That is very much the feeling I got from Stranger Things. It is solid in almost every way, but it also felt like it was written to maximize variables and checkboxes from a user survey. Add characters, references and stylistic choices to get the most 80's nostalgic feeling in the viewer as possible.
This is one of the reasons why I appreciate Netflix. Instead of a bunch of shows that everyone considers average, it's taken some risks and created shows that some people consider great and others dislike. I'll take that over a bunch of lukewarm shows anytime.
This is a great example of how Netflix's model works well for "long tail" content. They can produce and keep shows around that have a different or smaller audience than traditional networks can.
They started with Game of Cards and Orange is the New Black which are the strongest examples in history of creating content based on what data tells you people want, because those were their first few series and they couldn't afford to have them flop.
Nowadays, they make such a wide range of shows, they can afford to sometimes just take a risk on giving talented people money and hoping they make a great show that finds an audience.
One series I've enjoyed recently is The OA which is definitely not a box-ticking exercise of a series - the complete opposite. I'm happy it's been renewed for a second season, but I can't imagine it's driving any revenue directly.
It's like a homeless man being in a cardboard box and duct tape suit screaming about his mech suit. You just feel bad for him.
It felt like a cheap attempt at being mysterious or deep. If you look at the people behind the show, it's seems like this is part for the course with their work.
However, a data driven mindset should be applicable on deeper levels also, but that probably takes longer to become possible to analyse, and crucially, I belive that it is likely to need a baseline of stylistically optimized content before the value of more abstract concepts can be discerned from the data.
An unfortunate effect of data driven is also that unless you also chase some crazy (possible) trends in the data, you will regress to content with maximal earnings in the short to medium term.
Data doesn't carry visions, at least not by themselves!
https://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/03/20/data-inspires-crea...
I can't argue against that kind of logic but also agree that it leaves Netflix offerings quite flat. The Crown is also a very good show, but you can almost feel the cross-section of Downton Abbey and The Kings Speech as you watch. I don't think you'd see the algorithm come up with a show like Transparent, for example.
IMO it's gotten worse with all this Marvel stuff. Maybe that's because I see it promoted more than other shows, but having tried a few they're pretty uninspired (and, for crossover purposes, all appear to share the same setting and overall feel). I know it isn't the case, but it feels like the algorithm has reached some sort of recursion loop: our viewers like gritty crime dramas starring superheroes, set in New York. So they'll love this new gritty crime drama starring a superhero, set in New York.
(many of the Netflix actors have contract clauses for appearances in movies)
Heh this! When I started watching Agents of Shield, whether intended or not, I found the first season somewhat hard to penetrate. I ended up having to hit up Wikipedia, get my head around the Marvel Universe timeline and then watch relevant movies so I could slot in where AoS picks up its part of the Marvel Universe story.
I'm pretty sure all this is a dream come true for Marvel fans, but you can get too much of a good thing, and I now have Marvel-fatigue.
My only hope is that we get more Fisk.
I can remember one line in "Luke Cage" from Barnett saying "I'm going back to Hell's Kitchen", sounds very cheesy in that context and kinda broke the suspension of disbelief when watching, even though I think that "Luke Cage" is one of the best Marvel series on Netflix right now.
You're also naming one of a kind series most of whom are HBO produced. Sounds like you just like HBO, but even HBO doesn't put out shows like that every year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_original_programs_dist...
That said, they have real numbers so there will be more of a bent for casual less involved shows that probably reach a wider audience. That said, I don't seem to have a problem finding high caliber shows, but I'm also a sucker for the Marvel shows, etc they've been producing and happy to watch those A&E shows on Netflix or Amazon Prime.
I want to echo this as well. One thing about American TV content is that the story plot is very repetitive in nature. Netflix and other similar providers' original contents are very much either a superhero or a crime chaser plot. Furthermore I also dislike breaking content into seasons. It keeps audience around so more money but I am just very inpatient when it comes to TV content. In China / Hong Kong, most drama do not release in parts. So say there are 40 episodes it will have 40 episodes completed when the drama is aired. When you drag your drama plot beyond season 3 the story gets boring. Walking Dead, House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Blacklist, dragging on.
I want some more refreshing content. This is why I love cartoon contents like Bob's Burger or watching documentary. I get some breathing room.
Case in point, I never read the books and I put off watching Game of Thrones for a very long time until my brother finally convinced me to give it a shot a few months ago. When he came to me asking about how shocked I was about what happened at the end of the first season I literally laughed in his face because it was telegraphed from episode 1.
By definition "masterpieces" are very rare things. They're decidedly not assembly line material. I think Netflix and Amazon have done well against far more established media outlets.
That said, if you really want "wall-to-wall" masterpieces, there's a streaming service for that: filmstruck (https://www.filmstruck.com/). It has the entire magnificent criterion collection. The thing is, however, you have to think of it more as a library rather than an outlet for the newest stuff.
I quite like that Netflix isn't focusing on mega hit prestige shows like those you mention, but rather seem to focus quirky niche shows like Dirk Gently, A Very Secret Service and The Expanse that aren't to most peoples taste.
And that's not even mentioning the 'classics': Justified, Terriers (underrated, must-watch!), The Shield, as well as the earlier season(s) of Sons of Anarchy and The Americans.
The third season of Black Mirror is pretty much the only content that I'll rewatch over and and over like I would, say, The Wire.
But if I want to veg out and watch something "pretty good" stuff like Master of None and Love are decent.
And a matter of taste too. I consider SG1 and Buffy my top 10 while a lot of people would just find them "meh".
We need also to consider that netflix content has one quality: it's refreshing. The OA, Luke Cage, 3% all had personal taste.
I just don't want keep not finding shows I expect or have seen before. I like older TV series and cannot see the costs in getting even stuff from further back. Is there no market or is there a service I need to look at?
Black Mirror was never made by the BBC, and all episodes of Sherlock were made by the BBC not by Netflix, so neither of your examples make any sense and don't allow you to compare what you are saying they would.
Abstract is triple-A. A Chef's Table is triple-A. Stranger Things is triple-A.
We all have a sort of cynical habit of presuming that things once were good, and now they aren't. But Netflix has always been a mix of good and bad original content, especially when viewed from the subjective eye that what some of us think is great others think is terrible. They're trying to serve all markets.
I've started watching The OA and it's the first series that I've noticed each episode is a different length. Some episodes are around 30 minutes, others are more than 60.
The only thing I can think of that's really different is opening/closing credits, but given that I pretty much never binge-watch anything (and apparently most of my friends on Facebook don't either), those serve a useful purpose for me, in that they help set the mood and make it so I don't have to wait a few weeks to figure out who played that street vendor that showed up one time in chapter^Wepisode 3.
That and the gentle recaps they often have built in. In the UK when we air US TV shows they often seem really weird because when there would be an advert break in the US parts of the story and sometimes even lines are repeated by the actors to help you get back into it. Sometimes you get a cliffhanger line, a sort of a second's pause, and then the cliffhanger line repeated in a different tone! Where we don't have advert breaks this comes across as bizarre until you think the US would put an advert there, and you get the same kind of thing but across episodes on Netflix.
(Mind you I have a low tolerance for TV drama; the last two things I really enjoyed were Foyle's War and Endeavour)
I understand that not everything Netflix does is tailored to me, particularly due to Netflix' growing, increasingly mainstream audience, diverse and varying preferences, more ground to cover, etc.
However lately Netflix' content simply seems to lack substance to me. It feels as if it's just the superficial result of throwing a promising combination of those very specific tags/categories the services is famous for onto the assembly line and ending up with a show or film that, while ticking all the boxes and not being bad at all, is still pretty far off the masterpieces of the medium. I'm not sure if classics like The Wire, The Sopranos or Mad Men could have been created with such a formulaic approach and I'm missing shows of that caliber on Netflix. Maybe the service should offer brillant content creators the freedom and opportunity to do the shows they want to do, instead of dictating the theme and framework.