Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, the latest installment in Netflix's hit sci-fi anthology series,
debuted on the streaming service today. Its release confirms what was long speculated - it is a "choose-your-own-adventure" in which you control how the interactive story unfolds.
The Telltale Games-like episode is said to come with five possible endings, presumably determined by the decisions you make throughout the episode. According to Variety, there are
"over a trillion unique permutations of the story," although it sounds like not every decision will have a major impact on the story. For example, early in the episode, you decide which cereal Stefan will eat. It's a decision that will alter how the story unfolds at that particular moment, but it's unlikely to have lasting consequences beyond that single scene.
As explained,
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch led to Netflix engineers developing a script-writing tool to allow for branched narratives. Dubbed "Branch Manager," the tool
"allows creatives to build complex narratives that include loops, guiding viewers back to the main story when they strayed too far, giving them a chance of a do-over, if you will."
Depending on your approach to the episode and the decisions you make,
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch can be experienced in around just 40 minutes. But that's if you choose the quickest past and don't go back for any do-overs. For the average viewer,
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch will last around 90 minutes. Of course, with five different endings and over a trillion unique permutations to the story, it's likely you'll spend far more time going back to replay the episode to see all the different outcomes.
In 1984, a young programmer begins to question reality as he adapts a sprawling fantasy novel into a video game and soon faces a mind-mangling challenge. Welcome back.
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is now available on Netflix.
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