What’s up guys?
Jared here back with our second Wisecrack vlog.
We recently covered the newest Black Mirror episode “Bandersnatch” on our movie podcast
Show Me the Meaning and as you might guess from Black Mirror, it prompted a pretty interesting
discussion.
Now you may have noticed that Netflix’s inaugural attempt at interactivity plays with
the ideas of determinism and free will.
But what I find most interesting is how it reflects on how choice affects storytelling
So let’s dive in to the most meta thing ever in this Wisecrack Vlog on Bandersnatch.
And of course- spoilers ahead for ALL paths.
But first a quick recap- as hard as that may sound.
Bandersnatch follows talented 80s game developer Stefan Butler.
Stefan is offered the deal of his dreams when he’s invited to finish his computer game
“Bandersnatch” at the company that produces his favorite titles.
But he denies the offer
“No”
in favor of finishing the game alone and letting the company market and sell it.
“Good thing I double on the advertising.”
With his deadline looming and the complexity of adapting the infamous “Bandersnatch”
book in to game form weighing on him, he finds himself deep in “the hole”.
His father ushers him to his therapist who helps him work through a childhood trauma
that ended in his mother’s death.
In another path, Stefan’s idol, Colin, guides him through a LSD trip and tells him that
reality is like a game.
And in this game, death is meaningless.
“How many times have you watched batman die?
Doesn’t matter him.”
Stefan becomes increasingly convinced that he is not in control of his actions.
You, the viewer, can decide the the force thats pulling his string.
It can be you, a Netflix viewer,
“What the f*ck is Netflix?”
or a government experiment gone wrong, or the “Pax demon” from the book, or a cosmic
deterministic force that drove the enigmatic Bandersnatch author to kill his wife.
Stefan too can kill his dad, his boss, or Colin, or seek solace in his therapist.
All these choices lead to some form of the game being released, with the reviews dependent
on your choices.
The thing that that really animates the ideas in this episode is this concept of ludonarrativity.
Ludonarrative is the combination of the word Ludology - the study of game design - with
narrative - and you all know what that means.
Ludonarrativity, therefore, is how a game’s mechanics interact with, and affect, the narrative.
And if you haven’t noticed, Bandersnatch, the black mirror episode, has identical mechanics
to old school video games like Stefan’s Bandersnatch, so I think this ‘meta’ element
is meant to point to the fact that despite this being a TV show with actors, we are undoubtedly
playing a GAME.
If we understand how the game mechanics of Bandersnatch work in conjunction with, or
in contrast to, the narrative, we can understand the real promise of this kind of storytelling.
There’s a very important distinction between IDENTIFYING with a character’s decisions
and actually MAKING them, and this episode illustrates how these decisions can simultaneously
bring us closer to the character AND distance ourselves from them.
Now I know that sounds confusing so, just stay with me.
One perspective on the matter is that when you guide the choices of the protagonist,
you greater empathize with them- so you would avoid actions that screwed up Stefan’s life
like pouring tea on his computer or killing his dad.
In fact, you might even start referring to the character as “I” when making these
choices.
But since this is a choose your own adventure narrative ABOUT choose your own adventure
narratives, the developments to the plot reveal how such game mechanics can actually DISTANCE
us from the protagonist.
In games in general, you could just be a sadist who wants to do harm just see what happens.
Think elaborating torturing your sims.
They’re not objects of empathy, but just play things.
But games can also intentionally accentuate this distance.
Such is the case with Black Mirror.
When Stefan calls for the force controlling him to reveal his or herself.
“C’mon if there’s someone there just give me a sign, just give me a sign!”
The episode reminds us that we are NOT the protagonist, we are a separate force controlling
him.
Presenting choice to an audience in a narrative would always create an invisible puppet master
that is controlling the character’s choices- us.
“Oh god really?”
We are not Stefan.
We are his masters.
This is a game.
But it’s the nature of death, or an end, that really makes this different from traditional
storytelling.
This is best encapsulated by Colin, when he tells Stefan that he might as well just jump
off the balcony to his death, because just like Pac-Man, death just means starting over.
If you jump to your death, you do just that- The show prompts you with a choice to go back
to a “checkpoint” and you just try again.
Normally, in TV or film, we can be blackmailed into caring about the emotional stakes of
the story, whether it be through performance, music, closeups, whatever this bullshit is.
But the very mechanics of games often destroy those emotional stakes.
Death is usually followed by a respawn, or a reload.
In other words, it doesn’t matter.
As a choose your own adventure filmmaker, this presents two possibilities.
The ludic elements - the gameplay - can either supplement the goals of the narrative, or
subvert them.
When the gameplay and narrative work in concert, we call that Ludonarrative consonance.
Like, if the gameplay gives you limited choices, providing the illusion of free will, which
is also reflected in the narrative.
“Now that I only got the illusion of free will but really, I dislike the ending.”
Now that’s great.
But there’s a danger that the gameplay and narrative may clash, ie Ludonarrative dissonance.
And if the gameplay elements make death meaningless, and the narrative wants you to care about
death, we would call it Ludonarrative dissonance.
What does it mean that you can go back in time and join your mother on an ill-fated
train ride?
Especially when you get just reload try the other endings.
At what point do we stop caring about Stefan’s well being and just want to see all the different
options?
But to Colin’s point- death doesn’t matter in games.
When Spiderman dissolves away at the end of Infinity War, we might weep because we feel
the loss as Tony Stark does.
But when Spiderman dies in the new PS4 game- we feel nothing.
Just start at the checkpoint and try again.
So this episode makes us ask: do choose your own adventure narratives, by virtue of being
able to start over, lower the stakes and break the illusion of the story?
I’m reminded of where the term Ludonarrative dissonance originated - in a conversation
about the original Bioshock.
In the game says, Andrew Ryan famously tells the player.
“a man chooses.
A slave obeys.”
As a player, you may think you’re free because you can go wherever you want on the map and
shoot whenever and wherever you want, but at the end of the day, the developer is guiding
you to the end, encapsulated in the character of Atlas.
“Do kindly head to Ryan’s office and kill the son of a bitch.”
Similarly, If you get the “good” ending- Stefan tells us that he was able to perfect
the game by stripping out large chunks of it and only giving the players the illusion
of choice- Much like the “choice” we’re given at Netflix viewers is also just a predetermined
narrative guided by Charlie Brooker.
Is the game commenting on how life is a choose your own adventure story, where you are presented
with very few, curated options under the guise of being absolutely free.
Maybe.
Can we also read this as a critique of “freedom” in open world games like Fallout where the
choices we make are largely determined by the games mechanic and the intentions of the
developer?
Probably.
Either way, Bandersnatch, whether you liked it or not, gives an amazing amount of material
to think about.
This vlog, along with many of our videos, was largely inspired by the discussion on
our movie podcast “Show Me the Meaning”.
So if you want to hear more you definitely got to check it out.
We’ve got over 40 episodes breaking down all kinds of movies- from modern classics
like the Wolf of Wall St, The Dark Knight, Mean Girls, The whole Matrix Trilogy, and
Django Unchained to film nerd favorites like Mandy, Walkabout, Videodrome, and Synechdoche,
NY.
So check out the links in the description to listen to Show Me the Meaning on Itunes,
Stitcher, Soundcloud, etc.
And as always, thanks for watching guys.
Peace.