Another day, another round of preposterous decision-making compounded by an unfortunate development or two that Netflix may or may not have any control over whatsoever.
The rise of parasocial equivalents for every human interaction was dauntingly rapid as is, but Netflix is only adding to the problem by plugging its interactive choose-your-own-adventure model into the next original destined for mediocrity.
Elsewhere, the streamer is beginning to feel the ramifications of those unfortunate Witcher developments, three original films have vanished from its release calendar, and the usual suspects are flying high on the charts.
Netflix made quite a choice by investing in Choose Love
The words “romantic comedy” and “bold” should hardly ever show up in the same sentence together, and when they do, it’s usually not the sort of bold one wishes to be designated as.
Such is the case with Choose Love, an upcoming romantic comedy that just received its first trailer earlier today. Indeed, the strategy being employed by Netflix here is to mesh the story together with a Bandersnatch-esque choose-your-own-adventure structure; one that they seem dead set on pushing until they end up with a piece of content that actually benefits from it.
Indeed, after the dire likes of the aforementioned Bandersnatch, Choose or Die? — among others — one would think that Netflix has received the memo by now, but judging by the fact that they’re banking on a dull genre to inject life into a duller shtick, perhaps those previous attempts have only made them more desperate.
The streamer’s latest true crime darling forgoes bloodshed for malicious charisma
It may not consist of the same tragic, often blood-stained components that give most true crime its disturbingly pathological draw, which is perhaps exactly why How to Become a Cult Leader has managed to carve out such a fascinating niche for itself.
Soaring on Netflix’s global charts as the seventh most-watched series around the world, the show unpacks the psychology of a variety of different cult leaders and their heinous, deceptively harmful methods of control, from Charles Manson to Jaimie Gomez to Shoko Asahara.
They may not seem as terrifying as a serial killer on the surface, but anyone who’s plunged into the topic at any depth knows that that’s exactly what makes cult leaders so dangerous.
Three more high-profile Netflix exclusives draw the short straw on the release date shakeup
It’s still unclear whether the strikes, malicious streaming practices, or some other third thing has anything to do with this decision, but refusing to offer up an explanation looks almost as bad as dragging three more original films down on one’s release calendar, as Netflix has done for Players, Shirley, and Spaceman earlier today.
The most lucrative victim of this dubious round of rearrangement has to be Spaceman, a sci-fi feature starring the resurgent Adam Sandler who will no doubt continue to prove that he’s a fantastic actor when he puts the pedal to the medal, and while we probably don’t need another rom-com in Players (despite the involvement of one Tom Ellis), Regina King’s highly anticipated biopic Shirley — about America’s first Black congresswoman Shirley Chisholm — certainly deserves better than this.
With the dawn of Liam Hemsworth fast approaching, boycotts of The Witcher are coming hard and fast
Even now, we’re still not entirely sure why season 3 of The Witcher will be Henry Cavill‘s last; was it his decision? Was it Netflix’s decision? Did they both have a hand in Cavill’s exit?
Whatever the case, the Witcher faithful seem unconcerned with the “why,” as disastrously declining viewership numbers for season 3 of The Witcher indicate that the Cavill diehards are putting their money where their mouth is.
It perhaps helps the boycotters’ case that volume 2 of season 3 of The Witcher is the worst-reviewed run of episodes the show has ever seen, but going from over a million unique views in six days to just 574,000 views in four days is nevertheless one of the harsher declines in Netflix’s history.
When it comes to action films, critics’ trash is Netflix’s treasure
Some words of wisdom for you all; all the star power in the world can’t elevate your film if the movie itself is nothing more than an abysmal knock-off of Taken.
And that’s exactly the bill that fits The Gunman – a 2015 action film packed to the brim with such names as Sean Penn, Javier Bardem, Idris Elba, Mark Rylance, and Ray Winstone, yet only managed a whimpering $24 million box office pull against a $40 million budget and a 17 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes to boot.
In other words, it’s exactly the sort of movie that Netflix viewers are bound to eat right up, which explains its sneaky Top 10 appearance on the U.K. and Ireland charts.