Got a Doctor Who and Firefly video coming out before the end of this month. Also got a string of videos lined up for this year including Ghibli Analyses, Inside No.9 Revalyses, Fantastic Beasts reviews and more. Subscribe for all that fun to come in 2019!!!
I may be nit picking, but this is not the 1st Netflix has used the interactive feature. The 1st time I have seen it was in 2017 for a Puss and Boots story series. Apparently, the feature does well with kids, this however is still experimental with older audiences.
Love your videos and appreciate you calling the viewer as the "Player". I love how this series and how this episode in particular has broken new ground in both Cinema, interactive media, and especially how the viewer forward slash player can experience such an intellectual and psychology dilemma.
“It was better to strip it down, give the audience the illusion of choice. But I’m really the one in control” That’s why some choices were the way they were; we really had no control in the first place. Still better than Telltales choices.
Yes that's exactly what I thought, at first I was also frustrated that the choices didn't seem well made until I realized they were just a way of story telling that gets you into the story but with no real control
You sympathize with the main character more as you realize you aren’t really in control, neither is he, and that you’re both along for the ride. It also leads into the question, of how in control of ourselves are we? Are we doing things because they’re what we want, or because we’re expected to do them, or because other people have made choices for us?
I think part of the point is that you as the player actually don’t have that much of a choice; there is only a finite amount of decisions, and you’re only given the illusion of choice. You’re not as in control as Stefan seemingly think you are. I don’t think this is justification for the draggy nature of the episode, but I think this was possibly a theme they were trying to play with.
It definitely was because the ending where Stefan kills his dad and chops him up he says exactly what you just said about the game. You also don't ever get away with murder like the guy in the video says and with the super secret endings while trying to remaster the game Pearl discovers that there really wasn't any true choice in this game and when she becomes angry you can choose whether she smashes her computer or throws tea over it.
thank you!!! i was looking for a comment like this because I strongly agree. I feel like they played out your expectations deliberatly during for example the joint scene, where you would think you get to decide but then he just takes it from Colin. Or the slow realization after repetition of scenes that for a "successful" ending you NEED to chop up the dad. Personally I thought this was a very clever way of tying the content/theme to the format, so it wouldn't just be a gimmick.
Headcanon: In this episode, it is shown very clearly that Colin creates a game for Tucker Industries (or whatever the company is exactly called) named Metalhead. This made me think, what if the episode in series 4 named Metalhead is also a game? My idea is that the Callister corporation in series 4 episode 1 (U.S.S. Callister) put a lot of money into virtual reality gaming, and that one of their projects was to create open-world VR experiences based on classic games. The whole episode of Metalhead is just someone playing an updated VR version of the gaming classic, and the game has been stylized into a black and white aesthetic to pay homage to the more classic era of gaming that the original Metalhead game premiered in.
Literally exactly what I thought.. In the episode metalhed she runs into random people, who are also running, but with zero communication throught the entire episode.. and she kills herself at the end with all those trackers in her.. crazy way to look at this.
If that theory was true (which I doubt it is) then there'd be another logical flaw as Nozedive was a game too, and I doubt anyone would make that such a different game. They're just Easter Eggs.
@@alfiehaigh8412 I don't know, it's subjective. I'm pretty sure a lot of people still liked it. If they also brought their point across, which seems to be the case, they succeeded. Anyway, wasn't this channel about analyzing the meaning of the episodes and not saying if he liked it or not?
@@fiso64 well aye you're right, but this isn't "the consensus populations review of bandersnatch" this is his review, and it's evident that he enjoys the black mirror episodes so probably didn't really need to bring up the factor of enjoyment, whereas in this I don't think he enjoyed it as much
I’d also add it’s incredibly antithetical to the very idea of Babdersnatch’s presentation. I mean it’s a choose your own adventure game about how you have no choice. Explain how that works to me. It’s a bold decision but it just makes the creators seem lazy when you hit a dead end leading to my second point. The movie just causing you to go back whenever you make s choice it doesn’t want changes the viewing dynamic in a negative way, reducing finding cool scenarios and choices to a tedious endeavour. It’s as if you’re going through it and Charlie Brooker smacks the controller out of your hand because you picked the wrong option.
Does ANYBODY realize that this episode LITERALLY is the embodiment of the human mind descending into madness?! Why the repeating decisions will eventually lead to such an inevitable outcome just to see the credits is absolutely unprecedented; as well as mind-blowing and sincerely groundbreaking! The evolution of technology and that evolution of cinema period
Bandersnatch is simply a story of a young man slowly losing his mind to some (or a couple) mental disorder. The whole interactive element is just a symptom of his condition (he begins to notice it himself, and even talks to you as he gets worse) and the branching pathways are a way of showing how his skewed mind is currently viewing reality e.g “did that really happen?” & on that basis it’s a fantastically dark story.
i think one of the themes of the show is the illusion of choice - while stefan isnt in control of his actions, and neither is the viewer really. In reality, we are still herded towards similar outcomes no matter which options we choose, and thats why some of our options have the same outcome regardless, like the dropping acid option. In the ‘good’ ending where stefan’s game gets a 5 star rating, its because stefan removed most of the pathways in bandersnatch, telling the story that he wanted, while players still had the illusion of choice.
The whole thing was about the multiverse and the illusion of control, one of the most terrifying concepts of determinism you can find. You're not in control of Bandersnatch. You never were. You're the one abusing the sci-fi technology in this episode, because you're forced to.
I may be totally off on this BUT I got the idea that there was an ethical dilemma. In past black mirror episodes such as SSR Callister, one character controlling the others in a simulation seemed a bit familiar. This time, we were the ones controlling someone else’s free will. It was flipped so we were the ones in control, not just bystanders. To make us think about if simulations like the one Elon Musk says we’re in is ethical.
I love the format but found the content a little disappointing. I was hoping it would give more of the black mirror feel that leaves you shook. The endings weren't overly satisfying or shocking. But I suppose it takes a while for any new ideas in media to be fully realised. I hope they try this format again even if it isn't as meta.
I feel like the problem was the endings didn't feel like a black mirror episode. It was pretty fun and interesting but as a black mirror episode it isn't that good.
what part of chopping up your dad and having his body parts all over the house whilst finishing the game did not leave you shook lmao. I guess we find different things shocking
This was more of a commentary on society and humanity as it depicts the illusion of free will. I feel like in that sense, it was similar to The National Anthem, another BM that did not heavily rely on technology or high concepts. I found the story-telling compelling and shocking, but to each their own, I suppose.
Idk to me everyone focused on the gimmick but the episode totally had a moral dilemma, it’s all about the illusion of free will that’s what we intentionally had dead ends like that, we as the “player” believe we have actual free will, but we really don’t at all, we believe we are controlling Stefan but we don’t, no matter how messed up you want his life to be or how nice you want his life to go there’s only so much you can do, there is sort of this underlying theme of how we are all doomed, fate ultimately has its way and we can’t really do much about it, some people are destined to become murderers or to die young and that is one scary thing to know you can’t do anything about it, to me the real endings were the one when we chop up the dad and get 5 stars and the one with the mother, both are very compelling and black mirror Esque, and close off the narrative satisfyingly, I think that your viewing experience suffered from the mere though of “oh I need to discover every single black mirror secret and option” when playing instead of trying to get the best narrative , which I can’t blame you for it but then again it’s the same thing, you focused too much in the gimmick instead of the narrative
Exactly!!! This episode had such an interesting and deep message for the audience to reflect on I wish more people would focus on that because it was actually so well done!!
That is exactly what I think but more like white Christmas where he’s a cookie. You can always tell the cookie from reality because the cookie is the only thing out of place from its environment
How could it be ? They would have to rely on Stefan to make money for the park -- why would they have a risk losing him in the decision to jump over and kill Stefan ?
Qufox It is okay for him to jump. I think he is a cookie in the movie in an endless simulation like White Christmas or like Carrie in the monkey.. I find this theory interesting because In an episode it it usually reveal it is a cookie not the actual person. Having the White Bear symbol in there makes the theory oh so much better. People in a park aka us are controlling endless cookie copies of Stefan..
Bandersnatch is so layered. To me, we "play" a cookie, he's in a virtual world and self aware. It's supposed to show entertainment of the future and the thought that in the future we "torture" quasi living (virtual) beings for entertainment is disgusting. But, we today, motivated by our curiosity, keep playing the game, getting more and more hints that he's suffering in the process. But we keep playing. It's just a movie and not real after all. Just like in the future, people will say he's just a cookie and keep playing.
Personally, I think the whole point of Bandersnatch can best be summed up in the "5-star rating" ending - Stefan tells his therapist that he wasn't able to finish the game before precisely because he gave the player too much choice; he is able to finally finish the game in time for the deadline by giving the player the illusion of choice but in reality "[he] controls the ending". It's exactly the same for the version of the game we play: the "official" endings (not just dead ends leading to resets but endings that lead to the credits) are always predetermined and we are always being somehow herded towards any one of them, we will always have to make Stefan murder his father, Stefan's finished game will always be surrounded by controversy, Stefan himself will never live a happy life. The first couple of choices being completely insignificant and unquestioningly obeyed lulls us into having a false sense of power which is slowly and increasingly erased the longer we play. We as the player/viewer are simultaneously a character and an observer within the world of the game and, since we are a character, there are certain rules we are governed by no matter how hard we try to rebel against them - we are in a position of power over Stefan but there is still something in a position of power over us and we are the equivalent of Stefan to that script. We are basically merely one "branch" above the people we're watching and controlling, emphasised in the "meta" ending where we're given a choice over Colin's daughter to either spill tea on her computer or smash the computer up, but both choices will lead to the same outcome of her ultimately destroying the game. It's the epitome of the illusion of choice with one fixed predetermined outcome.
yall are so picky cant you just appreciate how cool and innovative a choose your own path film is? i watched it 3 times choosing different paths every time bc i was so excited i don't get how people are so impatient/annoyed by all the paths when they voluntarily chose to watch the film.
As someone who purchased and continually pays for Netflix as a service I expect a solid product. With this in mind I can choose to criticise something if I’m not enjoying what they put out.
Not saying your way of viewing it was wrong or anything but I’d like to share my opinion, doubt you’re gonna read it but let’s give it a go. When I played Bandersnatch I played it like a movie where I had some choice, not thinking of it as a game per se. I went on to the the different paths as netflix returned me back with dead ends or endings, spent probably an hour and a half in all, and enjoyed it a lot, got really deep into the story. I saw the choice more as a device of story telling rather than me controlling a game, and I really enjoyed it. I think maybe your expectations made you not enjoy it as much as you could have, anyways, it’s not your fault.
Calls lucy a "pill" its paper with lad dripped on it. Otherwise known as a "hit". (Unless theres a misunderstanding inwhich your local dialect call it that in which case apologies)
This was a real trip playing through this while being high with friends. I even started to think "what if everyone I knew was just an actor"? lol good times
I'd go with Pheaora by Tangerine Dream, a minor classic album. Tomita however was well past his artistic peak by the time he released that Bermuda Triangle concept LP.
I think they changed Bandersnatch on Netflix. When I first accepted the offer, the replay was a fast forwarded highlight. I didn't get a choice for burying or chopping up the body. He went directly to burying it. I might rewatch it again.
LOL... Glad you are also familiar with the classic Choose Your Own Adventure. That montage of book covers took me back to my childhood. Your experience with Bandersnatch was very much like mine. I tried to be nice until I realized that this was Black Mirror and I needed to be edgy and dark. You said much the same thing, but in a much more entertaining way. Your hedge maze analogy was spot on. I did want to explore more choices but simply got bored. I just didn't have time to slog through everything. And lol about not paying. You got me with that one. Loved your self-parody, too. That's a sign of an honest content producer. I did like Bandersnatch but won't exactly be singing its praises either. Was fun to see your take on it, as always.
Perhaps as a game it's not ideal, but as a standalone episode it's one of the best of Black Mirror. The concepts of free will and choice permeate throughout, and the question of fate and destiny linger. And the meta awareness is one of the coolest aspects of this episode, and it is occasionally hilarious. I also think at various times we're told the reasoning and rationale behind what's going on. For instance, the reason that all choice don't go off like tree roots is because it's too complicated to do that for TV. It all goes the way it's supposed to. And the Netflix ending is meant to mock the people who want more action. And accepting Thakur's offer tells the ultra realists that if everything went as it would likely go in real life there wouldn't be much of a story. BTW if you make no decisions and let the it choose for you you'll get all five endings in the order Brooker likely wanted. I recommend doing it
the whole theme of this was not really having control over how the story ends, stefan even says it to his therapist when he talks about the player thinking they have control when they don’t, netflix did the same thing in giving us the illusion that we had many choices but in the end we went the way they wanted
This would have been a good idea but I never felt like I was watching a cohesive story. Instead it just felt like it was going through a list of scenes just to see what had been filmed, instead of a story I gollwed from the start to a logical end point.
With certain options, translated into its choose your own adventure roots would be: “if you choose option A, proceed to page 219. If you choose option B, proceed to page 219.”, in any book that would look lazy and unacceptable.
I don't have netflix, but the internet provided, I lost all the game aspect, but got to see a good chunk of the optional paths. Giving up by the third time most likely would have happened.
@samuel arthur Its not really a complaint with the show, but a flaw with the concept. Considering the number of people who lost interest after a while his statement is justified
@samuel arthur I felt the story was forced. If you play a game with this concept, you won't be told after every answer "oh, that's the wrong answer buddy. Let's go back so you can choose the option we want you to choose". When you play these kind of games, you choose an answer and the story will progress with the answer you picked. That's not what happened here. With every answer I picked, I was forced to go back and choose the other option and that's why I lost interest. I don't mean to complain, I love the BM series, but this one didn't do it for me.
@samuel arthur so if I go into something and comes out with an opinion that is different than your opinion is, then I'm not a fan of the show itself? Would you mind growing the fuck up before you answer me again?
Great analysis as always. Completely agree with you on this one, many things that clearly fell through. But the White Bear connection, YES!!! I got that immediately seeing the symbol when I watched. cheers x
I saw there where choses but I didn’t realize I can actually click like a video game. I noticed the option to rewind to previous choices but I just thought that Netflix trying to alter the feel of rewinding for the episodes immersion.
Also yes Black Mirror hid references to other episodes everywhere, including that reuse of a symbol from white bear, however in this context it represents Jerome F. Davies' theory on free will: two choices, splitting to create multiple realities. Its like an upside diwn fork.
I think the scene in the bookstore was just cut and so we don't see him paying, every bookstore I've gone to you pay Before it gets bagged so him paying just probably wasn't shown to us- we also didn't see him take the book off the shelf, there was a direct cut from him seeing the book to when his items are bagged- presumably after paying. really interesting video and ideas, though
The first Cinema experience that existentially shows the viewer the definition of insanity and what it is like to go insane. Because remember the definition of insanity is to repeat something over and over and expect a different outcome
Finally an intelleget and fun analysis to watch... I DESPISE those SHIT clickbait videos people upload right after the episode's release, talking about complete nonsense and missing out on a lot of information. Thank you very much for taking your time and making a great one :)
I think I would've hated Bandersnatch if I wasn't watching it with a couple of friends that I could joke about it with. Even with company I got pretty irritable an hour in when it became clear that none of my choices added up to anything and I kept running into dead ends. I ended up re-doing so many decisions that the illusion of choice was completely shattered.
It's strange how in the reality of the game he's aware that he's being controlled but unaware of who it is yet at the same time we're playing with his reality as we're being played by the game
I got to the ending where he chops up the body and completes the game, but the news reel does say that he was eventually caught and put in jail, then his game is pulled from shelves. That didn't seem like such a positive ending imo.
I wholeheartedly agree with everything in this video. Bandersnatch was an experiment, some elements are missing. I enjoyed it but there were moments that just felt off and trying to get all ending just became tedious 3 hrs into it. Also, there is an intended Netflix path, also known as the Apple TV path (because that doesn't allow for choices). Not that I condone it but if you don't have an Apple TV, you can find this version on pirating sites as it is the only one that is easily presentable. Edit: It's the phone ending. You bury dad and go to jail.
Deltarune does the same thing, initially. The idea that your choices don't matter in the overall scheme of it. At the end of the day it was just neat unlocking different scenarios. The excitement of it and actual good acting was enough to keep me engaged almost the entire way through. That and, it's not exactly the first adventure game to introduce you to at least a few choices that don't bear a significant impact on future choices. I kind of liked that something as insignificant as what music I like didn't dramatically change the ending.
I feel like the ending with colin’s daughter shows how this episode had to set on the ending that was true on how stefan did murder his father and the daughter had to make endings that made sense from stefan’s perspective. Possibly why there’s dead ends is because she doesn’t know how that’ll partake with the actions Stefan committed. Though this idea can be easily shrugged off with the netflix easter eggs which felt to ruin the immersion of only colin’s daughter making this game on her own similar to Stefan.
I thought it was really good. Maybe because i read a bunch choose your own adventure books so I knew immediately that certain choices would lead to dead ends. So i didn't go through the beginning of the film 3 times like you did.
Hi! I'm from the future! Not only did we get a season 5 (albeit one as long as the first two seasons) but it came out only 6 months after Bandersnatch!
Great review, it must have been hard playing that long lol. It's a cool Idea, I played through it twice from the start along with all the dead end time loops before got tired of it. I could never bring my self to kill the dad even though I got the pac timeline before I got the option to kill him. He was just so nice in all the other timelines.
I chose Stefan to jump off the building and closed the video there, it was boring me so much hitting dead ends and ended up hating the main dude, so I wanted him to die Edit: I believe there’s also 5 total hours of footage on this film thing, if you have a phone with 3D Touch, if you do it on bandersnatch it says like 5 hours
you are aware that since this is an actual film on netflix, you can simply fast forward all the scenes you have already seen? you tend to mention that you needed to rewatch some scenes
So i could be wrong, but i think the small stuff like cereal, song, and record change the later parts slightly and not so much affecting the immediate story
1. He paid off shot... Not difficult to realise that (he paid first, then it was put in a bag) 2. One thing I'm surprised you forgot to mention was some of the choices that appeared from things you already learnt. Like for example, in the segment where he chooses Netflix or White Bear symbol, depending on what you learnt through the White Bear choice, when you lose, you can go back and P.A.C.S is in place of the White Bear symbol (or is it netflix?) which I thought was kind of cool.
![[DOKKAN BATTLE] Worldwide Campaign Announcement Video](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zxfEiMksZQs/mqdefault.jpg)
Got a Doctor Who and Firefly video coming out before the end of this month. Also got a string of videos lined up for this year including Ghibli Analyses, Inside No.9 Revalyses, Fantastic Beasts reviews and more. Subscribe for all that fun to come in 2019!!!
If you won't be watching series 12 and doing 'Doctor Who DID IT SUCK' of it then could you do a classic who videos of did it suck.
I may be nit picking, but this is not the 1st Netflix has used the interactive feature. The 1st time I have seen it was in 2017 for a Puss and Boots story series. Apparently, the feature does well with kids, this however is still experimental with older audiences.
is the dr who video on the christmas special ??
im a twat, new year special
Love your videos and appreciate you calling the viewer as the "Player". I love how this series and how this episode in particular has broken new ground in both Cinema, interactive media, and especially how the viewer forward slash player can experience such an intellectual and psychology dilemma.
“It was better to strip it down, give the audience the illusion of choice. But I’m really the one in control”
That’s why some choices were the way they were; we really had no control in the first place.
Still better than Telltales choices.
exactly
Yes that's exactly what I thought, at first I was also frustrated that the choices didn't seem well made until I realized they were just a way of story telling that gets you into the story but with no real control
You sympathize with the main character more as you realize you aren’t really in control, neither is he, and that you’re both along for the ride. It also leads into the question, of how in control of ourselves are we? Are we doing things because they’re what we want, or because we’re expected to do them, or because other people have made choices for us?
Red Hellequin Yes! Exactly
Exactly!! I feel like Harry completely missed the mark with this video.
_I’m defrosting mince_
*hits you with Ashtray*
*YOU'VE GOT MINCE JUICE ON YOUR HANDS*
what even is mince
@@blitzthespittah3712 minced beef
Ya Boi McDonald it’s British for ground beef
I think part of the point is that you as the player actually don’t have that much of a choice; there is only a finite amount of decisions, and you’re only given the illusion of choice. You’re not as in control as Stefan seemingly think you are.
I don’t think this is justification for the draggy nature of the episode, but I think this was possibly a theme they were trying to play with.
It definitely was because the ending where Stefan kills his dad and chops him up he says exactly what you just said about the game. You also don't ever get away with murder like the guy in the video says and with the super secret endings while trying to remaster the game Pearl discovers that there really wasn't any true choice in this game and when she becomes angry you can choose whether she smashes her computer or throws tea over it.
thank you!!! i was looking for a comment like this because I strongly agree.
I feel like they played out your expectations deliberatly during for example the joint scene, where you would think you get to decide but then he just takes it from Colin. Or the slow realization after repetition of scenes that for a "successful" ending you NEED to chop up the dad.
Personally I thought this was a very clever way of tying the content/theme to the format, so it wouldn't just be a gimmick.
Was obviously a tab not a pill, for Gods sake Harry.
Yes, I believe it was acid. They were tripping.
@@kitty2karenlongjacket406 no it was a vitamin gummy
Someone's a goody goody
He clearly doesn't do the drugs.
@@LWolf12 I rate that from him
I want you to say "Did it Snatch?" in every video now
Headcanon: In this episode, it is shown very clearly that Colin creates a game for Tucker Industries (or whatever the company is exactly called) named Metalhead. This made me think, what if the episode in series 4 named Metalhead is also a game? My idea is that the Callister corporation in series 4 episode 1 (U.S.S. Callister) put a lot of money into virtual reality gaming, and that one of their projects was to create open-world VR experiences based on classic games. The whole episode of Metalhead is just someone playing an updated VR version of the gaming classic, and the game has been stylized into a black and white aesthetic to pay homage to the more classic era of gaming that the original Metalhead game premiered in.
Literally exactly what I thought.. In the episode metalhed she runs into random people, who are also running, but with zero communication throught the entire episode.. and she kills herself at the end with all those trackers in her.. crazy way to look at this.
They're just supposed to be Easter eggs.
It’s not that deep mate. Good on you but just Easter eggs.
If that theory was true (which I doubt it is) then there'd be another logical flaw as Nozedive was a game too, and I doubt anyone would make that such a different game. They're just Easter Eggs.
Duh... Yes it was revealed to be a game here...
If I'm understanding it right, you're criticizing it because there's... Not enough choice?
Isn't that the point?
I think the criticism is that they prioritised the point, without the game/film being enjoyable first, which is the purpose of this form of media
@@alfiehaigh8412
I don't know, it's subjective. I'm pretty sure a lot of people still liked it. If they also brought their point across, which seems to be the case, they succeeded.
Anyway, wasn't this channel about analyzing the meaning of the episodes and not saying if he liked it or not?
@@fiso64 well aye you're right, but this isn't "the consensus populations review of bandersnatch" this is his review, and it's evident that he enjoys the black mirror episodes so probably didn't really need to bring up the factor of enjoyment, whereas in this I don't think he enjoyed it as much
@@fiso64 that happens when you have nothing to analyze
I’d also add it’s incredibly antithetical to the very idea of Babdersnatch’s presentation. I mean it’s a choose your own adventure game about how you have no choice. Explain how that works to me.
It’s a bold decision but it just makes the creators seem lazy when you hit a dead end leading to my second point.
The movie just causing you to go back whenever you make s choice it doesn’t want changes the viewing dynamic in a negative way, reducing finding cool scenarios and choices to a tedious endeavour. It’s as if you’re going through it and Charlie Brooker smacks the controller out of your hand because you picked the wrong option.
Does ANYBODY realize that this episode LITERALLY is the embodiment of the human mind descending into madness?! Why the repeating decisions will eventually lead to such an inevitable outcome just to see the credits is absolutely unprecedented; as well as mind-blowing and sincerely groundbreaking! The evolution of technology and that evolution of cinema period
Bandersnatch is simply a story of a young man slowly losing his mind to some (or a couple) mental disorder. The whole interactive element is just a symptom of his condition (he begins to notice it himself, and even talks to you as he gets worse) and the branching pathways are a way of showing how his skewed mind is currently viewing reality e.g “did that really happen?” & on that basis it’s a fantastically dark story.
i think one of the themes of the show is the illusion of choice - while stefan isnt in control of his actions, and neither is the viewer really. In reality, we are still herded towards similar outcomes no matter which options we choose, and thats why some of our options have the same outcome regardless, like the dropping acid option. In the ‘good’ ending where stefan’s game gets a 5 star rating, its because stefan removed most of the pathways in bandersnatch, telling the story that he wanted, while players still had the illusion of choice.
Every choice we make in life is the summary of past experience- does that limit free will?
i thought it was really good if you look at it as an illusion of freewill
Netflix did confirm that Season 5 is still coming.
It probably shouldn't have 😕
season 5 was shit
The whole thing was about the multiverse and the illusion of control, one of the most terrifying concepts of determinism you can find.
You're not in control of Bandersnatch. You never were. You're the one abusing the sci-fi technology in this episode, because you're forced to.
I may be totally off on this BUT I got the idea that there was an ethical dilemma. In past black mirror episodes such as SSR Callister, one character controlling the others in a simulation seemed a bit familiar. This time, we were the ones controlling someone else’s free will. It was flipped so we were the ones in control, not just bystanders. To make us think about if simulations like the one Elon Musk says we’re in is ethical.
I feel like people are praising the gimmick and not the product, use the interactive thing for a reason
This video is a criticism not an analysis
The comment is a critism, that is my analysis
@@bonkosuckacocka983 Good analysis of my criticism, I didn't title it as an analysis. and fuckin' hell this is already 2 years old wtf
@@DR-xt5jq yes soon we'll be dead with no idea we ever existed at all
I love the format but found the content a little disappointing. I was hoping it would give more of the black mirror feel that leaves you shook. The endings weren't overly satisfying or shocking. But I suppose it takes a while for any new ideas in media to be fully realised. I hope they try this format again even if it isn't as meta.
I feel like the problem was the endings didn't feel like a black mirror episode. It was pretty fun and interesting but as a black mirror episode it isn't that good.
It was kind of dark, but it didn't give you that pit in your stomach that you get from other episodes. It wasn't scary enough for me.
what part of chopping up your dad and having his body parts all over the house whilst finishing the game did not leave you shook lmao. I guess we find different things shocking
This was more of a commentary on society and humanity as it depicts the illusion of free will. I feel like in that sense, it was similar to The National Anthem, another BM that did not heavily rely on technology or high concepts. I found the story-telling compelling and shocking, but to each their own, I suppose.
Idk to me everyone focused on the gimmick but the episode totally had a moral dilemma, it’s all about the illusion of free will that’s what we intentionally had dead ends like that, we as the “player” believe we have actual free will, but we really don’t at all, we believe we are controlling Stefan but we don’t, no matter how messed up you want his life to be or how nice you want his life to go there’s only so much you can do, there is sort of this underlying theme of how we are all doomed, fate ultimately has its way and we can’t really do much about it, some people are destined to become murderers or to die young and that is one scary thing to know you can’t do anything about it, to me the real endings were the one when we chop up the dad and get 5 stars and the one with the mother, both are very compelling and black mirror Esque, and close off the narrative satisfyingly, I think that your viewing experience suffered from the mere though of “oh I need to discover every single black mirror secret and option” when playing instead of trying to get the best narrative , which I can’t blame you for it but then again it’s the same thing, you focused too much in the gimmick instead of the narrative
totally agree
Exactly
why don't you try sentences instead of one big run on sentence dumbass
Exactly!!! This episode had such an interesting and deep message for the audience to reflect on I wish more people would focus on that because it was actually so well done!!
I think Stefan is in a prison, like white bear. The same day being repeated and wiping his memory after each day, like Victoria from white bear.
That is exactly what I think but more like white Christmas where he’s a cookie. You can always tell the cookie from reality because the cookie is the only thing out of place from its environment
no
How could it be ? They would have to rely on Stefan to make money for the park -- why would they have a risk losing him in the decision to jump over and kill Stefan ?
Qufox It is okay for him to jump. I think he is a cookie in the movie in an endless simulation like White Christmas or like Carrie in the monkey.. I find this theory interesting because
In an episode it it usually reveal it is a cookie not the actual person. Having the White Bear symbol in there makes the theory oh so much better. People in a park aka us are controlling endless cookie copies of Stefan..
Ok, but for what crime?
Bandersnatch is so layered. To me, we "play" a cookie, he's in a virtual world and self aware. It's supposed to show entertainment of the future and the thought that in the future we "torture" quasi living (virtual) beings for entertainment is disgusting. But, we today, motivated by our curiosity, keep playing the game, getting more and more hints that he's suffering in the process. But we keep playing. It's just a movie and not real after all. Just like in the future, people will say he's just a cookie and keep playing.
I was actually watching a bunch of your previous Black Mirror videos while waiting for this to come out…
Personally, I think the whole point of Bandersnatch can best be summed up in the "5-star rating" ending - Stefan tells his therapist that he wasn't able to finish the game before precisely because he gave the player too much choice; he is able to finally finish the game in time for the deadline by giving the player the illusion of choice but in reality "[he] controls the ending". It's exactly the same for the version of the game we play: the "official" endings (not just dead ends leading to resets but endings that lead to the credits) are always predetermined and we are always being somehow herded towards any one of them, we will always have to make Stefan murder his father, Stefan's finished game will always be surrounded by controversy, Stefan himself will never live a happy life.
The first couple of choices being completely insignificant and unquestioningly obeyed lulls us into having a false sense of power which is slowly and increasingly erased the longer we play. We as the player/viewer are simultaneously a character and an observer within the world of the game and, since we are a character, there are certain rules we are governed by no matter how hard we try to rebel against them - we are in a position of power over Stefan but there is still something in a position of power over us and we are the equivalent of Stefan to that script. We are basically merely one "branch" above the people we're watching and controlling, emphasised in the "meta" ending where we're given a choice over Colin's daughter to either spill tea on her computer or smash the computer up, but both choices will lead to the same outcome of her ultimately destroying the game. It's the epitome of the illusion of choice with one fixed predetermined outcome.
yall are so picky cant you just appreciate how cool and innovative a choose your own path film is? i watched it 3 times choosing different paths every time bc i was so excited i don't get how people are so impatient/annoyed by all the paths when they voluntarily chose to watch the film.
As someone who purchased and continually pays for Netflix as a service I expect a solid product. With this in mind I can choose to criticise something if I’m not enjoying what they put out.
picky? guess you'll just watch any bullshit and aren't capable of an original thought of your own? it was gimmicky bullshit, it was annoying. so stfu
Not saying your way of viewing it was wrong or anything but I’d like to share my opinion, doubt you’re gonna read it but let’s give it a go. When I played Bandersnatch I played it like a movie where I had some choice, not thinking of it as a game per se. I went on to the the different paths as netflix returned me back with dead ends or endings, spent probably an hour and a half in all, and enjoyed it a lot, got really deep into the story. I saw the choice more as a device of story telling rather than me controlling a game, and I really enjoyed it. I think maybe your expectations made you not enjoy it as much as you could have, anyways, it’s not your fault.
the Technical dilemma is the viewer themselves who use netflix to torture this person for our own amusement
The first time I watched this I started to get paranoid
Calls lucy a "pill" its paper with lad dripped on it. Otherwise known as a "hit". (Unless theres a misunderstanding inwhich your local dialect call it that in which case apologies)
This was a real trip playing through this while being high with friends. I even started to think "what if everyone I knew was just an actor"? lol good times
I'd go with Pheaora by Tangerine Dream, a minor classic album. Tomita however was well past his artistic peak by the time he released that Bermuda Triangle concept LP.
Plus it's just a way better song
Then there's me who just wanted to play Life on Mars off of David Bowie's Aladdin Sane in the background. Quite in theme that I could not choose it.
I think they changed Bandersnatch on Netflix. When I first accepted the offer, the replay was a fast forwarded highlight.
I didn't get a choice for burying or chopping up the body. He went directly to burying it.
I might rewatch it again.
Did anyone get the option to type in the numbers when the therapist says, “the numbers are right in front of you”?
I did, but only once and I got it wrong. Never been able to find it since
Yessss, I got it right but just hit a dead ends a little bit later
when I first watched this I didn't realise you had to pick options until about half way through
Been waiting for this from you 💕
LOL... Glad you are also familiar with the classic Choose Your Own Adventure. That montage of book covers took me back to my childhood.
Your experience with Bandersnatch was very much like mine. I tried to be nice until I realized that this was Black Mirror and I needed to be edgy and dark. You said much the same thing, but in a much more entertaining way.
Your hedge maze analogy was spot on. I did want to explore more choices but simply got bored. I just didn't have time to slog through everything.
And lol about not paying. You got me with that one.
Loved your self-parody, too. That's a sign of an honest content producer.
I did like Bandersnatch but won't exactly be singing its praises either. Was fun to see your take on it, as always.
So happy this is finally here 🙌
i keep getting all those other black mirror videos in my recommendations but yours are the only ones i'll watch
i was desperately waiting for your analysis!!!!!!!!!!!111
Perhaps as a game it's not ideal, but as a standalone episode it's one of the best of Black Mirror. The concepts of free will and choice permeate throughout, and the question of fate and destiny linger. And the meta awareness is one of the coolest aspects of this episode, and it is occasionally hilarious. I also think at various times we're told the reasoning and rationale behind what's going on. For instance, the reason that all choice don't go off like tree roots is because it's too complicated to do that for TV. It all goes the way it's supposed to. And the Netflix ending is meant to mock the people who want more action. And accepting Thakur's offer tells the ultra realists that if everything went as it would likely go in real life there wouldn't be much of a story. BTW if you make no decisions and let the it choose for you you'll get all five endings in the order Brooker likely wanted. I recommend doing it
Great video, Harry. I really enjoyed this one.
the whole theme of this was not really having control over how the story ends, stefan even says it to his therapist when he talks about the player thinking they have control when they don’t, netflix did the same thing in giving us the illusion that we had many choices but in the end we went the way they wanted
You have no idea how excited I was for this analysis.
This would have been a good idea but I never felt like I was watching a cohesive story. Instead it just felt like it was going through a list of scenes just to see what had been filmed, instead of a story I gollwed from the start to a logical end point.
According to the website Digital spy Charlie Brooker has confirmed that Banderanatch did have easter eggs for Season 5.
Brooker already confirmed we are getting season 5 in 2019, he said the whole thing has been filmed
With certain options, translated into its choose your own adventure roots would be: “if you choose option A, proceed to page 219. If you choose option B, proceed to page 219.”, in any book that would look lazy and unacceptable.
I don't have netflix, but the internet provided, I lost all the game aspect, but got to see a good chunk of the optional paths. Giving up by the third time most likely would have happened.
There's too many dead ends. I really like the idea of it being a game, but after my 4th dead end, I lost interest and found something else to watch.
Its sad that that happened to me imagine how many others just left
Exactly man i completely lost interest
@samuel arthur Its not really a complaint with the show, but a flaw with the concept. Considering the number of people who lost interest after a while his statement is justified
@samuel arthur I felt the story was forced. If you play a game with this concept, you won't be told after every answer "oh, that's the wrong answer buddy. Let's go back so you can choose the option we want you to choose". When you play these kind of games, you choose an answer and the story will progress with the answer you picked. That's not what happened here. With every answer I picked, I was forced to go back and choose the other option and that's why I lost interest. I don't mean to complain, I love the BM series, but this one didn't do it for me.
@samuel arthur so if I go into something and comes out with an opinion that is different than your opinion is, then I'm not a fan of the show itself? Would you mind growing the fuck up before you answer me again?
6:53 ah yes a pill 💀
6:14
they added a protagonist voice in their new games.
Great analysis as always. Completely agree with you on this one, many things that clearly fell through. But the White Bear connection, YES!!! I got that immediately seeing the symbol when I watched. cheers x
Bandersnatch seriously reminded me of Zero Escape, particularly Virtue’s Last Reward
same Zero escape is special
I saw there where choses but I didn’t realize I can actually click like a video game. I noticed the option to rewind to previous choices but I just thought that Netflix trying to alter the feel of rewinding for the episodes immersion.
Also yes Black Mirror hid references to other episodes everywhere, including that reuse of a symbol from white bear, however in this context it represents Jerome F. Davies' theory on free will: two choices, splitting to create multiple realities. Its like an upside diwn fork.
I think the scene in the bookstore was just cut and so we don't see him paying, every bookstore I've gone to you pay Before it gets bagged so him paying just probably wasn't shown to us- we also didn't see him take the book off the shelf, there was a direct cut from him seeing the book to when his items are bagged- presumably after paying. really interesting video and ideas, though
I'd read somewhere that we are indeed getting a season five, and that Bandersnatch wasn't all we're getting this year
The first Cinema experience that existentially shows the viewer the definition of insanity and what it is like to go insane. Because remember the definition of insanity is to repeat something over and over and expect a different outcome
Great video. The whole concept sounds interesting.
Been waiting on this vid
Finally an intelleget and fun analysis to watch... I DESPISE those SHIT clickbait videos people upload right after the episode's release, talking about complete nonsense and missing out on a lot of information. Thank you very much for taking your time and making a great one :)
I think I would've hated Bandersnatch if I wasn't watching it with a couple of friends that I could joke about it with. Even with company I got pretty irritable an hour in when it became clear that none of my choices added up to anything and I kept running into dead ends. I ended up re-doing so many decisions that the illusion of choice was completely shattered.
The lion on the LSD actually more resembles the illustrations of the bandersnatch from Lewis Carroll's books.
I thought the good ending was finding the bear as young boy and then dying on the train with his mother was the good ending.
Yay, been waiting for you to do this!
The day has come
Stefan - another permanent guest in _Black Mirror_ heaven :(
Just watched all of your videos and look forward to anything else you make, keep up the good work 🌟
Its been confirmed there is a season 5 on the way for a while now.
It's strange how in the reality of the game he's aware that he's being controlled but unaware of who it is yet at the same time we're playing with his reality as we're being played by the game
Finally. I’ve been waiting for this
Cool video:D
Will you be making doctor who season 11 of new who episode 11?
I got to the ending where he chops up the body and completes the game, but the news reel does say that he was eventually caught and put in jail, then his game is pulled from shelves. That didn't seem like such a positive ending imo.
Was waiting for this thanks man
I wholeheartedly agree with everything in this video. Bandersnatch was an experiment, some elements are missing. I enjoyed it but there were moments that just felt off and trying to get all ending just became tedious 3 hrs into it.
Also, there is an intended Netflix path, also known as the Apple TV path (because that doesn't allow for choices). Not that I condone it but if you don't have an Apple TV, you can find this version on pirating sites as it is the only one that is easily presentable.
Edit: It's the phone ending. You bury dad and go to jail.
Deltarune does the same thing, initially. The idea that your choices don't matter in the overall scheme of it. At the end of the day it was just neat unlocking different scenarios. The excitement of it and actual good acting was enough to keep me engaged almost the entire way through. That and, it's not exactly the first adventure game to introduce you to at least a few choices that don't bear a significant impact on future choices. I kind of liked that something as insignificant as what music I like didn't dramatically change the ending.
I feel like the ending with colin’s daughter shows how this episode had to set on the ending that was true on how stefan did murder his father and the daughter had to make endings that made sense from stefan’s perspective. Possibly why there’s dead ends is because she doesn’t know how that’ll partake with the actions Stefan committed. Though this idea can be easily shrugged off with the netflix easter eggs which felt to ruin the immersion of only colin’s daughter making this game on her own similar to Stefan.
Colin is literally just billy idol
Was waiting for this for so long
Yaaaaay! Finally! Thank you so much, Harry!!!
I thought it was really good. Maybe because i read a bunch choose your own adventure books so I knew immediately that certain choices would lead to dead ends. So i didn't go through the beginning of the film 3 times like you did.
Couldn't have been said better
Imagine this as s Time Variant game in the MCU
Hi! I'm from the future! Not only did we get a season 5 (albeit one as long as the first two seasons) but it came out only 6 months after Bandersnatch!
Great review, it must have been hard playing that long lol. It's a cool Idea, I played through it twice from the start along with all the dead end time loops before got tired of it. I could never bring my self to kill the dad even though I got the pac timeline before I got the option to kill him. He was just so nice in all the other timelines.
... He "gets away with murder"? Fucking lawl
Finally 😀 you did one on this 💖💖💖
I've been waiting for this
For me, I will probably never like passive and interactive media blended together. It just never works for me.
We are getting a Season 5, thank god, and Charlie Brooker said it’s “imminent-ish”.
LOL! I accepted the offer twice too!
I chose Stefan to jump off the building and closed the video there, it was boring me so much hitting dead ends and ended up hating the main dude, so I wanted him to die
Edit: I believe there’s also 5 total hours of footage on this film thing, if you have a phone with 3D Touch, if you do it on bandersnatch it says like 5 hours
I hope they do more movies that are interactive like this. I loved it
When you defrost mince
you are aware that since this is an actual film on netflix, you can simply fast forward all the scenes you have already seen? you tend to mention that you needed to rewatch some scenes
Great video Harry.
The movie final destination 3 did it first, if you buy the dvd there’s a feature to flip a coin to choose there deaths!
So i could be wrong, but i think the small stuff like cereal, song, and record change the later parts slightly and not so much affecting the immediate story
attack of the graske was my shit when i was younger
1. He paid off shot... Not difficult to realise that (he paid first, then it was put in a bag)
2. One thing I'm surprised you forgot to mention was some of the choices that appeared from things you already learnt.
Like for example, in the segment where he chooses Netflix or White Bear symbol, depending on what you learnt through the White Bear choice, when you lose, you can go back and P.A.C.S is in place of the White Bear symbol (or is it netflix?) which I thought was kind of cool.
Netflix have confirmed that season 5 is coming