It’s easy for any studio, network, or streaming service to fall into the same trap over and over again, with Netflix content to spend valuable time and resources on interactive romantic comedy Choose Love despite its previous forays into experimental choose-your-own storytelling tending to fall flat.
Recent horror Choose or Die? was only released in April of last year and has already long since been lost to the sands of time, while star-studded mystery thriller Kaleidoscope could barely buy a decent review despite boasting an intriguing concept and the boundlessly reliable Giancarlo Esposito in the lead.
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch also happens to be the worst-rated entry in the long-running dystopian anthology saga, so it shouldn’t really come as much surprise to discover that Choose Love has arrived packing a paltry 20 percent critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Of course, the novelty ensured that it was at least going to enjoy a stellar debut, which is precisely what happened after FlixPatrol revealed the saccharine original arrived as the third most-watched feature on Netflix’s worldwide watch-list, having staked out a Top 10 spot in 69 countries around the world.
Playing god and manipulating the fates of major characters sounds a lot more ominous than it is – especially when you’re dealing with something so light, breezy, fluffy, and banal that it seems to go through the big book of cliches and tick them off one by one – but subscribers are evidently enamored enough in the concept to give Choose Love a whirl on its opening weekend.