Remember when Goosebumps and other books would allow you to choose your own story line as you progressed in the book? It looks like Netflix is working on a television-based version of this in order to give viewers a more personal experience. This interactive method of storytelling is very much on the cards, and Netflix is working on premiering the first prototype for children.
Pick your poison
Imagine a scenario where you could decide who “The defenders” go up against, or which inmate joins the ranks in “Orange is the new black”. Well this seems to be quite possible in the near future thanks to Netflix’s incredible new experiment.
The streaming service has already been in full-flow over the past two years, churning out more shows than ever before, and also making the leap into the world of feature films and stand-up specials. In order to attract an even larger audience, Netflix is working on a new interactive method of telling stories that could change television as we know it for good.
This would involve filming a large number of alternative story lines for each show, and giving audience members the option of picking between these alternative scenarios based on their preferences. This would also massively influence the re-playability of each show, as audience members will be tempted to find out what they missed in other versions of the show.
Future of television
This new format is quite similar to the narrative used in choose-your-own-story children’s books, and in video games that offer multiple endings to the same story line. Netflix is looking to create an adventure series for children centered on a single character in order to test the feasibility of this idea, before investing in larger stories of re-working existing shows.
Viewers will be able to use their remote to make these choice while watching these interactive shows, and this will be a first for any network around the world. The idea seems to be extremely interesting, and it could go a long way in changing television shows as we know them, allowing writers to be more liberal and creative with their choices, and encouraging more genre-bending material to emerge in the future.
