As You Like It

Prestige television meets the Sleep No More format in HBO’s Mosaic.

- Steve Rousseau

If you know how this one ends, turn the page. In 1969, on his commute home, Edward Packard, a lawyer for RCA Records, penned a story with an inventive twist: The reader would decide the plot turns. A decade later, Bantam Books picked up the concept in earnest, and the choose-your-own adventure craze began.

Since then the concept of an interactive narrative has had as many branching paths and dead ends as its namesake (and copyrighted) format. Video games have evolved to feel like participatory movies, and 2016 brought us Late Shift, the “world’s first interactive cinematic movie.” Since 2011 the theatre production Sleep No More has lured audiences for repeat viewings by offering viewers the chance to see new aspects of the story each time.

Mosaic, a miniseries from director Steven Soderbergh, is the latest, a rare attempt in Hollywood to relinquish control to the audience. It began as a free app in November and premiered on HBO on Jan. 22.