Bandersnatch

Bandersnatch 

Okay, I decided to “watch/play” the Dark Mirror special.  I grew up in the 80s when there were a bunch of Choose Your Adventure books.  I always seemed to picked the terrible choices and ended up with the bad endings.  I spent about two hours choosing different paths and some of them went completely off the rails.  And, that is a lot of fun, and it is the same fun you have with Mass Effect series and the old text-based gaming series.  

Bandersnatch clearly pays tribute to this brand of storytelling.  It has that DM twist where the episode turns very meta and creepy depending on the story choices you make.  The balance between mind-f-ery and truly government conspiracy.  You have to make your own mind if the various things presented are real or not.  All of them have the support of being real within the world.   

You have time travel, a demon, and alt-times hinted at through the episode.  There are even hints of a Groundhog Day concept too!  And, there is even a damn special Netflix ending that even has major branching endings!  I am going to have to play around with the choices again as I replay the episode.   

The concept is brilliant and strange in that Dark Mirror manner.  The branching storytelling is really a neat idea and fun to take.  And, there certain other issues start to appear with the choices you make during your run.  Bandersnatch is fun and a throwback to the old school Choose Your Adventure stories.   

Grade: B+