{"id":22683,"date":"2019-02-05T15:10:41","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T20:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=22683"},"modified":"2019-02-05T15:10:41","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T20:10:41","slug":"black-mirror-bandersnatch-review-choose-your-own-horror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/entertainment\/2019\/02\/05\/black-mirror-bandersnatch-review-choose-your-own-horror\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Mirror: Bandersnatch Review: Choose Your Own Horror"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cBlack Mirror,\u201d the British science fiction show akin to a modern-day \u201cTwilight Zone,\u201d released a new stand-alone film entitled \u201cBlack Mirror: Bandersnatch\u201d on Dec. 28 of last year to critical acclaim. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cBandersnatch,\u201d set in 1984 England, follows Stefan Butler, a young game designer, on a quest to craft the perfect game, his adaptation of an in-universe \u201cChoose Your Own Adventure\u201d-style novel which is also called \u201cBandersnatch.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0There\u2019s a catch with this special, though. Series creator Charlie Brooker and crew have structured \u201cBandersnatch\u201d in an interactive format. The user controls the gameplay experience by making choices for Stefan, and no two experiences are the same. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Some of these choices, especially in the beginning stages, are trivial while others are more critical and unsettling for the viewer. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Netflix released the official \u201cBandersnatch\u201d trailer on Dec. 27, and I was fortunate enough to come across it while scrolling through Twitter. Now that I\u2019ve seen it twice through on multiple platforms, I can say for certain that \u201cBandersnatch\u201d is an innovative, masterfully crafted piece of television that demands multiple viewings to find every possible ending.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0David Slade is the puppet master behind this entity of digital madness. Slade, whose directing credits include episodes of \u00a0\u201cBreaking Bad\u201d and \u201cAmerican Gods,\u201d previously directed \u201cMetalhead,\u201d an episode from the fourth season of \u201cBlack Mirror.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0This is a very well-directed stand-alone piece; each scene is meticulously constructed, and Slade utilizes the interactive concept with plenty of flair. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The editing and cinematography are also on point, and Charlie Brooker\u2019s script is well-structured and evenly balances horrific and comedic tones. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Brooker, while crafting a tightly-knit screenplay, also inserts various Easter eggs and references to past episodes of \u201cBlack Mirror.\u201d These little tidbits help to tie the series together and are satisfying to find. This was especially true for me after the first viewing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0The story starts out relatively normal. You wake up as Stefan one morning and take your medication. The first couple of choices you must make as Stefan are (a) when his father, played by Craig Parkinson, asks him what cereal he wants for breakfast and (b) when he is deciding what music to listen to on the bus. These seem like inconsequential decisions, but every choice made in this story has a certain impact on the overall narrative. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0His first big choice is whether to accept or reject an offer from Mohan Thakur (Asim Chaudhry), the head honcho at the game developer Tuckersoft, to work with his company developing the \u201cBandersnatch\u201d game.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0If the user accepts the offer, Tuckersoft releases \u201cBandersnatch\u201d as a flop; if they reject the offer, the player goes down a rabbit hole of somewhat questionable decisions to a variety of different endings. According to Netflix, there are five official endgames.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Though playing through the default path runs about 90 minutes, viewers can get through \u201cBandersnatch\u201d in anywhere between 40 minutes and two and a half hours. The user achieves the latter by getting stuck in narrative loops that lead them away from the main story.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Fionn Whitehead shines as Stefan and manages to carry the film with an ever-present level of anxiety and tension. However, Will Poulter steals the show with his portrayal of Colin Ritman, a noted game designer at Tuckersoft. One certain scene with Colin and Stefan is my absolute favorite of the episode, though I won\u2019t give it away.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Overall, I would highly suggest checking out \u201cBlack Mirror: Bandersnatch.\u201d The show continues to dazzle global audiences with episodes ranging from horrific real-world analogies to comedic parodies, and the newest special is a nice way to hold viewers over until the release of season five later this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maxwell Patton<\/strong>
\nReporter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cBlack Mirror,\u201d the British science fiction show akin to a modern-day \u201cTwilight Zone,\u201d released a new stand-alone film entitled \u201cBlack Mirror: Bandersnatch\u201d on Dec. 28 of last year to critical acclaim. \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cBandersnatch,\u201d set in 1984 England, follows Stefan Butler, a young game designer, on a quest to craft the perfect game, his adaptation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":22692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2104,2112,2109,2111],"tags":[2932,2931,2934,1386,2933,1769,74,2727],"class_list":["post-22683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-films","category-opinion","category-shows","tag-bandersnatch","tag-black-mirror","tag-choose-your-own-horror","tag-entertainment","tag-maxwell-patton","tag-netflix","tag-reviews","tag-tv-shows"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Bandersnatch-II.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-5TR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22701,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22683\/revisions\/22701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}