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Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

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Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#231

Post by petepete »

astrange wrote: post #191
lupire wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GOT wasn't milked. It outran the unfinished source materials and then the director/producers D&D "phoned it in" because they started working on Star Wars. And seasons are so short that even the bad seasons weren't a lot of TV.

It does seem like they had an outline for GRRM’s planned ending, but I doubt he was just going to have all the characters join forces and become a zombie fighting show.

Plot armour, a complete lack of consequences, CGI battles over dialogue, _really poor_ writing and ridiculous plots just to get characters in the right place at the right time.

The first four seasons are among the best TV ever. The final two among the worst.

Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#232

Post by avh02 »

ajmurmann wrote: post #96
walrus01 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a number of people who have just gone back to torrenting everything they care about (such as For All Mankind or Foundation) and are very unlikely to ever subscribe to a 2nd, 3rd, 4th streaming service. They either picked netflix and have stayed with it at $22/mo or have changed from netflix to 1 other service like paramount+ or whatever, but the idea of paying $50-60-80 a month for more services on top of thei…

Interesting to call out Netflix for high price and then the examples for torrenting are Apple shows which is much cheaper.

My assumption with appletv is that you need half their ecosystem to even have the honour of giving them money to watch content.

Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#233

Post by gernb »

scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #198

“Content is King” We all know this, Netflix knows this. And yet for some reason for years they have been aiming for quantity and not quality. Money is not enough in this department and baseball metaphors don’t do justice illustrating just how hard it is to put together a team that has that special thing going on. Some would argue it’s impossible - teams like the one behind Better Call Saul are just extremely rare and…

There's a legend of when Sony bought Columbia Pictures which is probably not true but the story is, after Sony bought Columbia Pictures, some Japanese executives flew over to meet with the top management at Columbia. The Columbia management explained to the Japanese execs that only 1 in 20 movies makes a profit. The Japanese executives talked to each other in Japanese and then turned back to the Columbia management and said "Please only make the profitable movies" (lol)

Just to spell it out in case the point wasn't clear. The Columbia management was trying to explain they don't know and have no way of knowing up front which movies will be good and which movies will sell and make their money back. Instead they're always gambling by funding a bunch of movies and it only works out because the few hits pay for all the non-hits.

Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#234

Post by closedloop129 »

snek_case wrote: post #174
t8y wrote: post #79

It's clear they are just outclassed by Disney+. People thought the hard part was creating the streaming platform, the content was mostly licensed with a few exclusives. It's now clear that exclusive content is everything. Disney have new content every month (ie. Moon Knight -> Obi-Wan Kenobi) and high quality movies like Luca and Turning Red. Netflix's strategy seems to be just get big name actors and mediocre creati…

I feel like Netflix always kind of had an issue with poor taste. They have crappy reality shows and pseudo-documentaries about how the aliens build pyramids. A metric fuckton of content that caters to people with below average intelligence. In addition to this content being unhealthy because you either don't learn anything, or are actively being fed falsehoods, I think it just gives the platform a poor image. It's ki…

>A metric fuckton of content that caters to people with below average intelligence.

The big question is how big is the fraction of people who are below average intelligence. Depending on that ratio, it could make sense to produce content for that part of the population ...

Additionally, highly intelligent people earn more money and don't have to buy content wholesale. They can afford to buy movies directly which means that each view of intelligent content is worth much more. Now, how can Netflix integrate that into their platform? There won't be any bargains left. Even young talented creatives will demand what they are worth.

There have to be different streaming services for different quality levels. Netflix has decided to serve some fraction of the bell curve and leaves other fractions to others.

Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#235

Post by donthellbanme »

bawolff wrote: post #205
chii wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they had billions of dollars to create original content they had the wrong idea that original content is their strong point. It's not. It's disney's strong point. Netflix should've used their dominant position to lobby for new rules to the game - prevent exclusivity of content! They should've lobbied gov't to mandate that studio productions of content be permanently untied to a streaming service, and be available t…

I disagree - their issue was scaling it. When they started out creating original content, they were hitting it out of the park. Orange is the new black, daredevil, house of cards were all big hits. They scaled, quality was sacraficed for quantity, and their brand became very dilluted.

I didn't watch the shows you mentioned.

I was late to Netflix.

The original movies I saw were beyond bad. In every movie they used every plot twist ever invented, and every bit of cliched writing. The overpaid actors just read lines.

It's almost like they locked sober hack writers in a room and told them just write. Write like your audience is an angry/perverted Forrest Gump, and can't speak English. (I threw in sober because even if under the influence--they might have written better?)

They just wasted money.

I understand comming up with original clever scripts is hard.

I felt they could have redone classic movies though--instead of the garbage they threw at us.

I was watching Dog Day Afternoon the other day. The movie aged very well, and is an all time classic. No one is going to top that movie on any level.

Netflix could have tried to remake it though with up to date references, and even change up the script. Sonny, and Sal could have made it on the plane, and go from there.

Dog Day Afternoon is a bad example because it aged so well, but their are other good movies that could have been brought up to date?

I believe it's too late for Netflix.

In retrospect, I would have rather had them throw money at students in film school.

(I don't bet on stocks, but we all saw this comming. Every studio was working on their own pay per view service a year after we started talking about Netflix. Someone brobally made millions shorting that company.)

Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#236

Post by creakingstairs »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #216
creakingstairs wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like you said, all my friends and family can afford it, but there is a psychological barrier to adding yet another subscription service when they already have multiple. You could switch around, but that is also a hassle.

It is far less of a hassle than it was with cable/satellite companies. For example, I go to TV app on my phone or laptop or Apple TV. Search for what I want. Pay for it, and if it is a subscription, then go back to list of subscriptions and then cancel. If it is Netflix, then you might have to do this in a browser since they do not cooperate with Apple. Not sure how much easier people want it to get. I will gladly ta…

I agree with you 100 percent that it’s not too hard. But even smallest bumps tend to discourage people. I’ve gotten people to switch/ subscribe for a month couple of times but I had to make a very strong recommendation of a series.

Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#237

Post by zargon »

theonemind wrote: post #172
thrill wrote: post #2

The quoted "competing exec" is 100% wrong when he says Netflix is making a mistake ending shows after three seasons. Shows need to be pitched and run for three seasons max, period. Everyone has a life other than the show that's "hot" for the moment, from cast to writers to the source of money - the viewers. Shows that get dragged out inevitably suck. And yeah, go to weekly releases.

It seems like strong shows can go up to about 7 seasons and remain good. Three does seem short for a very strong show. Maybe personal bias, but it seems to hold up pretty well in my viewing history. Seinfeld definitely felt stretched at 9. Star Trek TNG's seventh season definitely felt like about time to wrap it up. Simpsons went kind of wonky around season 8. Buffy the Vampire Slayer seemed good for a 7 season run.…

Especially considering that streaming seasons are 8 episodes. So 3 streaming seasons is only one full season.

Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#238

Post by andrelaszlo »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #226
scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #198

“Content is King” We all know this, Netflix knows this. And yet for some reason for years they have been aiming for quantity and not quality. Money is not enough in this department and baseball metaphors don’t do justice illustrating just how hard it is to put together a team that has that special thing going on. Some would argue it’s impossible - teams like the one behind Better Call Saul are just extremely rare and…

They were probably fooled by metrics. People were watching the crap, so it looked like crap was good enough (until it wasn’t).

Very true. They find something that's kind of amusing, then milk it until it bleeds (gross analogy, sorry...).

"Nailed It", sure, I can watch it from time to time but it doesn't mean I will watch 150 other baking shows.

Same thing with "Jessica Jones". I literally found articles about "The top 30 superhero shows on Netflix this year", trying to remember the name of this one. After a while you realize that the funny premise stops being engaging after a couple of episode and the spell is broken.

I watch almost no Netflix these days but I got excited about the new season of Russian Doll, but despite an original script, it doesn't have the punch of the first season. Perhaps it's not just a money grab, but I would have preferred more risk-taking. Why not let created Natasha Lyonne, Leslye Headland, and Amy Poehler do something new and crazy instead of a season 2, for example?

Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#239

Post by xyzzy123 »

astrange wrote: post #195
BoiledCabbage wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why this is so often presented as such a difficult to understand concept. People pay property taxes every year on assets that change in value without selling (ie unrealized gains). Nobody seems perplexed by that. But can't seem to figure out how it works for stocks. Regardless of if you agree or disagree with doing it (which I'm not pushing for or against here), it's not a complex concept.

Property taxes certainly have issues; they tax building improvements, but we want those, so we shouldn’t be incentivizing people to not improve their buildings. Land value tax is the proper way to go, questions of how to value land aside. The issue with a wealth tax is it’s inflationary - most taxes are deflationary but a wealth tax forces you to sell assets to get their cash from them. It does encourage rich people…

Couldn't you take loans against the value? I'm sort of assuming the wealth tax is a fraction of a percent, and that the burden would mostly be borne by high net worth individuals who could easily financialise their way out of small inconveniences.

Re: Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it

#240

Post by Ntrails »

gernb wrote: post #233
scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #198

“Content is King” We all know this, Netflix knows this. And yet for some reason for years they have been aiming for quantity and not quality. Money is not enough in this department and baseball metaphors don’t do justice illustrating just how hard it is to put together a team that has that special thing going on. Some would argue it’s impossible - teams like the one behind Better Call Saul are just extremely rare and…

There's a legend of when Sony bought Columbia Pictures which is probably not true but the story is, after Sony bought Columbia Pictures, some Japanese executives flew over to meet with the top management at Columbia. The Columbia management explained to the Japanese execs that only 1 in 20 movies makes a profit. The Japanese executives talked to each other in Japanese and then turned back to the Columbia management a…

> Instead they're always gambling by funding a bunch of movies and it only works out because the few hits pay for all the non-hits.

So, Venture Capital? xD

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