For those of us who don't do Netflix, can someone explain how a "choose your own adventure" thing works? Assuming that each "differing path" is basically the same thing as a different "episode" of a TV show... is it as simple as "pick one of these two episodes to watch next"?
All of what Silverspawn said.
The technology is only available on some devices. I launched the movie on Google Fiber, and it played a different "movie." It was a collection of clips from Black Mirror of the various characters saying "sorry." Then the voiceover explains that the current device does not support interactive television. Various suggestions are made.
But I do have a smart TV, which was one of the suggestions. So I logged into Netflix through that. There's an icon to show that the Netflix title has interactive capabilities (I expect to see this a lot in kids' shows in the future). It's pretty smooth, though if you're the type to get sucked into the moment, then these branching trees will suck you right out. Still, it's a neat concept, and this particular episode of Black Mirror works perfectly for it. I wouldn't try this experiment with any other episode.
It's a really long, drawn-out Dragon's Lair. You have your "death scenes" where you have to go back and make different choices. There are multiple endings.
My favorite is how the episode completely mocks you if you don't make any decisions. As a matter of course, I chose the default option (often the first) so I could better identify where I need to branch off in subsequent viewings. Well, if you only choose the default option, then that's functionally the same as letting the episode run with no interaction. And you get roasted for being so boring. It was brilliant.
I went through the episode twice, and I'm done. I'm starting to get tired of seeing some of the same scenes over and over, and if I can't figure out how to get to a path I wanted to try again
such as telling Kitty that Colin jumped instead of just turning my back on her then I don't really want to sift through it so fastidiously. It'd be better if I can actually fast-forward through the scenes to the decision point, but I cannot.
So kudos to those people who are obsessed with finding every little path, including the hidden golden eggs. I have no doubt that those require some revisiting to other scenes where you may do the same thing twice or even more. But I'm not interested in following it that closely. From what I read online, I've hit most of the known endings, and I’m pretty good with that. Though I am bemused by the claim that one ending
apparently has Jerome F. Davies (I think that's his name) kill you in the past. I mean, how does that ending come about?
But you know, I may watch it a third time in a few months.
For some reason, I just really dig Colin's voice and speech pattern here.