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> thanks Netflix for their growing self produced content that often has a quality not seen before s/often/rarely There are some good shows on Netflix, but the

> thanks Netflix for their growing self produced content that often has a quality not seen before s/often/rarely There are some good shows on Netflix, but they are in the minority, in my opinion. Tastes vary, of course. But a lot of their original programming is not so original, it just feels like filler content to increase the perceived value of the platform. For every good original show they make like House of Cards, there are at least 5x as many that are uneventful or boring. But that's not unusual. Network television is the same way.

toyg 9y ago
> Network television is the same way. And the movie business. And the music business. And the book-publishing business. In any creative industry, there are hundreds or thousands of mediocre-to-terrible attempts for any hit. It's the nature of the beast. Shaving that ratio by orders of magnitude is black magic, or even just luck. This is why successful outliers are so handsomely paid - not because they do something well, but because they dramatically decrease the risk of producing stuff that won't sell enough. The saying that goes "90% of everything is crap" emerged before Netflix was even a concept.
- hellofunk 9y ago
  Sure, but we were specifically discussing Netflix and TV and the use of the word "often."
thanatropism 9y ago
I find them better than TV, pound for pound. For example, _Backstrom_ is a shitty House clone in many senses, but is a much better detective show than _Elementary_. They have more feedback data and often great "production values" (i.e. they spent the extra money to make it nice). It doesn't always pay off (how stupid was _Marseille_, with Gerard Depardieu at his best acting chops in years and a political story that melts into family drama in three episodes flat?). But having 100 Netflix shows and a random assortment of failed indie movies is not better than having 10 Netflix shows and a decent film catalog. Netflix pretty much snuck up on the less attentive of us by giving us more shows (hey, I basically stayed for Bojack Horseman) and taking away feature-length studio-produced movies. I mean, who has the time to watch a full-length movie most days. So I kind of feel cheated, but not enough to leave yet.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  Uh, Backstrom was a broadcast (Fox) series cancelled after a single season. It's not a Netflix original, so it's alleged superiority to successful broadcast series like Elementary is not, even granting for the sake of argument that it is superior, an indication of the superiority of Netflix's shows.
  - thanatropism 9y ago
    Oh god. I'll see if HN lets me delete my comment. I'm really bad with my facts this week.

toyg 9y ago

> Network television is the same way. And the movie business. And the music business. And the book-publishing business. In any creative industry, there are hundreds or thousands of mediocre-to-terrible attempts for any hit. It's the nature of the beast. Shaving that ratio by orders of magnitude is black magic, or even just luck. This is why successful outliers are so handsomely paid - not because they do something well, but because they dramatically decrease the risk of producing stuff that won't sell enough. The saying that goes "90% of everything is crap" emerged before Netflix was even a concept.

hellofunk 9y ago
Sure, but we were specifically discussing Netflix and TV and the use of the word "often."

thanatropism 9y ago

I find them better than TV, pound for pound. For example, _Backstrom_ is a shitty House clone in many senses, but is a much better detective show than _Elementary_. They have more feedback data and often great "production values" (i.e. they spent the extra money to make it nice). It doesn't always pay off (how stupid was _Marseille_, with Gerard Depardieu at his best acting chops in years and a political story that melts into family drama in three episodes flat?). But having 100 Netflix shows and a random assortment of failed indie movies is not better than having 10 Netflix shows and a decent film catalog. Netflix pretty much snuck up on the less attentive of us by giving us more shows (hey, I basically stayed for Bojack Horseman) and taking away feature-length studio-produced movies. I mean, who has the time to watch a full-length movie most days. So I kind of feel cheated, but not enough to leave yet.

dragonwriter 9y ago
Uh, Backstrom was a broadcast (Fox) series cancelled after a single season. It's not a Netflix original, so it's alleged superiority to successful broadcast series like Elementary is not, even granting for the sake of argument that it is superior, an indication of the superiority of Netflix's shows.
- thanatropism 9y ago
  Oh god. I'll see if HN lets me delete my comment. I'm really bad with my facts this week.