After dinner at night, I like to shut my brain off. Sometimes I’ll read. But usually I’ll watch a TV show or video because I can do this paying half attention while making dinner, cleaning up, brushing my teeth and preparing for bed.
Amazon Video is my go to streaming service since it’s included with my prime membership. Every so often, I’ll sign up for a month of Netflix to add some variety. The last time I tried Netflix was during my recovery from my 2nd hernia surgery.
Last week, after scrolling endlessly for days without uncovering anything remotely interesting to watch on Amazon, I subscribed to Netflix again. I made it 5 days before cancelling this time.
How is it that I cannot find anything to watch among the 5000 TV shows and movies on Netflix? Is its library that bad?
I don’t think it’s Netflix. I think it’s me.
First, my wife and I were avid movie goers (and later streamers) for decades. We saw everything – except for slasher movies, dumb comedies or really awful rom-coms. So that eliminates 95% of Netflix’s movie library.
As for TV shows – I have no tolerance for shows that have predictable stories that deploy the same trite scenarios, romantic entanglements, backstabbing coworkers, and tired plots. As soon as these become evident, I lose all interest in watching.
It seems like they are all the same.
Georges Polti wrote in 1895 that there are only The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations which comprise every dramatic situation that might occur in a story. I’ve listed a few of them here:
- Crime Pursued by Vengeance
- Pursuit
- Disaster
- Falling Prey to Cruelty or Misfortune
- Adultery
- Self-Sacrifice for an Ideal
- Crimes of Love—Often sexual, but can be any kind of violation in a close relationship.
- Ambition
- Loss of Loved Ones—Losing someone or something you love.
I could list the rest, but if you watch TV or read books, you’ll recognize them all.
If this list covers every possible storyline, then what makes shows interesting will be in the details – the character development, the twists in the plots, the artistry of production, the actors, etc.
And that’s where most TV shows and movies lose me. With few exceptions (Breaking Bad, the Sopranos, Some Foreign Shows), they are boringly predictable.
Apparently I don’t need more – I need better. And I can’t find enough of better.
It’s not Netflix’s fault. Studios produce whatever they think they can sell. Whenever anything is successful, it is copied and recopied, until it’s been so watered down that it is unacceptably lame (to me).
Clearly, I’m in the minority here. Millions of people disagree.
So it’s not Netflix – it’s me.