A few years ago, Netflix was my main source of content. In addition, the most reliable and high quality. For most of the time, it was the only subscription service that offered great options with a quick view of their catalog. Or, in any case, whose collection of series and movie premieres was attractive already because it was original. Especially in summer. On the hottest days, it was the quickest way to hang out. It was also fun at a reasonable price. Now my summer dream of Netflix is shattered.
Before the great war of online subscription services, Netflix was the undisputed giant. And that’s because it offered the ideal conditions for the platform to become more than a classified content service. Those were the years when House of cards dazzles with its thoughtful and elegant plot, as well as first-class performance. Or what stories do you like Orange is the new black They managed to surprise with their originality and maturity. That was the time feeling8, an experiment by the Wachowski sisters that demonstrated the power of streaming platforms. Without rules and restrictions creators Matrix they presented an alternate universe as powerful as it was unforgettable.
Also Netflix was the first service to change the habits of consuming television content when it seemed unthinkable.. The novelty of accessing all the seasons in one day was dazzling. At the same time, it changed how subscribers understood how to enjoy the program. For now the term “marathon” was not used define a habit that is now part of popular culture. But deciding how, when, and how to explore our favorite stories has had a big impact on Netflix loyalty. While the major cable companies struggled to create productions that would captivate the public for weeks and months, the platform took the risk of creating a unique event. And he succeeded in this. So much so that my summers were secured.
When weird things, Netflix’s most successful content and its most emblematic series appeared on the platform not only as a novelty. It was an opportunity to enjoy a production of the highest quality and production at a more than reasonable price. A large-scale television screen that covered the whole world and also fed on the experience in general. With stunning success Netflix has become more than just an option. It became a form of large-scale industrial consumption, a production company in its own right, and eventually a prominent force in a new form of entertainment.
A long and thorny path to success? from netflix
At the beginning of 2015 Netflix reinvented itself. And he began to travel the path of original productions. At first it was trial and error. On September 3 of the same year, the first original platform movie was released. Beast without a nation surprised by his sensitivity and carefully thought-out argumentation. It was the first film to be self-financed by the service, and also one that held high criteria for cinematic quality.
Before this series House of cards, demonstrated the resilience of a completely different business system than Hollywood. Netflix, which did not depend on box office, distribution or marketing, could afford focus your budgets exclusively on production. Indeed, the ability to host projects rejected by studios and production companies has allowed the service to quickly move in a new direction. Five years after the release of Fukunaga’s film, the Netflix catalog was no longer just a curiosity. In reality it was a combination of looking at work without immediate beneficial costs. The door is also open to various creations with a pronounced authorial and stylistic touch.
In 2017, Netflix decided to take its boldest step to date and introduce OK Bong Joon Ho at the Cannes Film Festival the same year. The film surprised, captivated and caused a complex stir in a traditional event that ended with a change in the founding rules. The novelty of the film, which only aired online, irritated and challenged the festival. The fact that Netflix was a subscription platform worried and showed that something was happening in the North American education system. For Netflix, it was an attempt to understand the way of making movies through new places.
Premiered the same year icarus. It was an important dialogue with independent cinema that wowed viewers and surpassed Netflix as an entertainment platform. filthy it covered a more intimate and much more emotionally powerful area. Finally, Meyerowitz storiesalso from 2017, showed that it is possible to create an author’s movie with a Netflix print.
In 2018 private lifemade clear that the Netflix-sponsored cinematic language was looking for opportunities to innovate. downwind Orson Welles has been restored by a group of filmmakers and turned into a curious visual experiment. There was a place even for author’s rarities in the purest style of independent cinema. truantsstolen film by Sandy Tan, debuted as a study of cinematic art in its purest form.
Netflix gave Alfonso Cuarón the opportunity to create a black-and-white epic that had other studios worried. In 2018 Rome was the surprise of the awards season. Receiving the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and three Oscars at the Hollywood Academy, the film became a landmark event. But also in demonstrating Netflix’s ability to be the perfect production company for filmmakers looking for creative freedom and a hefty budget. One year later, Irish Martin Scorsese proves that Netflix is not shy about multi-million dollar budgets. As long as the immediate consequence was recognition and prompt publicity.
In subsequent years, the formula was preserved. marriage story amazed and became a favorite on the way to the Oscars. After, I’m thinking of quitting D dog power they showed the possibilities of adult and auteur cinema. Despite errors in approach and form, Netflix insisted on being the meeting place for cinema. A production company with no limits and home to films that would otherwise never have been made.
But then Netflix faced the unthinkable. An all-out war between platforms that forces you to make immediate decisions. And often wrong to outperform other subscription platforms.
The inevitable decline of the brand and the end of summer marathons
With the coming of the pandemic Netflix has achieved the fastest restoration of its services in recent years. Since most of the world’s population lives at home, streaming has replaced cinema in several ways. Not only by experience, but also by preference. But while Netflix has become the natural choice, other subscription services have launched an offensive that has blinded the options-hungry market. And it has pushed Netflix to questionable decisions to keep its place of honor.
HBO Max has become a showcase for movie-themed productions, a novelty that has dazzled audiences under lockdown. Secondly, Disney+ showcases its most famous brands at an affordable price. Netflix lost its own market. Also the exclusivity of your options. In a symbolic twist, the platform has lost its flagship series for years. friends, turned into a consumer product, abandoned the Netflix catalog and became part of its competitor, HBO Max. The call, which made it clear that the license war – who can transmit what – is more complicated than one might think.
The proliferation of subscription services around the world exploded the Netflix business system.
The spread of subscription services around the world exploded the Netflix business system. So much so that his first reaction at the beginning of 2021 was to start fill your catalog with every mediocre product. From low-quality cinema, local productions with dubious plots, to unsuccessful experiments. In the first months of the pandemic’s worst year, Netflix doubled its catalog offering. But the increase in the number of programs available did not maintain the quality. Series of little importance, original productions with great Hollywood faces and mediocre scripts. Gradually, Netflix was faced with something unthinkable five years ago: the need to win the business it helped create.
In 2022 Netflix is going through the biggest of its crises. The year began with a noticeable loss of subscribers. And also with mass layoffs, department closures and series cancellations. For now, the platform seems to be aware of its lackluster content and seems to be making progress in getting back to its roots. But while this is happening, something is inevitable. The Netflix catalog has become a soporific mixture of very low quality products. which disappoints with its lack of imagination and solidity.
Can we, the subscribers, expect something different in the future? At least for now, the platform is more interested in solving its financial problems than in content quality. So it is likely that within a few years the platform will simply be a place where second-rate products accumulate in good quantities. A faint shadow of the reliable productions of yesteryear.
