Netflix has put up a show page for Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. The standalone Netflix film will apparently be released December 28. But what even is a Bandersnatch, and what does “Netflix film†mean with regards to the recent Emmy ruling? And perhaps most importantly of all, what clues does this splash page with no trailer give us?
What is a Bandersnatch?
The Internet figured out that “Bandersnatch†would be set in the 80s, given the sets put up in Croydon when the show was filming back in April. From the name and decade, net sleuths deduced that the Bandersnatch in question was probably the vaporware’d video game and not the Lewis Carroll monster. A dumbed-down version of Bandersnatch was released under the name Brataccas, about a genetic engineer that can — but doesn’t want to — create a race of super soldiers. An ad for the unreleased Bandersnatch video game was used in “Playtest,†according to Reddit.
What is a Netflix movie?
The Independent says that the new Black Mirror movie/episode “will mark the show’s longest installment to date, running one minute longer than season three’s ‘Hated in the Nation.’†Will it be long enough to count as a TV movie by the new rules set down by the Television Academy? Yeah, probably. But because “Bandersnatch†is being teased as a Netflix Film, does that mean the streaming service will instead submit the show to the Oscars? Only time will tell.
What does the show page tell us?
The entire description for “Bandersnatch†is a terse three words: “Be right back.†That’s already the name of a Black Mirror episode, starring Hayley Atwell and Domhnall Gleeson. That ep was about a service that recreated dead loved ones. “Playtest†was about a terrifying VR game. Bandersnatch was a video game. The sets looked 80’s. Life after death, AI, genetic engineering, a video game that kills people. Put it all together, and what do you get? That’s right! Another one about pigfucking. This is genius level TV.