5 ms·

Netflix needs to nail development of their own tv shows but unfortunately very large quantity of their releases contain such a bad storytelling that it is almos

Netflix needs to nail development of their own tv shows but unfortunately very large quantity of their releases contain such a bad storytelling that it is almost unwatchable. Is it really that hard for a billion dollar company to find good storytellers and content producers?

namecheapTA 4y ago
- quacked 4y ago
  A translation of this that works for more people is that what you're calling "woke" casting is the process of turning all characters into "multi-colored Californians". Every character on screen is of different ethnic background, but they all speak and act like second-year acting students from an NYU improv class that are in LA for the summer.
  - fy20 4y ago
    TIL... I just thought "woke" was this generations "cool" or "awesome" and was feeling old.
    - krapp 4y ago
      "woke" used to have a specific meaning, and it's been around for decades, originating in the African American activist community[0]. Like a lot of leftist and progressive vernacular, it's been co-opted by the right and degenerated into a nonspecific anti-progressive slur. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke
    - quacked 4y ago
      God, that's a way better usage for the term. Nah, it's just an outgroup shorthand/slur for overtly progressive messaging.
- nkozyra 4y ago
  This is a platitude. Look at some of the projects funded in the last two years and you'll find some of the most esteemed actors, writers and directors of Hollywood. What, specifically, "woke" attributes has Netflix tripped on? The issues with Netflix and content creation are systemic, but it isn't an issue with "wokeness," which has become a lazy kneejerk reaction to any media entity.
  - friedman23 4y ago
    Watch Black Mirror, you can pinpoint the exact moment that some suit at netflix gained creative control of that show and ran it into the gutter. It wasn't enough to have a show critiquing the existing techno dystopian world we live in, they actually had to make it real by throwing in some techno dystopian propaganda in there too. There was also this terrible show that got instantly cancelled called Sense 8. The first scene of that show was this absurd sex scene where a woman was having sex with a trans-woman using a dildo and the dildo flops onto the ground and is soaked in some disgusting fluid. Netflix jumped the shark.
    - afavour 4y ago
      Sense8 came out in 2015. We're doing some real revisionist history if we're going to start claiming that a near decade-old show is attributable for Netflix's decline.
      - friedman23 4y ago
        Netflix's decline has been a decade in the making. They've been constantly shoveling out shit. I'm throwing out a number here but I'm guessing 90% of their original programming has been cancelled. They've been lighting the money on fire from the start and it was never sustainable. EDIT: Speaking of 2015, funny thing, Netflix's valuation is practically at its 2015 valuation
        skinnymuch 4y ago
        the majority of all original programming gets cancelled. Who is the media company so great that isn’t shoveling out shit? Disney with marvel and Star Wars? HBO where most of the creative staff left recently because of HBO Max strategy? CBS with the 50th CSI, FBI, or Law and Order show?
- vimda 4y ago
  Particularly considering the recent Dave Chapelle controversy (and similar), would you really consider Netflix "woke"? They're capitalistic - they'll make whatever sells
  - scifibestfi 4y ago
    There's Woke Capitalism, with a lot of large corporations leaning into it. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/opinion/corporate-america-activism.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/opinion/corporate-america...
- PuppyTailWags 4y ago
  I don't know if wokeness is really applicable. Having watched a variety of netflix originals over the years I don't really find correlation or causation between wokeness and quality. I really liked Arcane, and Arcane has a bunch of races and sexualities and poverty levels and even pink/blue/etc hair. I also really liked Stranger Things and it's pretty much an all-white cast in suburbia middle class americana.
  - pavlov 4y ago
    > “Arcane has a bunch of races and sexualities and poverty levels and even pink/blue/etc hair” It’s genuinely funny if hair color is the sure mark of devious wokeness. The fiber of what’s currently known as the anti-woke moral panic is unchanged since 1965: “There are men with long hair on television now! Somebody needs to protect the children”
  - scifibestfi 4y ago
    If that was wokeness there wouldn't be a problem.
    - midasuni 4y ago
      So what is wokeness?
  - trash_goblin 4y ago
    [dead]
- b0sk 4y ago
  Pray tell why HBOMax and Disney+ are popular then considering there are an equal amount of “woke” shows
- avl999 4y ago
  - tjr225 4y ago
    No one except people in comment threads on the internet. What have we built?
  - cato_the_elder 4y ago
    Call me a marshmallow too if you want, but the truth is that his kind of comment doesn't belong on HN. > You are the other side of the coin of people trying to cancel Chapelle and Gervais. No, he's not.
  - trash_goblin 4y ago
  - skinnymuch 4y ago
    Cancel Gervais? It’s a small tiny amt of people. I can link you to different far far left online personalities who do not want to cancel Gervais. Just have critiques. Wildly over exaggerating the fake moral panic of cancel culture. Yet others are marshmallows as compared to you?
ghaff 4y ago
>Is it really that hard for a billion dollar company to find good storytellers and content producers? Yes. Ask pretty much any studio ever. The promise that data would be this magic ingredient for quality content [that connects with audiences] ended up being pretty much BS. The percentage of content I genuinely want to spend my time with across all services is very low.
hadlock 4y ago
Good storytellers are almost impossible to find. Especially ones with consistent output and quality. Yes. There's no way to train for this kind of creative output, no pipeline besides people falling into the profession and not getting washed out.
contravariant 4y ago
Eh I can't help but feel that Netflix trying to fight other streamers on content creation was a bad idea. Even if initially it seemed to work out well for them (with some people even claiming their recommendation engine told them what shows would be good, not sure if people are still claiming this now).
- ghaff 4y ago
  A streaming platform is pretty much a commodity at this point. It's not easy but it's not something you need to hire super-premium engineering talent to achieve (as was maybe the case ten years ago). Pretty much no one watches Netflix vs. Disney+ because they have a better software stack.

namecheapTA 4y ago

quacked 4y ago
A translation of this that works for more people is that what you're calling "woke" casting is the process of turning all characters into "multi-colored Californians". Every character on screen is of different ethnic background, but they all speak and act like second-year acting students from an NYU improv class that are in LA for the summer.
- fy20 4y ago
  TIL... I just thought "woke" was this generations "cool" or "awesome" and was feeling old.
  - krapp 4y ago
    "woke" used to have a specific meaning, and it's been around for decades, originating in the African American activist community[0]. Like a lot of leftist and progressive vernacular, it's been co-opted by the right and degenerated into a nonspecific anti-progressive slur. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke
  - quacked 4y ago
    God, that's a way better usage for the term. Nah, it's just an outgroup shorthand/slur for overtly progressive messaging.
nkozyra 4y ago
This is a platitude. Look at some of the projects funded in the last two years and you'll find some of the most esteemed actors, writers and directors of Hollywood. What, specifically, "woke" attributes has Netflix tripped on? The issues with Netflix and content creation are systemic, but it isn't an issue with "wokeness," which has become a lazy kneejerk reaction to any media entity.
- friedman23 4y ago
  Watch Black Mirror, you can pinpoint the exact moment that some suit at netflix gained creative control of that show and ran it into the gutter. It wasn't enough to have a show critiquing the existing techno dystopian world we live in, they actually had to make it real by throwing in some techno dystopian propaganda in there too. There was also this terrible show that got instantly cancelled called Sense 8. The first scene of that show was this absurd sex scene where a woman was having sex with a trans-woman using a dildo and the dildo flops onto the ground and is soaked in some disgusting fluid. Netflix jumped the shark.
  - afavour 4y ago
    Sense8 came out in 2015. We're doing some real revisionist history if we're going to start claiming that a near decade-old show is attributable for Netflix's decline.
    - friedman23 4y ago
      Netflix's decline has been a decade in the making. They've been constantly shoveling out shit. I'm throwing out a number here but I'm guessing 90% of their original programming has been cancelled. They've been lighting the money on fire from the start and it was never sustainable. EDIT: Speaking of 2015, funny thing, Netflix's valuation is practically at its 2015 valuation
      - skinnymuch 4y ago
        the majority of all original programming gets cancelled. Who is the media company so great that isn’t shoveling out shit? Disney with marvel and Star Wars? HBO where most of the creative staff left recently because of HBO Max strategy? CBS with the 50th CSI, FBI, or Law and Order show?
vimda 4y ago
Particularly considering the recent Dave Chapelle controversy (and similar), would you really consider Netflix "woke"? They're capitalistic - they'll make whatever sells
- scifibestfi 4y ago
  There's Woke Capitalism, with a lot of large corporations leaning into it. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/opinion/corporate-america-activism.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/opinion/corporate-america...
PuppyTailWags 4y ago
I don't know if wokeness is really applicable. Having watched a variety of netflix originals over the years I don't really find correlation or causation between wokeness and quality. I really liked Arcane, and Arcane has a bunch of races and sexualities and poverty levels and even pink/blue/etc hair. I also really liked Stranger Things and it's pretty much an all-white cast in suburbia middle class americana.
- pavlov 4y ago
  > “Arcane has a bunch of races and sexualities and poverty levels and even pink/blue/etc hair” It’s genuinely funny if hair color is the sure mark of devious wokeness. The fiber of what’s currently known as the anti-woke moral panic is unchanged since 1965: “There are men with long hair on television now! Somebody needs to protect the children”
- scifibestfi 4y ago
  If that was wokeness there wouldn't be a problem.
  - midasuni 4y ago
    So what is wokeness?
- trash_goblin 4y ago
  [dead]
b0sk 4y ago
Pray tell why HBOMax and Disney+ are popular then considering there are an equal amount of “woke” shows
avl999 4y ago
- tjr225 4y ago
  No one except people in comment threads on the internet. What have we built?
- cato_the_elder 4y ago
  Call me a marshmallow too if you want, but the truth is that his kind of comment doesn't belong on HN. > You are the other side of the coin of people trying to cancel Chapelle and Gervais. No, he's not.
- trash_goblin 4y ago
- skinnymuch 4y ago
  Cancel Gervais? It’s a small tiny amt of people. I can link you to different far far left online personalities who do not want to cancel Gervais. Just have critiques. Wildly over exaggerating the fake moral panic of cancel culture. Yet others are marshmallows as compared to you?

ghaff 4y ago

>Is it really that hard for a billion dollar company to find good storytellers and content producers? Yes. Ask pretty much any studio ever. The promise that data would be this magic ingredient for quality content [that connects with audiences] ended up being pretty much BS. The percentage of content I genuinely want to spend my time with across all services is very low.

hadlock 4y ago

Good storytellers are almost impossible to find. Especially ones with consistent output and quality. Yes. There's no way to train for this kind of creative output, no pipeline besides people falling into the profession and not getting washed out.

contravariant 4y ago

Eh I can't help but feel that Netflix trying to fight other streamers on content creation was a bad idea. Even if initially it seemed to work out well for them (with some people even claiming their recommendation engine told them what shows would be good, not sure if people are still claiming this now).

ghaff 4y ago
A streaming platform is pretty much a commodity at this point. It's not easy but it's not something you need to hire super-premium engineering talent to achieve (as was maybe the case ten years ago). Pretty much no one watches Netflix vs. Disney+ because they have a better software stack.