I find it very stressful when watching Netflix because I don't know what is going to happen. Maybe they could include the full story line at the start of the series, so I can read it ahead of time and remove all suspense and surprise.
Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that
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Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that
#12I find it very stressful when watching Netflix because I don't know what is going to happen. Maybe they could include the full story line at the start of the series, so I can read it ahead of time and remove all suspense and surprise.
True, but plots are only half the story. I'd be very grateful if they could give me some sample scenes (ideally automatically, so I don't have to go through the trouble of starting them every single time). I mean, how do people even decide whether a movie might be for them without having first inspected a good portion of it?
Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that
#13I suspect this appeals to two types of audiences. The first being people who play on their phones instead of watching the show. You can blame phone addiction and ADHD type behaviors for this but it feels like a slippery slope of stupidity in the face of good writing/acting as opposed to constant cartoon like action. (the wife and I do it too).
The second set of audience this would appeal to are people with autism. Sitcoms have always done this. Some people really need to be told when to laugh and what people are thinking because they have no ability to read body language, zero empathy, and cannot read the room. Once you encounter it regularly it’s mind blowing and that a significant portion of the population commonly lives with this sort of mental blindness.
Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that
#14I just hope they don't butcher 5th season of Stranger Things, after that they can rot in piss.
Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that
#15Netflix thought they could take on Hollywood and beat them at their own film game. But in the process they realized that it’s not actually a game worth winning, and more importantly, that YouTube and TikTok are their real competition, not Hollywood.
The future of most media is video-based, and I think Netflix probably understands this and is trying to get away from the historical model as movies you watch online and closer to the optimized video ecosystem of YouTube. The latter is more relevant in a world with video-playing devices everywhere.
Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that
#16>Netflix execs have been telling their screenwriters to have characters “announce what they’re doing” so that viewers who have a program on in the background can follow along without having to miss plot strands. That's the critical bit of context, this is essentially radio you have on in the background while you do whatever.
There is very little good or "main" content these days on Netflix. Every single time without fail whenever I have an urge to watch a specific show or movie, sometimes an old one, it's never available on Netflix. And even if they did have it, they "licensed" it for a year and no longer have it. What good is that for me?
So most of our usage these days of Netflix is just having something playing on the side or background while we go about daily tasks like working or whatever. It's glorified filler that you don't need to pay attention to.
I'm giving it a year maybe and I'm canceling our sub to Netflix. There are better alternatives, and life is too precious to spend worrying about copyright when all copyright holders just want to make me a criminal instead of letting be give them money.
Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that
#17Wait. They’re turning movies into audio books. That’s a good first step.
Next to save bandwidth they’ll drop video and just display text on screen.
Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that
#18I find it very stressful when watching Netflix because I don't know what is going to happen. Maybe they could include the full story line at the start of the series, so I can read it ahead of time and remove all suspense and surprise.
Don't worry, they have got the perfect solution for you. That cool series you just heard about but haven't had time to watch yet? It's cancelled. That's it. That's the story. Now you don't even need to watch it!
Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that
#19Netflix is going to kill their golden goose. It's already dying slowly, but they really should be just taking more risks. It's a streaming company run by people who seem to hate movies or tv.
I don't think their first-party content ever was a golden goose, I feel like it has always been their way to pad space between the good shows they bought from others.
Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that
#20As I cannot read the article without tapping 'Accept' on the monstrously big cookie pop-up (tapping "Manage Settings" leads to an even bigger pop-up whose presumed buttons are outside of the (non-scrollable) viewport), I'm going to comment without having read TFA, only the comments on here.
I am surprised that no one mentions these extra narrations as providing very valuable audio descriptions for visually impaired users. This in my opinion is a much more important use case, as long as it remains optional, selectable as a separate audio channel for example.