Bandersnatch and the Paxman
Thoughts on gaming, naming, and interactive media
Note: This post includes some spoilers for “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch”.
Recently, I developed a questionable habit of browsing the trending topics on Twitter. I generally dislike that platform, so I follow no one and only use it to post links to my own work. But the social network has taken on such outsize importance, particularly in the U.S., that I look out of curiosity to see what topics others are most talking about.
Yesterday I saw “Bandersnatch” trending, with an explanation provided by Twitter that this was an interactive episode of the Netflix show Black Mirror. As a fan of this dystopian program, I was intrigued. I’ve seen every episode of Black Mirror, though not in order. My partner Ziggy first convinced me to watch “Nosedive” after he’d seen and enjoyed it, then we both watched and loved “U.S.S. Callister” when the fourth series was released. Later I watched “San Junipero” after reading how highly acclaimed that episode was, and by that point I was hooked and continued on to watch the rest of the series.
So I sat on the couch with Ziggy, Roku remote in hand, and we dived into our first interactive television adventure. Having only ten seconds to decide on each choice, we had to make some quick negotiations. But some of the…
