4 ms·

Netflix is in a growth phase and, no surprise, they're catering a much bigger audience now. Besides all the shows you listed, it's recently aired Stranger Thing

by freyir 10y ago

Netflix is in a growth phase and, no surprise, they're catering a much bigger audience now. Besides all the shows you listed, it's recently aired Stranger Things, Narcos, The Crown, Longmire, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmitt, The OA, etc. These shows aren't going to appeal to everyone, but they're going to be somebody's favorite show. Daredevil never really did it for me. I thought their Wet Hot American Summer reboot was really entertaining. Go figure.

DanBC 10y ago
Longmire is a great example of the problem I have with "Netflix original". It started on A&E 2012 to 2014; it's produced by Warner Horizon -- how is this original to Netflix?
- SyneRyder 10y ago
  I'm glad someone else picked up on this! Lots of the Netflix Originals aren't by Netflix at all. In Australia, The Expanse is a "Netflix Original", even though in America it's on Amazon Prime Video and was made by SyFy. Glitch is a "Netflix Original" in the US, but it was made by ABC Australia. And we have Designated Survivor as a Netflix Original in Australia, even though it's made by ABC Studios and currently airing on ABC in the US. It seems Netflix Original now just means "currently Netflix holds exclusive rights to this show in your country".
  - papercrane 10y ago
    > Glitch is a "Netflix Original" in the US, but it was made by ABC Australia. Netflix is on the production team for the second season. > It seems Netflix Original now just means "currently Netflix holds exclusive rights to this show in your country". That's not really out-of-line with current industry norms though. Larger production companies buy the rights to films made by smaller production companies and put their names on them all the time. For example, Moon comes to mind. Sony didn't produce it but it's a "Sony Picture". Or Primer, StudioCanal had nothing to do with the production but is currently listed as the production company.
- Cthulhu_ 10y ago
  Nextflix Original is just a name for series that Netflix bought the exclusive rights to (in certain countries). There was an article the other day about an independent documentary maker that was approached by Netflix to make his documentary an Original, offering a certain amount of money (that I believe was higher than others would offer), but with the caveat that they would also give Netflix the right to make (big) alterations. The documentary maker declined.
- maverick_iceman 10y ago
  Yes, this is definitely disingenuous.
ashark 10y ago
> Daredevil never really did it for me. Daredevil S1 was 7-8 episodes of content stretched over 13 episodes, with clear front-loading of the good stuff (where did the decent fight choreography and good direction/camera work go after the first few episodes?!). If they'd hit that same level of overall quality again I'd have stopped watching, but fortunately S2 and Jessica Jones were quite a bit better overall, though not perfect—haven't seen Luke Cage yet, can't vouch for it.
- JoeAltmaier 10y ago
  Luke Cage must be the antimatter version of Daredevil then. Tried to watch the first episode - after half an hour and nothing had happened I gave up.
  - mcv 10y ago
    Luke Cage moves slowly. It oozes atmosphere, but it takes its time. I admit I dropped out after a while too. My wife is not into superheroes and SF at all, but she loved Jessica Jones. She doesn't like Daredevil or Luke Cage at all. There's plenty of other stuff to watch, though. We recently discovered a new season of Doctor Who, which I thought was supposed to be disappearing from Netflix. But for everything I could watch on regular TV, watching it on Netflix is simply more convenient, because we get to control exactly when and how to watch it, and Netflix keeps track of where we are.
- lobster_johnson 10y ago
  I liked Jessica Jones better, but it has the exact same problem. 13 episodes, but only enough material for about 6-7. They both feel extremely padded. Stranger Things and Wet Hot American Summer were absolutely perfect in that regard. (As regards Daredevil season 2, it was unfocused, full of ninjas and superfluous side characters. They completely lost the plot.)
  - ashark 10y ago
    > (As regards Daredevil season 2, it was unfocused, full of ninjas and superfluous side characters. They completely lost the plot.) It perhaps speaks to how mediocre-bordering-on-bad season 1 was that I agree with all of that and still think it was quite a bit better.
Cthulhu_ 10y ago
> but they're going to be somebody's favorite show. ^ is the thing. My dad was really into this teenage Battle Royale type series, even though I thought it was absolute crap. Netflix is an international company, aggressively expanded everywhere. What one person considers crap and shovelware is someone else's favorite series. Compare it to idk, games. There's a load of very weird games that just don't sell at all in the US, but catch on like crazy in Japan (for example). I hear rumours of this bad-looking brick video game that's objectively bad, but kids love it. Same with Runescape for example. And there's probably loads more similar things. tl;dr, someone will like it, and I'm sure that Netflix is well-aware of this. They probably have lots of statistics that roughly estimate how many subscribers they get (or retain) for what show in what demographic. Negative reviews don't matter if a show still gets them 100K subscribers.
mcv 10y ago
The Expanse also claims to be a Netflix Original, which surprised me, because I thought Syfy aired it first. But since I don't get Syfy, I'm happy to watch it on Netflix.
- freyir 10y ago
  Yes, "Netflix Original" can be very misleading. In most cases, it just indicates that Netflix owns exclusive distribution rights to a show in your particular market. They may have had nothing to do with the production of the content.
  - dbbk 10y ago
    This is right. Designated Survivor is a "Netflix Original" in the UK because it's the only place that shows it.

by freyir 10y ago

DanBC 10y ago

Longmire is a great example of the problem I have with "Netflix original". It started on A&E 2012 to 2014; it's produced by Warner Horizon -- how is this original to Netflix?

SyneRyder 10y ago
I'm glad someone else picked up on this! Lots of the Netflix Originals aren't by Netflix at all. In Australia, The Expanse is a "Netflix Original", even though in America it's on Amazon Prime Video and was made by SyFy. Glitch is a "Netflix Original" in the US, but it was made by ABC Australia. And we have Designated Survivor as a Netflix Original in Australia, even though it's made by ABC Studios and currently airing on ABC in the US. It seems Netflix Original now just means "currently Netflix holds exclusive rights to this show in your country".
- papercrane 10y ago
  > Glitch is a "Netflix Original" in the US, but it was made by ABC Australia. Netflix is on the production team for the second season. > It seems Netflix Original now just means "currently Netflix holds exclusive rights to this show in your country". That's not really out-of-line with current industry norms though. Larger production companies buy the rights to films made by smaller production companies and put their names on them all the time. For example, Moon comes to mind. Sony didn't produce it but it's a "Sony Picture". Or Primer, StudioCanal had nothing to do with the production but is currently listed as the production company.
Cthulhu_ 10y ago
Nextflix Original is just a name for series that Netflix bought the exclusive rights to (in certain countries). There was an article the other day about an independent documentary maker that was approached by Netflix to make his documentary an Original, offering a certain amount of money (that I believe was higher than others would offer), but with the caveat that they would also give Netflix the right to make (big) alterations. The documentary maker declined.
maverick_iceman 10y ago
Yes, this is definitely disingenuous.

ashark 10y ago

> Daredevil never really did it for me. Daredevil S1 was 7-8 episodes of content stretched over 13 episodes, with clear front-loading of the good stuff (where did the decent fight choreography and good direction/camera work go after the first few episodes?!). If they'd hit that same level of overall quality again I'd have stopped watching, but fortunately S2 and Jessica Jones were quite a bit better overall, though not perfect—haven't seen Luke Cage yet, can't vouch for it.

JoeAltmaier 10y ago
Luke Cage must be the antimatter version of Daredevil then. Tried to watch the first episode - after half an hour and nothing had happened I gave up.
- mcv 10y ago
  Luke Cage moves slowly. It oozes atmosphere, but it takes its time. I admit I dropped out after a while too. My wife is not into superheroes and SF at all, but she loved Jessica Jones. She doesn't like Daredevil or Luke Cage at all. There's plenty of other stuff to watch, though. We recently discovered a new season of Doctor Who, which I thought was supposed to be disappearing from Netflix. But for everything I could watch on regular TV, watching it on Netflix is simply more convenient, because we get to control exactly when and how to watch it, and Netflix keeps track of where we are.
lobster_johnson 10y ago
I liked Jessica Jones better, but it has the exact same problem. 13 episodes, but only enough material for about 6-7. They both feel extremely padded. Stranger Things and Wet Hot American Summer were absolutely perfect in that regard. (As regards Daredevil season 2, it was unfocused, full of ninjas and superfluous side characters. They completely lost the plot.)
- ashark 10y ago
  > (As regards Daredevil season 2, it was unfocused, full of ninjas and superfluous side characters. They completely lost the plot.) It perhaps speaks to how mediocre-bordering-on-bad season 1 was that I agree with all of that and still think it was quite a bit better.

Cthulhu_ 10y ago

> but they're going to be somebody's favorite show. ^ is the thing. My dad was really into this teenage Battle Royale type series, even though I thought it was absolute crap. Netflix is an international company, aggressively expanded everywhere. What one person considers crap and shovelware is someone else's favorite series. Compare it to idk, games. There's a load of very weird games that just don't sell at all in the US, but catch on like crazy in Japan (for example). I hear rumours of this bad-looking brick video game that's objectively bad, but kids love it. Same with Runescape for example. And there's probably loads more similar things. tl;dr, someone will like it, and I'm sure that Netflix is well-aware of this. They probably have lots of statistics that roughly estimate how many subscribers they get (or retain) for what show in what demographic. Negative reviews don't matter if a show still gets them 100K subscribers.

mcv 10y ago

The Expanse also claims to be a Netflix Original, which surprised me, because I thought Syfy aired it first. But since I don't get Syfy, I'm happy to watch it on Netflix.

freyir 10y ago
Yes, "Netflix Original" can be very misleading. In most cases, it just indicates that Netflix owns exclusive distribution rights to a show in your particular market. They may have had nothing to do with the production of the content.
- dbbk 10y ago
  This is right. Designated Survivor is a "Netflix Original" in the UK because it's the only place that shows it.