“Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” is the ambitious, provocative, sometimes frustrating story of a young man wrestling with his sanity as he tries to design a “Choose Your Own Adventure”-style video game in time for Christmas 1984. You, the viewer, help him make key decisions along the way, just like in the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books.
The title is drawn from the works of Lewis Carroll, who is famous for writing about rabbit holes, and a stuffed rabbit is essential to the plot — or rather, plots. Netflix has marketed “Bandersnatch” as a film, but it’s a video game, too, in the sense that the simple decisions you make along the way — through clicks on your laptop, phone or whatever — help decide which way certain scenes go.
Your clicks take the lead character, Stefan (Fionn Whitehead), in divergent-but-not-that-divergent directions, leading to several possible storylines and endings.
In all of the versions of the movie/game that I’ve watched/played so far, Stefan’s mother died because of a fight with his father over Stefan’s childhood fixation with a stuffed rabbit; Stefan and his father have a testy relationship that gets ugly; and Stefan is told, while creating his video game, that life itself is something of a game in which we come to numerous forks in the road, and that these forks split off into different alternate realities.
The notion that everything will happen somewhere, somehow — no matter what we decide to do — suggests that free will is irrelevant. The multiple-realities theory frees us from consequences, and opens up scary questions, like: Why not kill your loved ones? There’s still another reality in which they’re still alive. (Please don’t stop reading here, because this way of thinking is insane.)
The concept of multiple realities is not at all new — see “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Back to the Future II” for details — but “Bandersnatch” writer and “Black Mirror” creator Charlie Brooker use the video game metaphor to illustrate the idea perfectly.
Video games, unlike real life, really do contain different preordained, programmed versions of what happens each of them dependent on the decisions you render through clicks. You create one reality by moving left and one by moving right. If this were true in real life, too, you could go mad as a hatter thinking about all the alternate realities you’re constantly missing out on — the one where you married your prom date, took that other job or moved to Peru.
But that’s an egotistical — and exhausting — way of looking at the world. In real life, reality is made up of the decisions of billions of people, not just you. Whether you go left or right — or order Sugar Puffs or Frosties, the first decision you have to make for Stefan in “Bandersnatch” — doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of your life.
Almost all of our decisions are only micro-decisions that only collectively decide bigger things — like whether the left or right lane will have more traffic, and whether the good people who make Sugar Puffs or Frosties will get fat Christmas bonuses. Luckily for your sanity, your decisions don’t amount to much. You’re just part of a mass collective making those decisions.
“Bandersnatch” brilliantly plays with the indulgent/narcissistic/dangerous idea that you are the sole decision-maker. Kurt Vonnegut’s “Breakfast of Champions” is probably the gold standard of this kind of story: One character decides that only he is real, and everyone else is a machine. This frees up the narrator to do horrible things, and treat other humans like machines, or, perhaps, like characters in a video game.
People living today may be especially susceptible to the delusion that only you are real because our phones, laptops and Netflix accounts all cater to this delusion, constantly adjusting as best as they can to our often-changing likes and whims. If I sign up for the fairly responsive Yahoo news feed, for example, I’ll find that a surprising amount of national news is about Batman — because Yahoo’s algorithms have figured out that I like Batman. For you, it might be Harry Potter. Yahoo’s engineers have helped us build our own bubbles.
Madness lies in forgetting we’re in bubbles.
Good video games build vast worlds, and make us forget that someone else built them. So does “Bandersnatch.” I love the characters, the music, the aesthetic — all the things I like about, say, “Spider-Man” for PlayStation 4, the only video game I’ve played this year. But I didn’t feel like a winner while playing “Spider-Man.” I mostly walked into walls.
I also felt enfeebled during “Bandersnatch” — which I think was the intent.
The most questionable decision Brooker makes comes in one version of the story in which Stefan realizes he’s being controlled by someone watching Netflix. That someone, of course, is you. And me.
You could read this as annoyingly self-referential, and initially I did too. But thinking about it more, I think Brooker was being subversive — biting the hand that streams him. He is pointing out that you and I — snug and smug in our beds, controlling the course of “Bandersnatch” with a series of clicks — are complicit in fictional Stefan’s sense that he’s being watched.
But also: I quickly came to sense that I was pitiful to think that my remote gave me any real power. That’s because “Bandersnatch” follows roughly the same story arc no matter what plot I guide it toward. I only have the illusion of free will. The only one with a godlike power — omniscience — is Netflix.
Companies routinely track our online behavior, and then regurgitate our preferences back to us, sometimes as content we like and sometimes as eerily familiar advertising. With “Bandersnatch” alone, Netflix could track my tolerance for drawn-out narratives and repetition — data that might be helpful for a company that wants to dominate entertainment across the globe.
It could determine whether I prefer Sugar Puffs or Frosties — or other products ripe for placement. More personally, my clicks during “Bandersnatch” could reveal whether I prefer conflict or resolution, and violence or ultraviolence. (At different points we get to decide if Stefan should choke someone or kick him in the crotch, and whether to bury a body or chop it up.)
Netflix and other companies can turn us from viewers into guinea pigs as we giddily click away. Does that sound insane in an era when Russian hackers try to use Facebook to swing elections?
(Netflix did not immediately email back when I asked about data mining.)
It’s worth noting that “Bandersnatch” isn’t the first Netflix program to offer “Choose Your Own Adventure”-style programming. Netflix has used this approach before with children’s programs, including “Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Fairy Tale,” in which kids click left or right to guide the narrative.
“Black Mirror” has always been a warning about how our human flaws interface with technology we may not be prepared for, never more so than today. For all my sense of control over “Bandersnatch,” “Bandersnatch” controlled me. I’ve rarely felt so powerless in the face of a film, or TV show, or video game. It had a message I couldn’t avoid, and lucky for me, that message was a benevolent warning.
Pity the future child whose clicks reveal a fixation with rabbits, or anything else.
Dark rabbit holes await.
'Striking Vipers' to 'San Junipero': Every 'Black Mirror' Episode Ranked, From Good to Mind-Blowing (Photos)
With the arrival of "Striking Vipers," "Smithereens" and “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too,” it's time to re-rank every episode of "Black Mirror," going back to the first episode, "National Anthem." There are no bad "Black Mirror" episodes, so we ranked them from good to mind-blowing.
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23. Season 2, Episode 3: "The Waldo Moment"
Many have made the now-trite observation that this episode, about a cartoon bear who insults his way into higher office, predicted the rise of Donald Trump. OK. This episode does a good job of again showing that we bend too easily before the loud and obnoxious. But "Black Mirror" usually has more novel things to say.
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22. Season 3, Episode 6: "Hated in the Nation"
It's disappointing that "Black Mirror" Season 3 -- one of the best TV seasons ever -- ended with a story that feels a little like "Sharknado." Great acting, though, and it can be taken as a friendly reminder not to cancel people over tweets.
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21. Season 5, Episode 2: "Smithereens"
Topher Grace's lovely performance as a tech guru who hates beeps, bloops and push notifications as much as you do saves this from being a pretty run-of-the-mill hostage drama. But it is a "Black Mirror" episode that could happen right now, in the present day, and we always like when the show pulls that off.
20. Season 2, Episode 2: "White Bear"
Sure, this one's scary, but it's just scary. There's some "Purge"-quality social commentary here, and that's nice. But "Black Mirror" is usually smarter. ("Black Mirror" creator Charlie Brooker seems pleased with this episode, though: "Bandersnatch" calls back to it aggressively.)
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19. Season 3, Episode 2: "Playtest"
This episode relies too much on typical scares to be among our favorites. The sudden turn into real-life horror is more affecting than the haunted house scenes.
18. Season 5, Episode 3: “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too”
This feels like the umpteenth episode of "Black Mirror" in which someone's digital soul becomes trapped outside his or her body. This time the victim is pop star Ashley (Miley Cyrus! We like her), who ends up inside a robot toy owned by one of her adoring fans. A caper to reunite mind and body ensues, making this one of the funniest episodes of "Black Mirror." It feels deliberately light, and it's charming, but nothing about it will haunt you except Ashley's cheery take on a Nine Inch Nails classic.
17. Season 2, Episode 1: "Be Right Back"
We recommend this episode, and all the ones that follow, with zero reservations. Starring Hayley Atwell and Domhnall Gleeson, "Be Right Back" is another look at the qualities that make us us.
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16. Season 4, Episode 2: "Arkangel"
This episode has the best setup of any "Black Mirror," and seems poised to launch a savage critique of over-parenting. But it doesn't escalate as much as we expected it to, and can't quite live up to its brilliant concept.
15. Season 1, Episode 2: "Fifteen Million Merits"
This twist on "American Idol"-style mobs is gorgeously acted by Jessica Brown Findlay and a pre-"Get Out" Daniel Kaluuya, and their chemistry helps sell familiar lessons about literal cycles of exploitation. We think about this episode every time we ride an exercise bike, which probably isn't often enough.
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14. Season 1, Episode 1: "National Anthem"
This mean little story feels all the meaner because it's so easy to imagine it happening in real life. It's a perfect first episode, because there's no better test of whether "Black Mirror" is for you.
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13. Season 4, Episode 6: "Black Museum"
“Black Museum” references every past episode in the anthology, but the ruthlessness with which it merges three vignettes into one nasty story. Letitia Wright and Douglas Hodge counter the ugliness with some beautiful acting.
12. Season 4, Episode 5: Metalhead
Hey, Alexa: Is this episode just a stripped-down survival story? Or a grim warning that our reliance on Amazon is a slippery slope into Terminator dogs chasing us down across a hellscape Earth? Just asking.
11. Season 4, Episode 3: "Crocodile"
If Alfred Hitchcock had done a "Black Mirror" episode, it would go pretty much like this. A frosty blonde antihero (Andrea Riseborough) tries to outsmart a relentless insurance adjuster. A rodent gets involved.
10. Season 2, Episode 4: "White Christmas"
If you're dreaming of a black Christmas, this showcase for madman Jon Hamm combines two imaginary technologies -- one of which allows you to "block" people in real life -- to tell one of grayest stories ever told. Sentiment-free, it's the most "Black Mirror" episode of "Black Mirror."
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9. Season 4, Episode 4: "Hang the DJ"
Boy and girl meet cute in The System, which is designed to find “true matches.” If you and your better half are fighting over complicated wedding plans and too-high expectations, stop and watch this episode and remember you don't owe anything to anyone but each other.
"Hang the DJ" is probably the sweetest episode of "Black Mirror," and is therefore not our favorite.
8. Season 3, Episode 3: "Shut Up and Dance"
No episode of "Black Mirror" will leave you feeling worse about humanity than this one. The ultimate prank is on you. Oh, also? It could happen. Similar things have already happened.
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7. Season 4, Episode 1: USS Callister
This one makes the Top 5 on sweep and ambition alone. And it's one of many episodes that remind us to never let anyone make a digital copy of your soul. Stars Jesse Plemons and Cristin Milioti should be in everything.
6. Standalone movie: "Bandersnatch"
By far the most ambitious "Black Mirror," "Bandersnatch" does something never before attempted in serious drama, using the "Choose Your Own Adventure" format to ask provocative questions about free will and power. Part film, part video game, it's incredibly impressive, and builds a complicated, stunning alternate-reality 1984 that we're still navigating. The one flaw is that the lack of a consistent narrative makes it hard to completely engage with the characters.
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5. Season 3, Episode 1: "Nosedive"
This is the episode that probably hits closest to home: We think about it every time we get in a Lyft or consider writing a negative Yelp review. The Bryce Dallas Howard story is a perfect sendup of our obsession with social-media approval. As soon as it ended we tweeted how much we loved it, then waited to see if anyone would retweet us, and... why didn't they? What's wrong with them? What's wrong with us?
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4. Season 5, Episode 1: "Striking Vipers"
One of the best written and acted episodes, with an especially good turn by Nicole Beharie as a woman trying to figure out what's wrong in her marriage. What's wrong is very hard to explain, but it revolves around a video game obsession shared by her husband (Anthony Mackie) and his former roommate (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). This is one of the scariest episodes of "Black Mirror," because the fear of a relationship disintegrating is so well-grounded. But there's also a beautiful resolution.
3. Episode 3, Season 5: "Men Against Fire"
We don't say this lightly: This episodes stands alongside "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Full Metal Jacket" as one of the best stories about how war really works. (Even though the speech about how most soldiers don't fire their weapons might be totally wrong.)
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2. Season 3, Episode 4: "San Junipero"
No other story better captures the 1980s' pulsing mix of hope, heartache, cruelty and perfect pop music. It's another episode that could have been a Best Picture, and it may be the best single episode of television at capturing raw emotion. (It also feels joyously defiant that this story of colorblind LGBT love was filmed in South Africa, a former bastion of government-mandated bigotry.)
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1. Season 1, Episode 3: "The Entire History of You"
If you've ever been in a relationship with anyone who's been in another relationship, this one will crush you. Should life be lived, or remembered? And can you separate the living from the remembering? We think of this episode every time our memories fail us -- or serve us much too well.
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There are no bad episodes of ”Black Mirror,“ but only one of the new episodes is among the best
With the arrival of "Striking Vipers," "Smithereens" and “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too,” it's time to re-rank every episode of "Black Mirror," going back to the first episode, "National Anthem." There are no bad "Black Mirror" episodes, so we ranked them from good to mind-blowing.