According to Bloomberg, the next season of Black Mirror will feature an interactive episode where viewers will be able to choose their own storyline.
It’s a trap though because all of the storylines are terrible and will make you reevaluate your reliance on technology and eventually your entire life.
The upcoming season, which will be the show’s fifth, will be released in December, and the interactive episode will be one of Netflix’s first forays into the genre. The episode will be a ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ style episode, much like those books you loved as a kid, except all of the options are depressing and bleak and it’s not an adventure so much as a nightmare. But still, yay, interactive TV!
It won’t technically be Netflix’s very first interactive creation, however – that honour goes to a children’s show called Puss In Book that features everyone’s second favourite Shrek sidekick. In the show, which is about Puss being trapped inside a storybook, the viewer can is presented with two options, and must choose one before the timer runs out (the first choice is whether Puss should fight a god or a tree).
That came out last year, so it’s about time that adults got in on the interactive fun. But as The Verge reported last year, previous attempts at creating interactive entertainment for adults haven’t been particularly successful.
I think the key difference is the show they’ve chosen to introduce the concept with. Black Mirror is incredibly immersive and engrossing, and already plays off our real-life concerns to great effect (do I use my phone too much? am I too reliant on social media?). Incorporating interactive elements feels like the next logical step.
Plus, if the main character ends up miserable and alone in some dystopian future, you’ll only have yourself to blame! Those of you who trapped their Sims in burning rooms with no doors will probably love leading the protagonist to their doom, though.
Despite modern life already being quite capable of making me feel like I’m stuck in an interactive Black Mirror episode with no clear way out, I’m still excited for the upcoming season and this new interactive element. Hopefully the episode isn’t a choose-your-own-adventure voting experience where one of the choices is an orange former reality show host, because that’d just be too real for my liking.
(Header photo courtesy of Netflix)