A Review on Two Different Medias

The first review is on the Netflix, more specifically, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.

To begin with a little background information, this Netflix show made history as it is the first interactive movie for adults. Netflix’s interactive shows are a “Choose your own adventure” story where users, who watch it on Netflix, are prompted to choose what happens next at key points in the content.

Each plot point the user chooses will lead them to a different conclusion, meaning outcomes could differentiate.

The movie takes place in 1984, following a programmer named Stefan. Who happens to be developing a choose-your-own-adventure computer game for an emerging technology company run by famed gamer Colin Ritman.

Stefan's game is called Bandersnatch after a childhood adventure novel. From there your decisions effects your outcomes.

With all this in mind, not all subscribers can enjoy the content.

Before the movie came out on Netflix, the company had been recruiting their employees to experience Bandersnatch and test out its functionality.

However, they still aired Bandersnatch. Older smart TVs, Google Chromecast, and Apple TV devices are the reason for this as they aren’t able to stream the new Black Mirror movie due to technical requirements involved with the interactive content.

Even though Bandersnatch: Black Mirror has minor malfunctions, I believe is a huge start for many interactive films to be aired on Netflix. Bandersnatch is well-made despite the flaws.

However, there are many things Netflix needs to do before releasing the film out the public eye. As someone in the multimedia field, I know you want to put quality films over quantity. I am shocked by how little feedback Netflix users gave.

The next review is over Ariana Grande's Album: Thank U, Next.

Ariana Grande makes hits after a series of tragedies: the 2017 terrorist attack outside her in Manchester, England; her brief engagement to Pete Davidson, to whom she dedicated a standout track on last year’s “Sweetener” album; and the death of former boyfriend Mac Miller, who put an exclamation point on her breakout hit, “The Way.”

Today, the mentality where artists often brag about creating massive hits in a 20-minute session.

However, it's way harder for women, who are so often restricted from truly expressing themselves, to make music where they don’t rattle the foundation built upon toxic masculinity.

It makes sense that Grande would, as a flowering anti-pop pop star, react.

Her excellent but perhaps too-much-too-soon album “Sweetener,” released just six months ago, scrambled expectations. It didn’t come so much as a surprise as it did a reassurance: that she didn’t conform to expectation, and didn’t need the pop hit to make a statement.

“Sweetener” was an exercise in subtlety and restraint. After all, why should she conform to what’s expected?

That is Grande’s situation: experiencing trauma in public, processing it in private, and then translating it back to the public.

“Thank U, Next” is the direct result of existing in the public eye through many hardships, and a reaction to hide is the direct result of most artists.

However, Grande did the opposite.

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