Netflix users are questioning the streaming service’s latest removal decision.
Every month, licenced films and TV shows are taken down due to rights surrounding how long they are allowed to be on the service.
It’s been widely believed that original projects developed by Netflix are safe and will always be available to view.
However, it has become increasingly clear in recent years that this is not the case, with multiple originals being pulled from the service’s library each month.
The latest casualties are two interactive episodes of TV shows Black Mirror and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt – and their removal is particularly worrying as Netflix is the only place they can be shown in their original form.
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, released in 2018, offered viewers multiple different plot turns to choose from as the episode went on, which drastically changed the outcome of the ending.
The selected choices also altered the running time: some audience members reached a conclusion in 40 minutes while, for others, it lasted for two hours.
Bandersnatch starred Fionn Whitehead as a young programmer who adapts a fantasy gamebook into a video game in 1984. It also starred Will Poulter, Asim Chaudhry, Craig Parkinson and Alice Lowe.
Netflix is also removing an interactive episode of the Ellie Kemper comedy series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
The special, titled Kimmy vs the Reverend, used interactive technology that allowed the audience to choose their own adventure – and actually served as a conclusion-of-sorts to the show.
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What’s on Netflix has reported that the streamer is removing these interactive specials as it makes more of a move towards mobile gaming – and software updates will make it impossible to host the multiple choice element that set these specials apart.
It effectively means they will be unable to stream anywhere in their original form.
The Independent has contacted Netflix for comment.
“From a preservation standpoint, this sucks,” one user complained on Reddit. “Neither show is available on physical media and it’s going to be really hard to find a ‘complete’ version of these specials, given their interactive nature.”
Another added: “A non-interactive version of it would be better than nothing at all, but the interactivity of the movie was such a core part of it that it will lose something without it.”
One user chimed in: “I’m going to be really sad not being able to watch the Kimmy special next time I finish the whole series.”
Anthology show Black Mirror started life on Channel 4 in 2011 and moved to Netflix in 2016. Its seventh season was released on the streaming service last month.
