On December 1, Netflix removed almost all of its interactive TV shows. However, a group of fans (and even some people who worked on the deleted material) are working together to keep these interactive shows around and playable even after Netflix pulled the plug.
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On November 5, Netflix confirmed that it was removing 20 interactive shows from its streaming catalog, including shows based on Jurassic World, Carmen San Diego, and Boss Baby. After December 1, only four interactive shows were left standing on Netflix: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend, Ranveer vs. Wild with Bear Grylls, and You vs. Wild. But a small and dedicated group of fans, not happy about the news, have spent the past few weeks archiving and preserving the now-deleted shows.
As reported by 404 Media, before December 1's purge, fans used Discord to organize an effort to record and archive as much of the then-soon-to-be-deleted shows. Others have been working to reverse-engineer how Netflix created the interactive video experiences.
“I couldn’t let this work go to waste,” Pixel, one of the fans working to archive everything, explained to 404 Media. “We’re talking about over 100 hours of video and ~ one thousand hours of dubbing.”
According to the outlet, some shows are already fully emulated and can be enjoyed via alternative video players. Other shows have been uploaded to YouTube and emulate the interactivity using on-screen links and cards that take you to other archived videos. This is actually a similar method to how Netflix created some YouTube-exclusive ads promoting the interactive shows a few years ago.
In order to get people to talk to them, 404 Media agreed not to share the Discord channel and other places where these archiving methods are happening. Kotaku will also not be sharing them. There is a fear in the community that Netflix will crack down on their efforts if these alternative options are too publicly shared online.
Pixel told 404 Media that Netflix’s interactive shows relied on an “internal video” that contained all the different paths and endings. According to the archivist, these interactive shows were controlled by two JSON files. One controlled decisions and where to skip to in the video and the other file pulled in assets for the buttons.
“We currently have a proof-of-concept emulator running off a Python script that uses the JSONs to make functioning decisions, although it needs ironing out and button images are broken as of now,” explained Pixel. “We have a member of the team in Turkey that is hosting the files for once we get the emulator working on a webpage.”
According to Pixel, right now the biggest challenge the fans face in archiving all of this deleted Netflix content is keeping track of everything.
“We have a lot of people counting on us,” said Pixel, “And I get a LOT of DMs from people asking how to play them.”
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