> But Netflix’s quarterly subscriber growth is now slowing in spite of spending more money than ever on content
To me the problem is the content. They now seem to produce shows for particular niches that are never my niche. Some of these extremely expensive shows are laughably low quality on all fronts: story, acting, stylistic choices, cinematography/direction... everything.
Take the new Cowboy Bebop: it's obviously not made for fans of the original. Is it made for new fans? For adults? For children? I couldn't tell.
Half the tentpole movies of the 80s, 90s and early 2000s were my niche, so it's not as though I'm a difficult audience.
If Netflix produce shows with particular political or cultural slants, they need to make sure there's an audience of people who watches shows for their politics & cultural slants, rather than for being, er, good.
I watch shows with compelling stories and solid characters. I'm not interested in race, gender, sexual orientation, identity, etc, except inasmuch as it makes for interesting stories and adds to a character's personality or motivations.
There's an audience of people on Twitter who defend/malign Netflix shows, and people on Youtube who make/consume video essays about them, but is anybody in that group actively watching that original content with joy and getting more value from their Netflix subscription than they got the previous year?
> Half the tentpole movies of the 80s, 90s and early 2000s were my niche, so it's not as though I'm a difficult audience.
I know what you mean - but is that Hollywood, or is it us becoming grown-ups?
I mean, it's possible all movies are aimed at the tastes of teenagers, and the reason Terminator 2 and Robocop and Die Hard seemed like great movies is because I saw them when I was a teenager.
The innumerable superhero movies we have nowerdays may seem like a snoozefest in comparison - but maybe that's just because I'm no longer a teenager.
You had to choose those three movies as movies that only seemed great as a teenager? I'd argue they've aged better than a lot of movies from that time period and I'm pretty sure I don't hold the minority opinion there.
Hell, I got tired of adults making nonstop jokes and references to watching Die Hard as a Christmas movie on Facebook just a month ago.
Wait, Die Hard isn't a Christmas movie?? We watched it with our college age kids over the break as one. Sure seemed like a perfect Christmas movie to me, even redeeming a rocky marriage at the end.
Of those 20 bad movies, the majority are the fun-to-watch kind.
Even the descriptions in the post grudgingly admit that many of these bad movies 1) did well at the box office and 2) developed a cult following:
> Cobra failed with critics and was a disappointment. It's one of the worst movies of the 80s. However, turns out the fans loved it. It soon gained a massive cult following. It follows a basic action movie formula that failed to impress. Sylvester Stallone wrote the film but had issues with the studio. However, It did well at the box office. On the other hand, the violence and story failed to connect with fans at the time. Of course, things can always change. Cobra managed to find a whole new fan base. It's now a cult classic.
I think I agree with you, in fact it gave me a few movies I hadn't seen that are now on my to-watch list (and a couple to rewatch, like Tango & Cash). But at least it's a better list of action movies that haven't aged as well than Terminator 2, Robocop, and Die Hard.
Maybe I'm just in some kind of weird minority (I also like modern art and brutalist architecture) but many of the TV shows I've most enjoyed watching over the last year have been Netflix originals. Arcane and Castlevania are both up there with the best western animation ever, The Witcher and Cobra Kai are great pulpy fun while still having compelling characters, and Kate is my favorite action movie.
Yep, sometimes Netflix manages to produce a good season one of a new series, but they lack the ability create followup seasons. My favorite example is Luke Cage. Season one is fantastic, but season two is so bad that it makes you think that season one was written by someone else entirely.
The main issue for Netflix has been losing their back catalog, as the content owners started offering their own streaming services. Netflix could produce a few good shows each year, but not as main as they're trying to. It's just that few people would pay for that, without the vast back catalog.
There's still much to watch, but finding the good stuff is becoming increasingly hard. A better recommendation engine might fix some of the issues, but in the long run I think Netflix is becoming a niche player.
Not taking away from your main point, but the ABC-Marvel-Netflix shows were sandbagged by Ike Perlmutter at Marvel, who wouldn't let them be treated as first-class citizens with the movies. Daredevil was still pretty sweet across all seasons, thankfully.
discoverability on netflix has been incredibly poor for many years. i don't want to dig through infinite feeds of twee-sounding categories your algorithm came up with. i don't want to see what you think i want (a bunch of cheaper derivatives of things i've already watched). i want to look for specific things in specific categories and find them.
i don't even recommend movies on netflix to friends and family anymore because now it's a coinflip whether they'll still be available. but the most damning indictment i've witnessed is that my technologically illiterate parents have simply gone back to getting dvds from the library.
To me the problem is the content. They now seem to produce shows for particular niches that are never my niche. Some of these extremely expensive shows are laughably low quality on all fronts: story, acting, stylistic choices, cinematography/direction... everything.
Take the new Cowboy Bebop: it's obviously not made for fans of the original. Is it made for new fans? For adults? For children? I couldn't tell.
Half the tentpole movies of the 80s, 90s and early 2000s were my niche, so it's not as though I'm a difficult audience.
If Netflix produce shows with particular political or cultural slants, they need to make sure there's an audience of people who watches shows for their politics & cultural slants, rather than for being, er, good.
I watch shows with compelling stories and solid characters. I'm not interested in race, gender, sexual orientation, identity, etc, except inasmuch as it makes for interesting stories and adds to a character's personality or motivations.
There's an audience of people on Twitter who defend/malign Netflix shows, and people on Youtube who make/consume video essays about them, but is anybody in that group actively watching that original content with joy and getting more value from their Netflix subscription than they got the previous year?
I wish I were, but I'm not.