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Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

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Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#261

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The culture is more accepting of LGBTQ these days, so people are more likely to admit it. It's that simple - there's no need to try and psychoanalyze millions of people based on your political ideology.

But you've just done that. The answer is that it's obviously not that simple. What we know is that there has been a large percentage increase in the number of people identifying as queer. One hypothesis is that this is because there was previously a certain percentage of the population who was queer, but the societal cost for identifying as such was sufficiently high so as to prevent them from doing so. It is therefo…

I identify as white and demand the accompanying privileges.

Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#262
Can someone tell me what the 94% match in Netflix means?

I don't understand what in the world XX% match is all about.

My biggest complaint about Netflix is there is no simple 5-star rating. Or something like that.

I'm not going to watch a trash movie that is a XX% match to some bogus criteria. Even if that match is 100%.

Thus, unlike Prime, I explore very little with Netflix. I manually look up the rating in IMDb before I watch anything. (Which is why I prefer Prime. Since IMDb is built in.)

Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It becomes a problem though when shows are catering to what 1% (or less) of the population looks like or is diagnosed with. This is what people are getting upset with. Representation is fine. But when every new show you turn on has half of the cast as a trans person, a non-binary person, and a whatever else it gets old. It gets old when historical shows and films have distorted facts or figures to, again, fill some q…

Gen-z identifies as 20% queer. Each new generation is more willing/able to live their truth. Wouldn't surprise me if we land somewhere around 25-30%. In large part thanks to representation in shows and movies. The us is rapidly diversifying too in terms of race, yet still even more under represented in media. Glaad says only ~10% queer characters on broadcast, and was a decline from previous study. Specifically compa…

As well as still being used as an offensive slur against gay people and thus not really an appropriate term to use in these sorts of discussions, 'queer' is so ill-defined that it could include pretty much anyone if they feel like it, regardless of actual sexual orientation.

For example, 'demisexual' people are included in this categorization, even though all it means is that a person prefers to form an emotional bond with their partner before engaging in sexual activity. Not only is there nothing particularly unusual about that, this includes people who are heterosexual. Who are not a marginalized sexuality by any means.

Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I approve of the use of talented non-white actors in British period dramas, such as David Copperfield. It is obvious that the person's skin colour is ahistorical for the role. But it doesn't matter. We the audience are tacitly invited to look past this detail. It seems a little incongruous for about ten seconds, then just disappears into their fine performance.

See also Chernobyl being full of actors with British accents ... jarring for about 30 seconds, and then you don't even realise for the rest of the show, because it's just that good.

I've seen a making of commentary of Chernobyl, and the reasoning behind having non-accent actors was that a) it was Western production with Western casting and b) they wanted to avoid the old habit of portraying Russians as speaking bad English. I get both points, and it helped the immersion, because I speak English without a Russian accent.

And yes, Chernobyl is among the best shows ever produced. Only exception is the last episode, they could have focused more on the international reaction to it, and the fact that everybody wanted the total cost and impact of the disaster to be low. It was a choice, so, to focus on the Soviet perspective. Taking the Soviet trial for the last episode made perfect sense.

Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#265
post #156

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So if representation is fine what do you want it to look like? Because by your rules black people aren’t allowed to have fun fantasizing about being a pirate sailing the high seas in colonial England, a trans man can’t be in a WWII fiction fighting nazis, a woman can’t be in a medical drama about stopping the cholera outbreak. So if they can’t be key roles (i.e. important at all to the plot) minorities should be rele…

I agree with the other poster. It’s not relatable. No offence to the minorities. It feels like forced messaging to the rest of us. Why represent only minorities in race, ethnicity and sexuality? Why not represent people such as war widows, people with skin diseases, mental disabilities, people with above average heights, obese people, etc.? For those of us not living in the USA, it feels like cultural imperialism. “W…

They increasingly do. As one very convenient fictional example ticking off most of those, Game of Thrones had a tall warrior woman, a dwarf, an overweight bookish sort, wheelchair-bound kid, dude missing an arm, a bastard or two, skin issues, etc. ;)

Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#266
post #120

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> Increasing pop politics seemingly shoe horned into everything I'd turn on :( I know this is a tangent but it’s always sad to see representation treated as inherently political. Like this is the first time in my life I’ve ever seen mainstream shows portray wlw relationships. Or shows portray the reality of how common and casual sexual assault is. Or characters that that struggle with depression as more than just an…

It becomes a problem though when shows are catering to what 1% (or less) of the population looks like or is diagnosed with. This is what people are getting upset with. Representation is fine. But when every new show you turn on has half of the cast as a trans person, a non-binary person, and a whatever else it gets old. It gets old when historical shows and films have distorted facts or figures to, again, fill some q…

That's part of why we watched almost exclusively Korean and Japanese series and movies for the last two years. Got bored of the representation as a substitute for interesting content bs. They are fighting against different issues such as school and workplace bulying, arranged marriages or the cover up culture. The actors are also very good. On the minus side, they almost never use older actors in lead roles. Or actors who represent what most regular middle aged Korean men or women actually look like (hint: Park Jae-sang or Psy of Gangnam Style fame). I've even seen a show with a trans person and a black guy who spoke fluent Korean. Yet it all made sense, it was not just there to satisfy a representaion requirement.

Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It becomes a problem though when shows are catering to what 1% (or less) of the population looks like or is diagnosed with. This is what people are getting upset with. Representation is fine. But when every new show you turn on has half of the cast as a trans person, a non-binary person, and a whatever else it gets old. It gets old when historical shows and films have distorted facts or figures to, again, fill some q…

Gen-z identifies as 20% queer. Each new generation is more willing/able to live their truth. Wouldn't surprise me if we land somewhere around 25-30%. In large part thanks to representation in shows and movies. The us is rapidly diversifying too in terms of race, yet still even more under represented in media. Glaad says only ~10% queer characters on broadcast, and was a decline from previous study. Specifically compa…

Gen X might be large Netflix consumers, however, they are not yet a large percentage of Netflix subscription payers. One problem for Netflix seems to be that their algorithms are favouring Gen-z content, however, Gen-z are not yet having much influence if the subscription gets cancelled or not

Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#268
post #214
post #119

I'm just here to say how nice the tcp/ip tuning team is. The content may be a battle zone but their internet technology is focussed on tcp optimisations which make sense. They have amazing instrumentation in the kernel, and they give back to FreeBSD. I don't work for them, I have met them. Nice guys.

Netflix had great streaming tech years before anyone else did. I wonder why they decided that the right move was to compete on content. If they had just set up a platform where any content provider could sell their content (on a monthly or one-off basis) for a small cut like 15%, they might have become the default "TV store."

They had to focus on content as they feared other studios would start their own streaming studios and took their content away (as mentioned by the article).

What you’re describing would not work in the movie industry, which is very contract and license heavy.

Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's more that Netflix just has poor execution on a lot of shows. When telling a story on TV, you often want to cut the story to the bone such that it can be understood quickly and entertain without confusing the viewer with side tangents that aren't central to the story. If a non-story-essential element is too prominent then the viewer might feel it's boring

This happened to Doctor Who. Too much emphasis on LGBTQ rather than good stories.

Sad, really; Whitaker nailed the role as the Doctor. At least the most recent season made up for it. The previous season's attempt at giving everything a woke angle simply turned out to be really, really boring sci-fi.

Re: Netflix’s big power clash and rivalries behind the crash

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, netflix might be too embarrassed by their catalogue to show people a simple A-Z listing of everything they have, but I'd absolutely watch netflix more often if they did. Scrolling through the same shows I'm not interested in over and over across their multiple random/useless categories takes up way too much time. Every so often I'll go to search and enter random 2-3 letter combinations because I usually find…

The UI/UX is the crux of the problem for me, and infact, the same problem with Amazon Prime. They both have fantastic shows and films, I know because i've seen some of them, but they NEVER seem to show up in app. Instead, I get endless scrolling of the same shows I skip over every time. The algo doesn't seem to learn (Not to say it doesn't but the perception). The UI doesn't have enough unique elements to drive the a…

We subscribe to Netflix, Disney, Binge, Prime and previously Stan. They all have annoyingly poor interfaces in one way or another. It's quite amazing that not one of them has excelled at allowing you to find something you might want to watch.
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