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Netflix is Developing a Slate of Specials That Will Let Viewers Choose the Next Storyline in a TV Episode or Movie, Report Says (bloomberg.com)
Netflix is about to let you decide how your favorite show will end, Bloomberg reported Monday. From the report: The streaming service is developing a slate of specials that will let viewers choose the next storyline in a TV episode or movie, according to people familiar with the matter. The company expects to release the first of these projects before the end of this year, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are still private.
Viewers will get to choose their own storylines in one episode of the upcoming season of "Black Mirror," the Emmy-winning science-fiction anthology series. The show is famous for exploring the social implications of technology, including an episode where humans jockey to receive higher ratings from their peers. The fifth season of the show is expected to be released in December.
The foray into choose-your-own-adventure programming represents a big bet on a nascent form of entertainment known as interactive TV. As Netflix expands around the world, it's looking for new ways to lure customers. By blending elements of video games with traditional television, the company could create a formula that can be applied to any number of series.
Viewers will get to choose their own storylines in one episode of the upcoming season of "Black Mirror," the Emmy-winning science-fiction anthology series. The show is famous for exploring the social implications of technology, including an episode where humans jockey to receive higher ratings from their peers. The fifth season of the show is expected to be released in December.
The foray into choose-your-own-adventure programming represents a big bet on a nascent form of entertainment known as interactive TV. As Netflix expands around the world, it's looking for new ways to lure customers. By blending elements of video games with traditional television, the company could create a formula that can be applied to any number of series.
"Twitch plays Pokemon" comes to TV.
Turn to page 12. Turn to page 49. Turn to page 26. Turn to page 71. You are slayed by...
Haven't they learned anything from cases such as Boaty-McBoatface, Taylor Swifts Biggest Fan,or sending her to a school for the deaf, or sending Pitbull to Alaska
Leaving the choice up to the Internet, or even just Netflix subscribers isn't going to result in the best storylines, or even the storylines that necessarily reflect what actual people want to see.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
It's been done before: Blake 7.
Or how about a character break character while filming and accuse someone of doing something. (It's got to be a female though, since they don't lie.)
And then we could follow the cast and crew spread to the winds while the accused producer loses everything and ends up on the street, disheveled and homeless.
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
it's a bunch of films: the characters not surpasses "epiosodes"...
kT
Didn't someone try that sort of thing with DVDs many years ago? How'd that work out?
People want car chases, guns guns guns, nudity, and no story.
Asking what the people want is asking to be sent to the bottom.
Well for a start the options are going to be limited and, had they done that with the boat I doubt "Boaty-McBoatface" would have been an option. However, an even better option would be to film all the optional endings and then let each viewer choose how they want it to end. Sort of like the Butterfly Effect did where there were four endings: happy, sad, unclear and the director's.
I don't know, I don't watch that
Didn't Sky already do this in Britain? They even had a Doctor Who special that let you use Sky RedButton to point out stuff to the Doctor during the episode, and if you missed the cues, the scene unfolded differently (but did not affect the overall plot).
Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
Why doesn't Netflix go back to what was working? This internal created programing is mostly crap, can't imagine its cheaper then buying really good produced shows and movies. Amazon has basically done the same thing, spending a ton of money on internal productions. Both need to go back to being a content streamer not a production house making failed original content.
If you are presented with 5 different ways a story ends, people would want to know how it really ends or which one is correct.
Those "choose your adventure" books always had one real ending (killing the princess and rescue the dragon.. whatever.. there's a reason why they work well with plain vanilla fantasy) and you had to get to that ending.
bickerdyke
Netflix is experimenting with using an algorithm that produces storylines that pander to the Lowest Common Denominator.
Expect great and innovative storytelling! /sarc
Netflix produces shows and movies based on recipes (for most), quantity more than quality. Shows like Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, The Wire, have a distinct identity ; none of their creators would let anyone decide the next storyline.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
This was a lame fad in the 60s, it was a lame fad in the 70s, a lame fad in the 80s, a lame fad in the 90s, a lame fad in the 00s, and a lame fad now.
Next netflix will be mailing out "scratch n sniff" cards for "smell-o-vision"
...not getting to choose the surprise ending I want
With deference to the earlier post "Everybody Dies" and Blake 7 (s/b "Blake's 7 btw).
Been done before, everyone in the audience, THUMBS DOWN.
Tracy Johnson
Old fashioned text games hosted below:
http://empire.openmpe.com/
BT
Sometimes I want the bad guys to win. Like, all out win; all the good guys die. Maybe, I'll get what I want?
Netflix let viewers choose the next storyline
Instead of Jessica Jones' adoptive sister being next season's villain, maybe they hook up? And boy is it perverted and wrong. So very, very wrong.
I stopped watching Black Mirror after it went SJW this past season.
I heard they were working with Netflix on..... something.
Is this it? A show where viewers choose what happens next?
All roads lead to bigotry, scatological humor, and sex.
Because taken as a whole, the Internet is a 12-year-old boy who has no filters, wants to see boobies, and thinks fart jokes are hilarious.
I heard on the radio that Clue (1985) had more than one ending, so I skipped the movie in the theater and waited 33 years to watch it. Fortunately the DVD I watched earlier this year had all 3 endings, so I was spared the 1/3 chance of seeing the real ending. (Hint if you haven't seen the movie yet: Look up the "real" ending and only watch that one. Read about the other two, but don't watch them -- just pretend they don't exist. Watching them will just make you angry.)
Anyway, my point is: I definitely won't ever watch another "interactive" TV show or movie.
If you want Calculon to race to the laser gun battle in his hover-Ferarri, press 1. If you want Calculon to double-check his paperwork, press 2. Enter now. Confused, Fry presses "1" on his chair. Mr. Moviefone: You have pressed 2. Fry: No, I didn't! Mr. Moviefone: I'm almost positive you did.
https://www.fsf.org/associate/support_freedom
It's called "gaming", and its bound to do it better than anything like this can.
Somehow I doubt any basically linear form like a movie or a TV show or a novel can offer enough interactivity to matter without undermining the uniquely valuable aspects of traditional storytelling. But it's not surprising that people -- corporate people -- keep trying.
Movies and special TV shows are massive collective undertakings which take immense logistical ingenuity and financial risk just to bring to the screen. Just sit through the credits of a modern tentpole movie and you'll see more than five hundred people listed.
What's lost in all that tends to be authorial point of view. That's why you can go to a community theater and see a play put on by a handful of actors and stage hands that entertains you in a way that movies theoretically could can, but seldom do. It's not that blockbusters don't entertain you, but more often than not what you take away from them is the impressive production craft, not the story.
So I'm not surprised that producers would want to punt on the storytelling. Letting the audience choose is a way of getting them engaged without taking any risks.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Can't be worse than letting Adam Sandler write a series.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I paid YOU to make the pizza, not for me to make the pizza. Same but with netflix etc.
I was building and deploying interactive TV apps in Canada in 2001. iTV is nascent like nuclear fusion is nascent.
it's very true (a didn't know the concept)
Obviously people want to see some of the 14 million+ possible futures that Dr. Strange reviewed and decided weren't good enough. Too bad Disney is severing their ties with Netflix.
Of course if Disney followed suit, those poor princesses would be defiled in 14 million+ unspeakable ways.
Our band of heroes corners the country's grain markets by heavy leveraging through off-shore banks. Hillarity ensues. ... whaddaya mean, that's not an option?