Netflix Won’t Give You the Choice to Save Bandersnatch

An early moment in Black Mirror’s 2018 episode Bandersnatch prompts the viewer to decide Stefan’s (Fionn Whitehead) breakfast cereal: He can choose between two different sugary cereals. The margins onscreen narrow allowing the viewer to click (using a trackpad or a remote) and select the option before the episode continues on. This was a fitting feature for an episode about a young programmer designing a Choose Your Own Adventure game and for Black Mirror, a show that continues to explore the manipulative and frightening downsides to life overburdened with technology. Bandersnatch was the gold standard for Netflix’s interactive content, in part due to its thematic connections and its holiday-season release, but the feature began with a 2017 short titled Puss in Book starring the swashbuckling feline spun off the Shrek films. As the streaming economy grew increasingly crowded in the late 2010s, the interactive nature of a handful of hallmark Netflix programs felt like one of few ways the site could set itself apart.

Last December, however, Netflix purged most of its interactive content — including Puss in Book — with only a handful of titles remaining. After May 12, Bandersnatch and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend will leave the platform, What’s On Netflix shared. Both Bandersnatch and Kimmy vs. the Reverend were stand-alone episodes, though the latter was a capstone to the four-season sitcom (not a necessary episode in terms of the show’s arc). Neither Netflix, Charlie Brooker, nor Tina Fey responded to a request for comment.

These titles leaving the platform, occurring in tandem with Netflix’s new homepage, feels like an auspicious sign of shifts in the streaming economy. The redesigned landing page will still feature TV and movies, but the streamer is also keen to emphasize its live events and games. There’s one more weekend for you to navigate your way through both Bandersnatch and Kimmy vs. the Reverend, which means you’ll have to make up your mind sooner than later about how those stories should end. Whether those episodes will live on in a noninteractive way remains to be seen. Maybe Netflix will leave that choice up to us.

Related

• Why Netflix Had to Redesign Its Homepage
• A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Review of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
• Kimmy Schmidt vs. the Reverend Is What Interactive TV Was Made For