Join The Community
Move over Bandersnatch, because the GamesRadar team has opinions on exactly what would make the next great interactive movie or TV show coming very soon to a TV screen near you. Well, in our dreams anyway.
This is the latest in a series of big questions we'll be interrogating our writers with, so share your answers and suggestions for topics with us on Twitter.
Fortnite
I've long wondered why the show business industry hasn't clocked onto the gold mine of battle royale as the premise for a new TV show. It worked for The Hunger Games and, uh, Battle Royale, but that's pretty much where the adaptations end. Why not use Fortnite as the license for a lighthearted sitcom about four friends trying to get a Victory Royale, filmed entirely within Epic Games' versatile engine and incorporating Netflix's interactive storytelling tech to acknowledge its video game roots? Let audiences choose where the squad lands, which weapons to pick up, and whether to attack enemies or run away, with each "episode" marking a single match, and the seasons following the competitive seasons of Fortnite itself. Oh, and Peely is played by Danny DeVito, or you might as well call the whole thing off. Alex Avard
Clue/Knives Out (or any murder mystery)
1985’s Clue already came bundled in with not one, not two but three different endings in cinemas, with the killer (or killers) changing each time. Netflix has the ability – and budget – to go one further, putting the viewer in the shoes of a Benoit Blanc-style detective as they have to figure out a multi-layered whodunnit.
Throw in an all-star cast of suspects, point-and-click-style scenery to examine clues for some added interactivity, and some painful pastry analogies, then you’re on to a winner.
Plus, if you go the Clue route – either as a sequel or a reboot – then mixing up the killer each time is sure to have people coming back for more, which is exactly what Netflix wants. Most of all, though, we just want to tap into our inner Sherlock Holmes and deduce everything from the comfort of our own sofas – while wearing a deerstalker, natch. It’s the donut-shaped hole we never knew we were missing from our lives until now. Bradley Russell
Nailed It
It's so easy to laugh at the clueless bakers who are trying their best on Nailed It. Imagine if you were the one in the icing-smeared apron, trying to make an extremely complicated recipe with little expertise and even less time! I propose a very special episode of Nailed It in which we follow one contestant in particular, helping them make key decisions like "For how long should I put this butter in the microwave?" and "How should I measure these ingredients?" But it's Nailed It, so all the answers you can pick are wrong. Depending on what options you choose and how your bake turns out, you'll enjoy a customized evaluation from Nicole Byer and Jacque Torres featuring no less than three dozen possible iterations of Nicole going "HM!" and Jacques making startled French sounds. Also, if you win, they have to mail you your own golden chef hat. Connor Sheridan
Persona
I got into Persona because I love the JRPG side of the series - collecting and fusing Persona, leveling and assigning party members, and building strategies to counter specific bosses. But like most people, I quickly got invested in the social sim side as well, especially the way characterization affects your performance in combat. I think it could be great fun to see the branching character arcs of Persona adapted into something that's strictly watchable. No strategizing or grinding required, just pure Confidant-developing bliss. It would probably be exceedingly difficult to get as granular as dialogue options, but even choosing which characters the gang should visit at specific moments could add a lot to the experience. Characters could appear more frequently or play a larger part if they're developed quickly, and others would fate out if they were unpopular. By the end, we'd have the casting equivalent of a hand-picked JRPG party. Austin Wood
Paranormal Activity
The prolific, and now very tired, Paranormal Activity series became famous not for inventing anything new, but for mastering a formula. More than 10 years after that first release, it's time to modernize the concept. Imagine switching between a number of stationary cameras set up around a haunted house, waiting for something to move or appear. And maybe you can decide whether a character investigates said noise or movement, or does the smart, non-movie-brain thing and GTFOs. Paranormal Activity is still the movie that's scared me more than any other, and now I want it to step up its game. Jordan Gerblick
The Witcher (but smell-o-vision)
Hey, it's me again, GamesRadar's resident writer who's 24/7 horny on main. Remember that Hey Arnold episode that had Smell-O-Vision? No? Am I dating myself again? Shit. Anyway, a while back Nickelodeon aired an episode of Hey Arnold that had and interactive bit where a logo would pop up in the corner of the screen and you were meant to scratch-and-sniff the subsequent logo on a little placard you had obtained from somewhere (I think I got mine at Blockbuster).
It was wild stuff, and I think the Witcher would be perfect for it. Jokes aside, you wouldn't need to just have scratch-and-sniff options for underwear (which probably wouldn't smell all that great considering the infrequent bathing) but could have wet forest leaves for Brokilon, ale for the taverns, lilac and gooseberries for Yen's perfume, and something foul for when Geralt fights a wyvern. It's perfect. I'll only require a 10% fee of all Netflix revenue for that month for this idea. Alyssa Mercante
A Way Out
I would be very intrigued to see how exactly a co-op experience would play out with an interactive TV show, where your TV becomes your partner in crime. Take A Way Out, for example, a co-op game from the mad genius that is Josef Fares. You play together as two friends trying to escape jail, and get revenge. Unless you totally work together, and communicate with each other, you won't succeed. Imagine the TV playing your AI buddy in a totally fourth-wall-breaking way, asking you to guide them, to help them, to use your viewer knowledge to actually get them out of a situation. It's a buddy cop starring you and your TV. And even if it wasn't A Way Out, I'd love to see what Fares would do blending his movie- and game-making skills for this kind of experience. Sam Loveridge
I Think You Should Leave
Last year, Tim Robinson debuted one of the funniest shows that has ever appeared on Netflix with I Think You Should Leave. It was cringe comedy as art form, with the show's conceit being based around characters who kept making social situations really uncomfortable. With a second series coming soon, I'd love to be able to really mine the chaos for all it's worth, orchastering events for Robinson's collection of misfits and weirdos to navigate through. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt proved there's comedy gold to be found in interactive adventures, so why not give Netflix's funniest show a chance to mine for it? Ben Tyrer
