Netflix is pretty sure I’ll be excited about their upcoming film “The Silence.” It’s about a group of people, including a girl who is hearing-impaired, who have to flee a group of monsters who hunt by sound.
I probably won’t be, mostly because I’ve already seen “A Quiet Place,” a film that has the exact same premise. And I didn’t especially love “Bird Box,” Netflix’s other movie that also resembled that original film, starring John Krasinski and Emily Blunt.
But no matter. They’ll alert me to 10 other new movies I can watch before I know it. As I type this, they’re sending me an update about a zombie series called “Black Summer,” which is a spin-off of “Z Nation,” a show I did not watch to begin with.
If you subscribe to Netflix, you probably also get these weekly e-mails announcing the release of an entirely new show or movie you are meant to love.
The problem with such a glut of programming means a lot of it is extremely forgettable.
For every “Master of None,” there’s a “Friends From College.” For every “Grace and Frankie,” there’s a “Disjointed.” For every “Jessica Jones,” there’s an “Iron Fist.” And let’s not even talk about “Insatiable,” which, despite a 12 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, is cruising into a second season.
This torrent of entertainment has already led to jokes on “SNL.” One sketch portrays Netflix pitch meetings as one woman saying, “So, it’s about a girl named Jimmy” followed by an executive shouting, “Yes! Here’s money! Go make it!”
This surplus in poor-quality content is especially aggravating, given that Netflix is poised to raise their prices from $14 to $16 a month for those who subscribe to an ultra-high-definition streaming plan. Meanwhile, the $8-a-month plan will now cost $9, and the $11 plan $13.
Netflix certainly has ambition — so why is so much of their content so weak?
It’s not due to a shortage of talent. Indeed, the stellar casts are usually what make these programs watchable at all. Nor is it from any dearth of funding. Netflix is said to be pouring $15 billion into the platform, and Variety reported in 2018 that 85 percent of spending went towards original content.
In spite of this, most people tune in to Netflix to watch their old favorites. Fortune reported that despite releasing 88 percent more original programming in 2018 than 2017, viewers still preferred to watch classic shows on the platform. According to Fortune, “a research firm, 7Park Data, found that more than 80 percent of Netflix streams were for licensed content, that is, shows like ‘The Office’ . . . 42 percent of subscribers watched little or no original Netflix content.”
We’re bombarded with so many choices but so few good ones.
Furthermore, some of the most popular offerings on Netflix, like “You” or “Black Mirror,” originally appeared on other channels (in these cases, Lifetime and Britain’s Channel 4).
Part of the reason so much original content for Netflix sucks is down to the big pay packets they’re shelling out for showrunners — Ryan Murphy and Shonda Rhimes got $300 million and $150 million deals respectively — while regular writers working on these shows are finding the schedules increasingly challenging.
Where once they worked on one show for a year, with residuals, now they’re forced to scramble from one 10-episode show to another to cobble together a year’s worth of work. Constantly looking for the next job leaves less time to refine the material.
As one TV writer-director explained to Fast Company, “You’re working a lot but not making as much money.”
Hopefully, some of that $15 billion will see its way to the writers’ rooms. Most viewers would rather have one good offering every other week than a hasty one every day.
Netflix’s problem seems like one unique to the 21st century. In this, and nearly every aspect of life, we’re bombarded with so many choices but so few good ones.
If only Netflix could turn their attention to higher quality, rather than quantity. Until then, we’ll keep watching “The Office.”
