Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that • Hacker News Board

Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#211

Post by wavemode » Sat, Dec 28, 2024, 2:59 PM UTC

ryanackley wrote: post #24

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.

The article listed lots of examples... It's an exceptionally long article so you'd be forgiven for missing them, but there are definitely many examples given.

In fact that's actually what my main complaint is about this article - the point it's making is a good one but the article is probably 5x longer than it needs to be.

Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#212

Post by spencerflem » Sat, Dec 28, 2024, 3:00 PM UTC

0points wrote: post #26

mschuster91 wrote: post #4

I'd call that "endumbification". Netflix already lost giant chunks of its catalog as everyone and their dog now wants/has their own streaming shop (a worse situation than with cable TV now...), and it seems like they're going completely off the rails...

enshittification is an established term > Enshittification, also known as crapification and platform decay, is a pattern in which online products and services decline in quality. Initially, vendors create high-quality offerings to attract users, then they degrade those offerings to better serve business customers, and finally degrade their services to users and business customers to maximize profits for shareholders.

IMO that only applies to sites like Facebook or other "platforms" that have a lot of lock-in.

Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#213

Post by keiferski » Sat, Dec 28, 2024, 3:01 PM UTC

binary132 wrote: post #199

keiferski wrote: post #51

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…

Unfortunately all content is being optimized for increasingly brief attention spans and availability / focus.

Interestingly it’s not all content. Super long videos are doing well too, particularly interviews and video podcasts.

Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#214

Post by ghaff » Sat, Dec 28, 2024, 3:01 PM UTC

whoisstan wrote: post #172

cdot2 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're converging on audiobooks

Podcasts, brrrrr Audio works on the subway, on the bike, while riding a bike, cleaning the house and the big one, driving a car. To get into a situation where you can both watch and listen is much rarer.

The car is pretty much the only time I listen to non-music audio. And I don't drive enough to listen to audiobooks for the most part.

Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#215

Post by bryanrasmussen » Sat, Dec 28, 2024, 3:04 PM UTC

cs702 wrote: post #191

Nowadays, whenever I browse Netflix, I feel like that Bruce Springsteen song, "57 Channels (And Nothin' On)."[a] Sure, there are lots of choices, but they all kinda suck . I find myself wondering, why? The OP weaves an insightful, opinionated narrative that explains how we got here. Much of it rings true. This passage, in particular struck a chord with me: > Several screenwriters who’ve worked for the streamer told m…

I mean it is also somewhat dependent on how much bandwidth you have free while doing laundry, some people can handle watching the complicated stuff while doing their daily tasks and I guess those people also hate these half-assed shows.

Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#216

Post by ghaff » Sat, Dec 28, 2024, 3:06 PM UTC

zemvpferreira wrote: post #126

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the best modern productions are now the series rather than the films as there's so much more time to tell the story and have room for characters to breathe etc. Just look at the artistry and story-telling skill displayed in both seasons of Arcane - there's so many brilliant examples of "showing, not telling" on display there. As a counter-example, I enjoyed watching the "Flow" film the other day - an animated…

Maybe 5 years ago but can't say I agree any more. Netflix in particular stretches 2-hour scripts into 10-hour limited series. I'm trying to watch Black Doves right now and continually get bored at how much exposition and background there is. There was clearly a tight, fun script in there somewhere before the committee performed surgery on it. I don't need everything explored and explained to death, give me something…

I like Black Doves but don't really disagree with your broader point in some cases.

Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#217

Post by zebomon » Sat, Dec 28, 2024, 3:08 PM UTC

This article is a fascinating explication of the core reason that, without any respect paid to my millennial nostalgia at all, we need to preserve the physical cinema. The digital "attention economy" introduces such immense layers of abstraction between the audience and the business that none of us should feel confident that it will allow us to express our tastes for entertainment with anything close to intentionality. If we want to keep getting any modicum of entertainment that we actually like -- what a high bar! -- then we need to maintain our right to vote audibly with our dollars.

Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#218

Post by bryanrasmussen » Sat, Dec 28, 2024, 3:08 PM UTC

I think this also applies: https://medium.com/luminasticity/netflix-the-crap-you-put-up...

>A signature characteristic of Netflix’s strategy over the years has been to define genres into microscopic sub-genres and develop content on very specific customer likes — for example “Urban teen geniuses who invent time travel”

>There is an unfortunate issue with making things bad and to somebody’s taste — the person whose taste you are courting may be happy to be courted but if all they ever get of things to their taste are things that are bad representations of that taste they may come to sour on what they once loved.

and that is I think what happens a lot with Netflix, they produce approximations of the thing you love, and by doing this bad half-assed version with the wires sticking out and everything, in the end you don't love that thing anymore.

Netflix in the hunt for quick engagement eats the seed corn of fandom, and are left with nothing to build on.

Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#219

Post by andsoitis » Sat, Dec 28, 2024, 3:10 PM UTC

Vespasian wrote: post #109

raverbashing wrote: post #67

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

That is actually an idea for AI in movie making that I could get behind. I don't think it's possible yet by a very very very long shot but if it were it would be a better idea than "write your own movies". My stories probably suck outside a captive, very young and related "audience" which is fine because I'm not script writer. But I would pay quite a lot of money for a "get to the point" button.

> But I would pay quite a lot of money for a "get to the point" button.

then you're missing the point of storytelling.

Re: Casual Viewing – Why Netflix looks like that

#220

Post by raincole » Sat, Dec 28, 2024, 3:16 PM UTC

egeozcan wrote: post #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 one…

Honestly, the more I read, the less I appreciate the "show, don't tell" rule/guideline/mantra.