Who is in control? Netflix’s algorithm and Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
Part 2 of my Netflix analysis series.
Netflix separates itself from traditional television by giving viewers more control over what they’re watching, and when they’re watching ‘television’. This includes control over smaller, more traditional elements such as opening and ending credits, episode recaps, and promotional trailers. The optional (but often exercised) removal of these paratextual elements is a method used by Netflix to give viewers the feeling of more control over what they’re watching, while actually using it to pull them deeper into the binge, into an “insulated” (Zündel 2019, p. 200) or uninterrupted stream. Moreover, Zundel discusses how the “inexhaustible digital warehouse” (p. 202) that Netflix claims to have, is not all that it seems, as their algorithm functions to show each viewer an individualised experience which severely limits the variety of shows that are advertised to the individual. Yet many believe that they’re being shown all available content.
Netflix manipulates audiences to feel like they are in control by giving them this semblance of control. This is best demonstrated by their 2018 interactive movie Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (Slade, 2018). In this choose your own adventure style movie, audiences use their remote to select the following course of action; viewers pull the proverbial rug of control out from under Netflix’s feet as they take full control of their viewing experience. In one scene, the main character, Stephen, asks, “who’s there?” and the audience gets the choice of sending a message, either ‘PACS’, or a symbol indicative of PAX: a character in the game. After playing out this scenario twice and once again ending up at the same scene of Stephen asking the question, one of the viewer’s original choices is replaced with the option ‘Netflix’. Regardless of the choices that the viewer made, their destiny was pre-determined; they were never in control— Netflix was all along. This is reminiscent of how viewing suggestions are personalised, and how the semblance of control viewers are given operates to keep them engaged with Netflix’s platform like they are engaged in Bandersnatch.