With the loosest narrative strands teasing franchise continuity, Black Mirror Season 7, Episode 4, “Plaything” would not join with the 2018 interactive film Bandersnatch as a lot as you would possibly count on. Black Mirror creator Charlie Booker has weighed in on the matter with a noncommittal reply that makes little logical sense. Though Booker claims Season 7’s “Plaything” is now canon, he additionally believes that the episode has little to no bearing on the varied “Bandersnatch” outcomes. Relating to what’s actual and perceived, “Plaything” solely flirts with retconning Black Mirror‘s overarching narrative however by no means goes far sufficient.
Black Mirror
- Launch Date
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December 4, 2011
- Community
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Channel 4, Netflix
How “Plaything” Connects to ‘Bandersnatch’
In anticipation of Black Mirror’s seventh Season, rumors about revisiting the interactive world of Bandersnatch whipped followers right into a tizzy. Many puzzled if the follow-up would function one other enjoyable, immersive choose-your-own-story episode set at TuckerSoft, the gaming company accountable for creating “Bandersnatch.” Extra intriguing, followers puzzled if one in all Bandersnatch‘s numerous endings would function the blueprint or jumping-off level for a brand new online game journey.
Set sooner or later, “Plaything” considerations Cameron Walker (Peter Capaldi), an aged man arrested for shoplifting whose DNA is linked to a cold-case homicide from the Nineties. Past sharing the identical gaming universe, the most important connection between “Plaything” and “Bandersnatch” is tech guru Colin Ritman, performed by Will Poulter. In “Bandersnatch,” Colin tasked online game programmer Stefan (Fionn Whitehead) to discover an interactive, multiple-choice online game in 1984 that tormented him endlessly.
“Plaything,” set in 1994, finds Colin nonetheless working for Tucker Comfortable together with his outdated companion Mohan Thakur (Asim Chaudhry). Due to this fact, if we’re to take “Plaything” as official Black Mirror canon, then the Bandersnatch endings during which Colin dies have been disregarded.
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What Charlie Booker Has To Say In regards to the ‘Bandersnatch’ “Plaything” Connection
Like a well-trained politician, Charlie Booker gave a prolonged reply that amounted to almost nothing when requested about this topic. Talking with EW to advertise Season 7, the Black Mirror creator confessed that the low-rated “Plaything” by no means started as a “Bandersnatch” continuation. In keeping with Booker:
“The story concept was floating round for a short time,” [but I] wasn’t pondering of it as a Bandersnatch sequel. I knew I needed Cameron to satisfy this programmer, however [I thought], ‘wait a minute, I created this character, Colin Ritman, performed by Will Poulter in Bandersnatch. I beloved that character, and Mohan Thakur, Asim Chaudhry, who performed his boss within the unique Bandersnatch, I’m going to write down one of the best model of that.'”
With the need to discover ’90s online game tradition, Booker admits that he reverse-engineered the inclusion of Colin and Mohan after remembering how a lot he appreciated the Colin character. When requested whether or not “Plaything” undoes the “Bandersnatch” endings, Booker acknowledged:
“What that claims, when it comes to the Black Mirror multiverse or no matter you wish to name it, I’ll go away as much as the viewer, as a result of I feel all endings of Bandersnatch are as legitimate as the subsequent.”
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The ambiguous, noncommittal reply affords little perception past what viewers can already see themselves. That’s, previous the temporary return of Colin and Mohan to TuckerSoft, “Plaything” is nothing however a mere vestige of Bandersnatch. Even the background posters and online game titles for “Bandersnatch II” and “Area Fleet” register as lazy afterthoughts slightly than a genuinely linked narrative that pushes the story ahead.
For Booker, the explanation for writing “Plaything” had much less to do with returning to the world of “Bandersnatch” and the whole lot to do together with his kids’s interactions with know-how. As he notes:
“Generally you’d go to mattress and if you awoke within the morning, it felt like your child had upgraded an OS replace and will do extra issues. I used to be interested by that. Should you pay attention rigorously to how Cameron describes what the method is, that’s what’s occurring there.”
As such, “Plaything” is extra of a religious successor than a real narrative sequel, with returning characters Colin and Mo doing little to have an effect on the results Stefan skilled in “Bandersnatch.” If there have been extra connective tissue linking Stefan to Cameron’s digital expertise, maybe the outcomes could be totally different. As it’s, “Plaything” toys with a binding to the distinctive and experimental Bandersnatch however by no means does fairly sufficient to bridge the gaps.
Black Mirror is obtainable to stream on Netflix