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Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

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Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#81
post #40

This is likely being blown way out of proportion. I'm not defending this behavior but the article listed exactly one example: Irish Wish. I'm sure it appeals to a certain audience but it's not what I, personally, would call peak cinema. My guess is that this guidance was given to a specific writer or person in charge of a specific genre.

Exactly. The one example they use gets a 5.2 on IMDB and 42% on rotten tomatoes. Not all movies are high art, nor should they be. It’s for a certain audience. We’ve had crappy made-for-TV movies since long before streaming and it hasn’t been the death of cinema.

42% means that some professional critics considered it “fresh.” That’s scary to me.

Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#82
You can't do 100% "show, don't tell" unless your movie is 15 hours long. It's always about balance, and it's probably one of the hardest challenges in scriptwriting and directing. Netflix movies have always leaned more toward the "tell" side, and this feels like an open acknowledgment of it.

Small digression: Turkish series have been doing an extreme version of "telling" for ages. I've been watching the cheesiest ones with my wife as she uses them to unwind (I do the same with YouTube videos). In these shows, characters don't just say what they're doing, they also explain how they feel, what they plan to do, and how they'll feel afterward. It's oddly addictive, like watching a bad movie on purpose, and somehow, you end up completely hooked.

Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I watch/listen to stuff when I do chores at home. If I am going to iron 30 things or knead a dough for 15 minutes, then it's nice to have some entertainment while doing it, even if I can't focus on it all the time. Not sure I fit into any of the two audiences you mention.

By the downvote I suspect you find this description of inattention, or chores, offensive. How is that, the complete inability to focus and the emotional hostility you imagine about it, not a form of ADHD?

I dunno, I like to listen to the radio when I'm driving, am I exhibiting ADHD or Autistic related behaviour?

Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you please explain what this optimized video ecosystem of youtube is actually optimized for other than clickbait? Maybe it works for others but i fell into this for a while and now i look at it in disgust.

Clickbait is a part of it, sure. But there are also many other content types that I wouldn’t characterize that way: 3+ hour long video podcasts, ambient music channels, niche indie musicians, short entertaining videos like Mr. Beast, etc. YouTube is increasingly a huge tent that includes tons of different kinds of content. My point was more that YouTube is increasingly designed for a world in which people have their…

I can see this working for individuals but what about families? And although i dont feel thinking too much about netflixes business it raises the question if this would requre to adapt their model to an ad based model rather than subscription.

Anyhow- i see a gigantic problem coming towards us caused by rapidly decreasing attention capacities and this does not help.

Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clickbait is a part of it, sure. But there are also many other content types that I wouldn’t characterize that way: 3+ hour long video podcasts, ambient music channels, niche indie musicians, short entertaining videos like Mr. Beast, etc. YouTube is increasingly a huge tent that includes tons of different kinds of content. My point was more that YouTube is increasingly designed for a world in which people have their…

I can see this working for individuals but what about families? And although i dont feel thinking too much about netflixes business it raises the question if this would requre to adapt their model to an ad based model rather than subscription. Anyhow- i see a gigantic problem coming towards us caused by rapidly decreasing attention capacities and this does not help.

Not sure what you mean by families, but I would be willing to bet that most families today already let their children watch more YouTube family content than Netflix content.

And I do believe Netflix introduced a cheaper ad tier recently?

Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#86
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I can't blame them if current audiences have the attention span of a puppy golden retriever The one use case I wanted to see for AI is "tunable" contexts for videos. If this is your first time, watch the whole thing but if you need less context just edit it so it skips over the obvious parts

I would love to see movies come in many different flavours. Long, short, dial up the violence, or down, etc etc.

That would probably make every such movie rated 18+, unless you limit the controls somehow and they find a way to make sure nothing too violent happens on any given setting, or pre-render every single configuration and have reviewers check them all.

Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#87

It’s just slop par excellence. I’ve been watching a number of movies with my wife over Christmas. Everything is so bland, repetitive and ‘design by committee’. It goes further than merely announcing what the characters are doing (in that new wannabe Die Hard movie we hear that they are expecting a baby three times in 5 minutes), you just know there are certain metrics used for every genre of movie accounting for ever…

Let's be real here look at the movies that make a billion at the box office. It's never the highbrow stuff.

Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#88
post #65

Oof. What's next? Announcing what they see? What items are around them and how they could interact with them (or not)? Like "Protagonist: I walked north and I entered a mysterious room, full of different bottles. They don't look like I could use them, but maybe I should take one with me?"

"I see you have Chekhov's gun hanging on your wall"

"Let me show you my beautiful MacGuffin suitcase, it's the latest trend. "

Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#89
post #73

I 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. Si…

As someone with autism, the second paragraph is entirely incorrect.

I have a child with autism and coworkers with autistic children and in-laws with autism. That second paragraph was the polite and mild description.

Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#90
Definitely not surprising. The quality of Netflix originals is on a decline for years. I see this label as a warning nowadays. There are enough good quality movies and shows. My life is too short to spend it with mediocre entertainment that leaves no lasting impression or thoughts. I don't need to pass time I want to make most out of it.
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