This argument reminds me a lot of Roger Ebert's argument that video games can never be art. https://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/video-games-can-never-be-a

This argument reminds me a lot of Roger Ebert's argument that video games can never be art. https://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/video-games-can-never-be-art https://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/video-games-can-ne... He says, "My notion is that it grows better the more it improves or alters nature through an passage through what we might call the artist's soul, or vision." In fact, the article even notes "two of the projects are adaptations of video games!" Maybe one reason why in my view there aren't a lot of great movies based on video games is because there's something missing in the form that Netflix can improve upon. Hacker News shouldn't be a place where innovation is always so immediately viewed so skeptically. Most new ideas will fail, but shouldn't it be encouraged anyway? Taking a step back, and more to the substance of your point, I don't think participatory art is any less one person's vision. You look at something like Yayoi Kusama's Obliteration Rooms and you come away with a very clear vision from her. In the same way, what Black Mirror is trying to do with this experiment by incorporating audience participation seems to be very much a part of the story that they are trying to tell. On the children shows, I think you are actually outside of this debate because the question is more what's better from an educational standpoint than from an artistic standpoint.