Since self-quarantine began in March of this year, many Americans have tuned to streaming services such as the long-running Netflix and newcomers Disney+ and HBOMax for small bits of comfort amidst these hard times.
However, as we descend further and further into quarantine, it seems like each of these platforms’ quality has begun to degrade, primarily in regard to Netflix. In the past several weeks, the streaming giant has found itself at the forefront of two major controversies: outrage over the film Cuties, a Sundance Award-winning film from a foreign director which many have claimed promotes the sexualization of younger girls, as well as the cancellation of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, their wildly successful prequel to the cult classic Jim Henson film just days after it won an Emmy for Best Children’s Program.
Go even further back and you’ll see they also cancelled Tuca and Bertie, an animated series from some of the crew behind BoJack Horseman, another Netflix success story. That show, at least, was later picked back up by Adult Swim. It was seemingly done in favor of giving the controversial coming-of-age animated series Big Mouth three more seasons. Netflix has received numerous criticisms and outcry from fans and critics alike on some of these decisions but have seldom done anything about it other than a general hand wave and a generic apology.
So why are they shooting themselves in the foot as opposed to actually producing quality content?
The answer has two major parts to it: money and the captive audience.
Now money for Netflix appears to be a non-issue; in 2019 alone, they made $20.156 billion dollars in revenue alone and according to Statistica, boast over 193 million continuous paid users (source). They purchased the streaming rights to beloved American sitcom Friends for close to $100 million, NBC sitcom The Office for $90 million, and various Disney content for around $150 million. However, as other companies started making their own streaming services, most of these titles have been pulled and left Netflix scrambling to get new projects in the pipeline and out onto their platform to cope with the losses.
Netflix’s new projects following the loss of some of their vital content have been a bit of a mixed bag, leaning slightly toward the negative side of things. On the one hand, their animated Originals such as Hilda, an animated series based on the graphic novel series of the same name by Luke Pearson, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, a reboot of the 80s He-Man spin-off She-Ra, the Tales of Arcadia trilogy created by legendary film director Guillermo del Toro and Glitch Techs, a Nickelodeon-produced show created by most of the team behind the cult classic Fanboy and Chum Chum; have mostly gone on to receive pickups for more seasons and even movies and merchandising deals.
Additionally, their live-action series Stranger Things, a throwback to 80s films with a Stephen King-esque look and feel to it, The Haunting of Hill House, a horror series revolving around the tragedies that befall to groups in different time periods working on a haunted house with a sequel series set to release in a few weeks’ time and Black Mirror, an anthology series showing the terrors of technology, among several other shows, have been praised for their excellent writing and characters and have the creators working on multiple projects for the service.
On the other hand, is the mindless drivel Netflix frequently spews out when their other programming is on hiatus.
Most of it is romantic comedies directed at teenagers and young adults and usually it’s not very good. Tall Girl is a prime example of this as it’s about a girl who’s barely taller than the average height for girls her age but is seen as an oddball due to it. The writing is atrocious, the characters are as flat as a piece of paper run over by a steamroller and it comes to an expected and cliché conclusion.
So why does Netflix put more emphasis on their live action content despite its lack of quality? Money.
Though Netflix doesn’t release numbers showing how many people watch specific media through their platform, given the numbers we do know, we can assume that there are thousands or even millions of people watching Netflix at any given time of day anywhere in the world. The more people watch, the more likely they are to recommend whatever they’re watching to friends and family; it’s simply spreading it via word of mouth and over social media. In doing this, Netflix gains more and more subscribers who have a variety of interests but may gravitate towards the aforementioned romantic comedies and whatever content Netflix recommends – usually Riverdale, I’ve noticed – without much thought. By people streaming this content, ironically or not, Netflix takes this data and utilizes it to figure out what projects deserve more attention and funding regardless of quality. This isn’t to say all of Netflix’s financial decisions are bad, though, as they have put a fair amount into purchasing the rights to more obscure series and movies people would be somewhat interested in watching. However, ultimately, the bad can sometimes outweigh the good when it comes to these Originals.
Now how is Netflix getting away with this?
Simple. The captive audience.
As previously mentioned, streaming services have seen a massive increase in viewership since quarantine began. With it came new viewers wanting to watch nothing more than something to put on as background noise, to keep them temporarily entertained in their downtime, or to genuinely sit down and watch. Netflix has their attention with its wide array of shows and movies of varying mediums and levels of quality and they’ll get revenue from both new subscriptions and from people watching their content as opposed to anyone else’s. Other streaming services seem to be headed on a downward trend as well, as seen with Disney’s recent Mulan controversies and the removal of several animation teams from HBO Max’s lineup.
The most we can do for now is support those few talented creators by purchasing their material through other means and supporting other forms of video streaming. Without this, we are certain to end up in a future where media preservation is based entirely upon whether or not it’s available on a streaming platform.
