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Comment by asdfman123 | Hacker News Reader

I feel like fancy metrics drive the conversation but sometimes it might be more instructive to do a totally subjective user-based sanity check (e.g. how much do I personally enjoy it?).

Netflix is supposedly growing massively but... is there anything good on it? So much of the content seems completely forgettable.

Furthermore, in the midst of a bad economy I'd imagine streaming services could be cut from the budget first.

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Some of their content decisions are pathological from a viewer's standpoint.

Attack on Titan: 96% fresh on RT, and … they only get the first season? Like, why build your viewer up with a good show and not be able to finish the story?

One Punch Man: 86% fresh on RT. Only the first season.

SG:SG1, great show, but if you want to round it out w/ SG:U or Atlantis? No can do.

Inuyasha, (100%/93% on RT) … only the first 2 of 7 seasons.

> Attack on Titan: 96% fresh on RT, and … they only get the first season? Like, why build your viewer up with a good show and not be able to finish the story?

It's even worse than that. You can't access the English subtitles in some countries! I was watching in France and after reaching out to support they told me that their license didn't cover English subtitles lmao. And people wonder why handsomely paid people pirate stuff...

that is not unique to Netflix, and it probably has to do with pre-existing licensing rights.

For example, Primevideo in my country has 5 seasons of Inuyasha but not 6 and 7, can you imagine the frustration? :)

Likewise, my kids like to watch Paw Patrol, and amazon only has season 4, but not the first 3.

> can you imagine the frustration?

That's on you for using primevideo in the first place! Jokes aside, I hate that platform ever since it decided it was normal to play a show, that I was excited about, starting with the last episode. It ended up ruining the entire thing.

On the flipside when Manifest was canceled by NBC before its planned storyline could be completed, Netflix picked it up and has planned more than enough episodes to reach the end.

They consistently produce hits, to the degree that any network can these days. The Crown, Stranger Things, Sex Education, Russian Doll and Big Mouth all are still airing and all get rave reviews. They also come through with the occasional "cultural moment" stuff like Squid Game and Black Mirror. They also make a lot of "alt" comedy shows that I consider to be some of the best comedy content in recent years.

> They also make a lot of "alt" comedy shows that I consider to be some of the best comedy content in recent years.

Can you name some of them? I knew they did some Dave Chappelle specials but wasn't aware of anything else

Aunty Donna (sketch), Middleditch and Schwartz (improv), Michael Bolton's Big, Sexy Valentine's Day Special (a one-off) and as someone else mentioned, So I Think You Should Leave. Plus Big Mouth and its spinoff, Human Resources.

I really love 'I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson'

The fact that stuff is so hard to discover is insane. They literally show the same limited crap on their front page despite such a large catalogue. I'm not convinced their algorithm choice makes sense.

The top of my Netflix page being "these are the top shows in your country today" has been super puzzling to me. Surely any kind of recommendation alg would see that my interests align 0% with the average person in my country?

A bunch of reality TV show recommendations? Thanks Netflix.

Bo Burnam's Inside was made by Netflix too.

I recently signed on and did notice a prominent uptick in more mainstream movies and not the fringe garbage that everyone else passed on. But yeah, in general, Netflix has poor quality for the stuff that's on there long term.

I have always wondered if it was ever a possibility for Netflix to have been a platform company. In that, instead of trying and failing to be HBO, they could have licensed out their platform to the content holders to build their platform on. As in, could they have been the Azure/AWS of content streaming? That time is gone now, but I do wonder if it would have been a better long term solution for them as a company.

It sounds like a reasonable idea, but what content companies would be willing to put themselves in such a vulnerable position?

Doesn't that same worry apply to users of Azure and AWS? It doesn't seem to have had much of an effect there.

Yeah there’s a huge amount of good content on netflix. I really don’t understand this debate.

There is, but I’d wager most viewers have been bitten by a sudden cancellation by now.

It’s definitely survival bias, but it’s exactly the kind of thing that makes you question whether a good show is worth investing in.

The “sudden cancellation” stories really feel like anecdotal stories to me. Cancellations have always happened and users just move on to another show besides a vocal minority of angry users

Yep, most Netflix shows are pretty bad, the movies even worse, and the catalog outside the US is 10x smaller.

Absolutely not worth paying for it unless sharing with a couple of friends IMHO.

Someone on reddit said 'Netflix is like browsing the $2 DVD bin at Walmart except your pay them $15 a month for it' and I felt it was very apt.

Is it that expensive in the US? It’s 7.99€/month in Europe. For 1 month of series binging that’s not too bad, just be sure to cancel the subscription directly. We re-enable it maybe once or twice per year.

Netflix has _always_ been the $2 DVD bin

Back in the mail subscription day at least they had the $2 obscure DVD that you couldn't find anywhere else. Now it's just the same show with different casts in different settings.

I don't know why you're getting downvoted. They used to mail me the criterion collection when I was in high school. Obviously it's not that now.

At some point they abandoned trying to make a single good show or movie (or having a library of classics) in favor of churning out five mediocre ones.

Why watch a bad show? The best media is available whenever you'd like (but it's not on Netflix anymore).

The thing is its not obviously a money thing: Netflix throws piles of cash at their productions, it's just the scripts that greenlight are garbage.

Their Cowboy Bebop remake was awful and missed the point of everything, but seemed like they could’ve fixed it, so of course they instantly canceled it instead.

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