Be honest: how much attention do you pay when you watch TV? If you’re familiar with the ritual of half-watching a series or film – Netflix on in the background while you check out what your arch enemy has just posted on Instagram, say – it may surprise you to hear that Netflix doesn’t just know you engage in this obscene behaviour. It actually wants you to carry on. (View Highlight)
Tavlin claimed that Netflix have told various screenwriters to have their protagonists “announce what they’re doing so that viewers who have this program on in the background can follow along”. (View Highlight)
It isn’t breaking news that Netflix panders to the casual viewer. As well as the award-winning TV it produces (Baby Reindeer won a Golden Globe for best miniseries earlier this month), the streamer has a history of telling showrunners that scenes aren’t “second screen enough”. In other words, if a viewer’s primary screen is their phone, they shouldn’t be so challenged by the Netflix show on their secondary screen that they switch the show off. Above all else, goes the cynical view, Netflix just wants you to have its visual muzak playing for as long as possible. (“Nothing to add from us on this one, but thanks for reaching out,” says Netflix’s PR when I contact them.) (View Highlight)
Three writers who have written for Netflix tell me they have never received notes like this from the company. Danny Brocklehurst, who has written several Harlan Coben TV adaptations, says, “Hand on heart, nobody puts any pressure on us from Netflix to make anything simplistic or that you can watch while you’re scrolling through your phone or whatever.” Brocklehurst thinks it’s unfair to characterise the company as one that is simply dumbing down. (View Highlight)
Brocklehurst, who admits he might be more “old-school”, doesn’t have much time for the argument that narrative TV should be consumed while on in the background. “I hate the idea that people are watching anybody’s shows, and certainly my shows, with a phone in their hand, scrolling, texting, commenting on the show maybe on Twitter,” he says. “Just watch it. You make television so people will complete it because it’s good and they enjoy it and they wanna watch it. What you don’t do is make it so simple that it’s just like chewing gum.” (View Highlight)
Barton, who once tried to watch Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy at a baby screening and therefore had no clue what was going on, also says that the acclaimed shows of TV’s golden age didn’t necessarily have enormous audience numbers. If you have a bigger audience, you may be forced to explain more in order to include everyone. Shows like The Sopranos, Mad Men and The Wire pre-date Netflix, were never made to be binged, and may have had more artistic freedom than modern TV dramas. (View Highlight)
The question may be one of balance. As long as there are shows that can be consumed casually and shows that demand 100% of our attention, things may be all right. “There’s comfort in having a familiar show or movie on in the background that your attention can dip in and out of,” says Hamilton. “It’d be ludicrous to expect anything to demand everyone’s complete, rapt attention. But none of that means people simply cannot pay attention, or that stories should be intentionally crafted for people who have the show on in the background.” (View Highlight)
