[Closed] So no 2018 wipe but new Black Mirror instead.

I don't think you could satirise our society currently. It seems to be doing a great job of self-satire all on its own.

He can't do the wipes any more, not as angry since he married Konnie Huq.

Frankie Boyle's NWO though. Almost an adequate substitute. Think it was on last night after I went to bed.

Anyone watching Bandersnatch yet? We're 45 mins in, really good, usual quality script, acting and plot. Loads of choices, will really stand up to repeat viewing so I can see if the different choices affect the story in a major way.

Yup, very good, will be watching again and making different choices.

Ps. When the credits come up keep watching it.

I got the number wrong and it ended but then didn't give opportunity again and ended for real. No spoilers...I'll have to do it again.

So, how does this work, how does the viewer make choices? Is it platform / delivery dependant?

We all get the Bandersnatch reference, right?

Nope, doesn’t work on my mac/monitor set up, only works on smart tv’s and mobile devices

@Cougar no, I don’t.
Went round and round a bit at the end. Very good.

It's Lewis carol dts, a creature from the jabberwocky
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandersnatch

@jekkyl, thanks, not that well read!

It’s also a hyped and unreleased Spectrum game from 80s

Ahh is it, thank you disco, I didn't know that.

Frankie Boyle’s NWO though. Almost an adequate substitute.

Yeah was rather amusing, good closing monologue

Much as I want to be that guy who claims he spotted continuity errors in Bandersnatch (through advanced powers of super-observation) I can't tell whether any of the fairly minor things I noticed could possibly be set-ups for alternative paths I didn't take. I think it would be hard to criticise the film without deliberately missing the point they're making. It's a very clever film, the making of which must've driven them mad. Will Poulter in particular is excellent.

So, I watched it. Really clever, I thought.

It’s also a hyped and unreleased Spectrum game from 80s

That's a bit of an understatement. Bandersnach (along with Psyclapse) were two massively hyped "Megagames" from a company called Imagine. Imagine went pop before either game was anywhere near completion, and the games fell into legend. Even today, any faint whiff of a screenshot or piece of code being discovered would send the retro community into meltdown, they're the holy grail of 80s vapourware.

There's more than anyone would ever want to know about Imagine's collapse (and by extension, Bandersnach) here if anyone's interested.

http://www.crashonline.org.uk/12/imagine.htm

Not gonna watch it.

Too frumious innit.

Great read Cougar. Thanks for posting. Reminded me to get my Sinclairs - all NIB - out of my brother’s loft and on the market.

Do you wanna change the title to include spoilers so we can discuss it? Ta

Reminded me to get my Sinclairs – all NIB – out of my brother’s loft and on the market.

There's a "sinclair for sale" group on Facebook. If you've got a BNIB original 128K "toastrack" in there it'll be your retirement fund.

Do you wanna change the title to include spoilers so we can discuss it? Ta

You can use spoiler tags. Encase text in

I can amend the title also, if people want. Thoughts?

Great read Cougar. Thanks for posting.

Something else I just tripped over. Stefan wakes up on the 9th of July 1984. That's the same day Imagine was officially wound up.

From that Crash link I posted: "On Monday 9th July at the High Court of Justice (Chancery Division) a further petition to wind-up Imagine on behalf of VNU Business Press (publishers of Personal Computer Games among others) went unopposed. Imagine was finished."

So my reading of it... You realise as you're watching it and playing it you realise that the 'choices' are directed in a particular way so that if you choose the wrong option which didn't drive the intended narrative it just ended and went back to the previous choices. So even though you had free will to choose what you wanted it was just the illusion of free will... just like the protagonist? And perhaps just like yourself and your own life. Whatever choices you make all that results is a shorter story or different iterations of the same narrative.
The game review that got the better score was where Stefan had more time to finish the game. If you live longer you have more opportunity to achieve your goals and live your life. That kid reviewing the game is your life score?

I read a lot of Philip K Dick when I was younger a lot of parallels to his life and writing

In fact, there was a poster on Colin's wall for Philip K Dick called Ubik which I've got upstairs somewhere and am going to have to read again now

Went through many (all?) of endings on a single play through - basically by not going to credits when given the option.

... I also started coding a fighting fantasy book (including dice based combat system I worked out) onto my speccy when I was 18 in the summer of 1984 after my A levels - I think I need to have a word with that Brooker about ripping off my youth.

I loved it - the obvious parallels with Bandersnatch and Imagine Software's demise were there along with an obsessive attention to detail - yes the sound of the tape loading contains a program loadable in a real Spectrum or emulator. Previous episodes of Black Mirror were referenced (San Junipero, Nosedive, Metalhead to list three). Anyone clock that the name of the Philip K Dick fan programmer at Tuckersoft is a nod to John Ritman? The inclusion of a cameo by Jeff Minter was a nice touch too.

We all get the Bandersnatch reference, right?

Cumberbert Bandersnatch? Is he in it?

Anyone clock that the name of the Philip K Dick fan programmer at Tuckersoft is a nod to John Ritman? The inclusion of a cameo by Jeff Minter was a nice touch too.

John Ritman, I thought that was just me.

Totally missed the Yak though, where was he?

The whole thing is a magnificent geek fest!

I've just looked at a couple of spoiler reviews - I missed one major ending - will I have I have to play it through again...

A piece on BBC breakfast focused more on the ability to make choices in a TV programme and whether it will catch on than Bandersnatch itself. Missed the point about Bandersnatch is that the interaction is part of the narrative not just guiding it.

fairly minor things I noticed could possibly be set-ups for alternative paths I didn’t take

The inclusion of a cameo by Jeff Minter was a nice touch too.

Didn't spot that!

His stuff was crackers back on the c64.

did he do the llama games?

We all get the Bandersnatch reference, right?

Nobody seems to have made the obvious connection. The white Rabbit/down the rabbit hole...
And I understand there is only one, properly satisfactory choice.
No, I haven’t seen it, I don’t have Netflix, but I was reading something about it written by someone who’s watched it multiple times.

There's loads of character and theme references to Alice Though The Looking Glass and to Lewis Carroll throughout the film. He was also a mathematician and had an interest in symbolic logic, he wrote 11 books on maths, all of which totally scramble your mind.
Although the author in the film is fictional, there's some element of truth in the murder narrative in that Lewis Carroll was a suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders

Seen this?

Watched Bandersnatch last night.
Once the novelty of my Xbox handset vibrating to alert me to a decision had worn off, it became very tedious. I turned it off in the end as it just seemed to go on and on. I thought Will Poulter was excellent.

Well that's quite a interesting concept made a few choices some ended up looping back but I did reach the end credits once. I'll be doing it again sometime.

Cracking idea.

Speaking of geek fests and the concept of time and relativity. Einstein published his Theory of Special Relativity in 1905 and uses an elevator as an example. I came across another of Lewis Carroll's books called Sylvie and Bruno published in 1889. There's this dialogue in it ""One can easily imagine a situation," said Arthur, "where things would necessarily have no weight, relatively to each other, though each would have its usual weight, looked at by itself." "Some desperate paradox!" said the Earl. "Tell us how it could be. We shall never guess it." "Well, suppose this house, just as it is, placed a few billion miles above a planet, and with nothing else near enough to disturb it: of course it falls to the planet?" The Earl nodded. "Of course though it might take some centuries to do it. "And is five-o'clock-tea to be going on all the while?" said Lady Muriel. "That, and other things," said Arthur. "The inhabitants would live their lives, grow up and die, and still the house would be falling, falling, falling! But now as to the relative weight of things. Nothing can be heavy, you know, except by trying to fall, and being prevented from doing so. You all grant that?" We all granted that. "Well, now, if I take this book, and hold it out at arm's length, of course I feel its weight. It is trying to fall, and I prevent it. And, if I let go, it fails to the floor. But, if we were all falling together, it couldn't be trying to fall any quicker, you know: for, if I let go, what more could it do than fall? And, as my hand would be falling too—at the same rate—it would never leave it, for that would be to get ahead of it in the race. And it could never overtake the failing floor!""

Watched it with my son on his Xbox. Not bad for a first attempt at interactive TV, I must say.
Did get a bit tedious having to watch the same scenes over, but I kind of see that there's a beginning and an end and lots of paths to get there. Lad got bored and we turned it off.
Next day he texts me and said he's completed the whole 5 hours+! Bloody nerd 😆
(if you put the time display in the top right you can see the leaps in time with the paths you take).
I expect this type of thing could take off in quite a big way (especially in the porn industry 😀 )

So, have we enjoyed the 2019 Black Mirror folks?
I’ve watched 2 of them and Striking Vipers is one of the best things I’ve seen in ages. Marvellous!

I thought that was just odd. Normally there seems to be like a warning or something but I just didn't get it at all. What was your reading of it dezzer?
I thought the miley cyrus was ace, smithereens also fun but the gay love gaming thing wtf?
Also did you notice that Bandersnatch has been withdrawn from viewing?

We just gobbled them up over last three nights. Great stuff as usual. The last one was maybe the 'weakest', but it was still a great feelgood ending and took me right back to yoof when had half-shaved head, NIN long-sleeved tee, skinny hips and just about to buy first MTB (ATB)

Aaaa, hoodies for goalposts...

I seem to be alone in not liking Black Mirror. I like Brooker's other work: Nathan Barley was genius, as were the various Brooker-fronted shows, but Black Mirror is so relentlessly misanthropic and dystopian that, despite usually being quite clever, it starts to get a bit tiring after a while.

JP

What was your reading of it dezzer?

But was it "gay love"?
Have put in spoiler brackets, in case peeps haven't watched it yet.

The Miley one, I found a bit too fluffy and

Haven't watched the 3rd.

I seem to be alone in not liking Black Mirror.

I'm not really a fan either, have watched a few and they're OK but not compulsive viewing for me. Bandersnatch soon got a bit meh for me once none of the options were the ones I would pick and then once you finish it and start going back over other scenarios you have to re-watch so much crap over and over again it gets tiresome.

The Striking Vipers one was a bit odd, the whole premise was interesting but it just seemed a bit unbelievable how fast it happened in the first place, especially given that IRL there had been no signs of anything other than a friendship between them.

there had been no signs of anything other than a friendship between them

Surely I'm not the only one to get that it "wasn't them"? This was pretty much explained by the

I seem to be alone in not liking Black Mirror.
I doubt that very much. I bet there are millions who'd rather watch Mrs Brown's Boys or Goggle****, or something.

Normally I really like black mirror, but Bandersnatch and the latest series left me a bit cold and unenthralled.

Also didn’t seem to be that boundary pushing, thought provoking and borderline lazy.

A bit too fluffy

Discovered recently that I like a bit fluffy. Real life has been in many ways painful these last two decades, and it feels good to believe that good things happen to good people. Makes sense in a way, because in younger, happier and more pain-free times my 'escapism' tended towards either unbridled horror or gothic themes of misery, unrequited love, thwarted hopes and twisted, cynical anti-heroes nailing doe-eyed innocents to the corpse of their dreams. With a nail-gun. People are strange...

Actually this reminded me, I have a real cheesy wrap for lunch 😀

*dang, whch is the 'spoiler button'?

A bit too fluffy

I enjoyed the Miley Cyrus one most out of the three if i'm honest.

Scathing pastiche on the  falsehood of manufactured pop idols innit.

The other two missed their mark a bit with me and both seemed weirdly unresolved at the end

Surely I’m not the only one to get that it “wasn’t them”? This was pretty much explained by the

I get that they're avatars but they're highly realistic and one of them is a guy, to me you'd need to have bi feelings outside of the game to suddenly start kissing and then having sex with a guy avatar in a VR game but there was no hint of any bisexual feelings in the setup scenes. I just think it either should have had some feint hint of at least one of them having slightly more than mates feelings IRL, or that both of the avatars could have been female which sets up perhaps a more interesting scenario (in terms of the conflict between you're seeing and interacting with a woman but you know it's actually a bloke controlling the avatar)

Not saying I didn't enjoy it. But the "gay" love (not) one had me properly laughing.
Main thing from Miley was why did she have pink hair when in the coma? 🙂

Hmmm, I thought Striking Vipers > Facebook > Miley Cyrus.

I thought the pop star one was the weakest (plot and acting-wise), though I did like the kid becoming friends with the doll. I thought Andrew Scott's acting in the Facebook one was excellent and overall, I just liked everything about the computer game one.

@FuzzyWuzzy - all that..? That's why I liked it.

We'd have all picked the polar bear right off the bat, wouldn't we?

Main thing from Miley was why did she have pink hair when in the coma?

Only when she appeared on TV with the aunt.

The Miley one seemed to be a big **** you to Disney and in part to her Dad. The wig was similar to what Hannah was in her show, only Hannah when she wore the wig and put on a show.

Black Mirror is so relentlessly misanthropic and dystopian

You should watch San Junipero for a change of pace. I think that's my favourite BM episode.

Loved that, really interesting stuff

Seen this?

Very clever!!