity. Phenomenological notes on Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2421-454X/11410Keywords:
Interactive cinema, Bandersnatch, Black Mirror, Netflix, Transmedia storytellingAbstract
Interactive cinema is one of the most interesting areas of experimentation with storytelling form. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018), a stand-alone episode of the acclaimed British television series available on Netflix, has restarted the debate around this genre. This article offers a discussion of several critical elements inherent to the experience of viewing Bandersnatch, specifically those related to its interactive, meta-reflexive, and ludic character. The tension between interactive and interpretative cooperation, between actuality and virtuality, between self-reflexivity and self-referentiality, between free choice and control, between co-authorship and authority, and between gaming and gambling, bring out the contradictions of a product characteristic of the current transmedial landscape.
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TV series and other media cited
Black Mirror (Channel 4, 2011-2014; Netflix, 2016-)
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (David Slade, 2018)
Ready Player One (Steven Spielberg, 2018)
Sugarcane Island (Edward Packard, 1976)
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Copyright (c) 2020 Adriano D'Aloia
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
