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Comment by legitster | Hacker News Reader

Disney has so much less content, and I really don't mind it.

There's nothing I hate more than logging into Netflix after a month and everything I was vaguely interested in has now completely disappeared and been replaced by even more half-assed looking projects.

Also, shout out to Disney for actually making it easy to restart a show from the beginning. I don't understand how Netflix has dropped so much money into children's programming without doing any sort of user testing to find out that kids generally like watching the same shows again.

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They have less content, but Netflix is seriously full of so much trash content. I've rarely enjoyed a Netflix original movie.

I mostly agree tho there are some decent ones. I liked both enola homes movies for instance. but that's the ones I can think of off of the top of my head.

They’re original stuff is often so incredibly generic and uninspiring. They might have changed how they display shows recently, but I swear there was a period of time not long ago when the main image for a show would only have a single person with a nondescript background. It felt like the whole thing was algorithmically generated.

> It felt like the whole thing was algorithmically generated.

It is: https://www.looper.com/274997/the-secret-behind-netflixs-per...

> They’re original stuff is often so incredibly generic and uninspiring.

And to think these are supposed to be opposites... When Netflix started doing their own productions, I think everybody understood it was the right business decision - to make them less dependent on big studios. But they spectacularly failed. Apart from a few shows everything else is so generic, there is no character in it. It is as if they were afraid of experimenting, of adding some creativity, of being a failure. Well it's all just uninteresting - it turns our I prefer to watch interesting free content on Youtube than supposedly premium content on Netflix.

Obviously this is subjective because my viewing hours are higher on netflix than Disney. Disney doesn't have any dumbout content.

Andor was trash. Obi-Wan was trash. She-Hulk started out bad, got better, then killed itself in the last episode.

Most of the marvel stuff has been terrible compared to Netflix's Jessica Jones, Dare Devil, Luke Cage.

Contrary opinion: Andor was great, Obi-wan was great, She-Hulk was brilliant and fantastic from the start, and others have been absolutely clever.

Netflix's JJ, DD, LC, Defenders, were also great.

Have you _watched_ recent Netflix content? It's truly abysmal.

I don't think it helps generalising either platform. There's no way you can say all of Netflix content is bad. There's really good content coming out like Cyberpunk Edgerunners, Arcane, Dark, Enola Holmes, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Sandman and so on. No other platform invests in anime in my region like Netflix does and considering Crunchyroll doesn't operate here, it's a blessing to finally have a legal way to watch a bunch of them

Yeah, fair. Enola, Dark, and Sandman are great. I canceled recently and haven't seen the others.

If you have been Star Wars fan since 70s with detail knowledge, then Andor and Obi-Wan were sub-par at best. She-Hulk is quite terrible if you know the comics background. As new age of PC-ness with emphasis on wokeness these days, it is quite good especially the 4th wall breakout in last episode. Fear Street, Escape, Koreans and anime such as Castlevania on Netlifx are very refreshing as compare to westernized-only content on Disney+. By the way, my Disney+ is free from some local popular deal. Mamy I know also on free. Plus multiple subscription to Espn and Hulu. So the number of subscribers are likely heavy double or triple counted.

For the record, while Netflix really pushed the anime angle, Castlevania is actually an entirely American production. It was written, directed, and animated entirely in America by Americans.

Warren Ellis is a reknowned British comic book writer but, yeah, for the most part

> animated entirely in America by Americans.

It doesn't look like that's right.

https://tigeranimation.com/blogPost/CastlevaniaSeason2

https://tigeranimation.com/blogPost/Castlevania1

You're right, my bad: Wikipedia only mentions them in the "animation" section of the side panel, while the actual article only mentions Frederator and Powerhouse.

My reply was incorrect, and I'm not trying to move the goalposts, but it has to be said that the studios you listed have animated many of what would be considered "western" shows: Ben 10, Spiderman, and Animaniacs show up in the credits for Mua Film and Tiger Animation.

My intent was not to focus on the American aspect as much as the "this is very much a western production, unlike what Netflix is trying to imply." I should have worded it better.

Like I know ratings aren't everything... but She-Hulk is so bad it's below Matrix Revolutions and almost close to the kinds of ratings that Neil Breen movies would get.

I also like Matrix Revolutions.

Shocking!

Each of these have various things I liked.

What on earth did you like about Andre, Obi-wan, and especially She-Hulk? I didn’t even get through the first episode of any of them. So I guess they might pick up but I don’t have much hope.

Not that I watched much Netflix original content either, but it’s at least got some variety to it.

To be honest, the first Andor episode is really slow and I also almost dropped it right there, but the rest of the show is actually quite good (so far).

Andor is an amazing adult show about the causes that drive people to take up arms against their government. It's not a traditional Star Wars show.

She Hulk is an engaging legal comedy in the style of Ally McBeal, with Marvel elements.

Both get better after the first episode.

Andor I have 2 episodes left to finish, ah I feel its so slow and drawn out.

She Hulk, I hated the first episode, but it kinda came into its own and I ended up really enjoying it, but the last episode absolutely ruined the whole thing for me.

I do watch Netflix content, and I like it?

On the other hand, I have zero interest in superhero or starwars content. Disney is basically for children.

I'll take my escapist fantasies mostly PG-13. They're good stuff.

Another comment named some of the better recent content, which to my discredit I grouped as abysmal when it was actually decent.

But any of the Sandler movies? Etc. Etc.

I wouldn’t watch She-Hulk even if it were playing inside my contact lenses.

But Andor has been great! Obj-Wan was ok.

Andor (ongoing) is one of the best scifis of the last 5 years for me.

It’s a slow start though for the first 2 episodes.

Andor is not trash. Shehulk, Jessica etc are pukeworthy though.

I'm sure that Netflix has good shows. But they themselves don't even seem to care anymore.

Say what you will about traditional networks, they have occasionally have executives with eyeballs who watch things and say "this show sucks and needs to be fixed" or "this show is much better than it looks and may succeed with a bit more attention".

Traditional networks compete with each other. When CBS has bad shows viewers might move to ABC. AMC could lose people to FX.

For some reason Netflix seems to think it’s 2009 and they’re still untouchable. Like “no one would ever leave us. We’re Netflix. We are streaming”.

And it’s really hurting them.

I mean that is the whole idea: make content that (the majority) of people watch to chill and relax. After a bad day etc.

And there are a lot of gems in there too.

It is just simple and we have to acknowledge it: people like watching trash shows.

I recently started watching their original show called 'Inventing Anna'. It was like a max 4 episode content elongated to 10 episodes. This has always been a problem with traditional TV, however differentiating the channels, content was ironically easier then.

Right now, Netflix just forces you to watch certain shows by showing them front and centre. Conscious UI/UX choices to mask limited selections.

This is disney+hulu+espn combined!

When hotstar was bundled with Hulu - hulu suddenly got huge infusion of Indian movies and shows. Nothing Netflix has even comes close.

I wonder also, if they are counting hotstar, which is pretty big in India.

Having said that - I personally find content on disney+ boring and stale. Some Marvel and Star War spin offs are okay, but most are meh. I don't know how to put it, but disney+ is trying too hard to en-cash popularity of existing franchise and I believe lacks depth.

Netflix while has uneven programming has/had shows which are pretty good and break new ground(IMO). Queen's Gambit, Dragon Prince, Arcana etc are pretty good. They have also wasted money on the whole witcher show and their "original" movies are by and large meh.

Disney even lets you pin shows so you don't have to keep searching for them!

I didn't know that! runs off to pin the animated robin hood for my 3 year old

Paramount+ also allows you to this.

My least favorite disneyplus.com experience is using the desktop site to try to find an episode of Bluey which the kids are asking for.

"We want to watch 'The Beach', please."

OK let's go to disneyplus.com and type in "Bluey" (no search by episode name). There are 3 seasons available. I can see five episode titles at a time.

Hmm, how do I see more episodes? Oh right, if I hover my mouse over episode 6, a right arrow is visible. Let's tap that one...two...three..four times, here we go, s01e26 The Beach.

There are about 50 episodes per season, so good luck finding s02e45. Also, the order in which they are shelved on Disney Plus sometimes varies versus what's shown in Web searches for the episode order.

You can search the episodes in google eg.

bluey "the beach" episode

YouTube search is really good for that.

"Muddy trucks please"

Me types "muddy trucks kids show".

Exact show is in the top 5 and you have the hover to play snippet feature that gives the kids an idea if its the show they wanted to see.

I kinda hate how the lack of content is filled in by a lot of National Geographic Channel low quality infotainment.

It is a very strange contrast to have such high quality and garbage next to each other.

Also the restart show works, but not a whole series… it will still sometimes get confused and jump ahead because you watched future shows.

>and been replaced by even more half-assed looking projects

the "half-assed" projects are the only thing that has me coming back. Netflix in contrast to a lot of the other services still has a decent amount in particular foreign and original IP. Most recent example, Cyberpunk Edgerunners, that would not be on Disney+. I just don't care about the 50th take on Star Wars. Given the numbers apparently I'm the only one on the planet but I just don't understand it.

You aren't the only one, but this year has seen both streamers take an axe to a lot of their interesting pieces, particularly for kids: Amphibia, Ghost City, The Owl House, Hilda, Baby Sitter's Club, and Kid Cosmic all off the top of my head.

Netflix does indeed have some “hidden” gems.

But I’d say that HBO takes the cake for unique shows with consistent quality that are - most importantly - allowed to run to completion. My go-to example is The Leftovers. What kind of network would ever greenlight that kind of show, let alone have it run for three whole seasons to its natural conclusion?

Hopefully this will remain now that HBO has changed hands. HBO quality is really second to none in shows for you know, adults.

ATT has already fired the original crew of HBO executives that curated HBO’s selection, and now that the reality TV show sellers are the bosses, I doubt they will want to take the chances that the old HBO bosses had taken.

Well wherever the HBO execs end up landing will become the new home for quality TV. It'll unfortunately only be clear in a few years.

Ironically, they just cancelled Westworld before the intended final season. Not exactly a "consistent quality" show, but HBO does cancel some stuff, too.

But it is not nearly as bad as Netflix's track record of killing shows with cliffhanger second-season endings...

I might be in the minority, but I’m impressed that they let it run for so long. Season 1 was peak TV, and it just petered out after that.

Last 2 Westworld seasons were very hard to get excited about. Wouldn’t be surprised if viewership dropped significantly. Netflix likely just calculated that they can buy 50 shows for the price of filming the final season.

I discovered a gem yesterday in HBO. The Outsider. Ben Mendelson and a small role from Jason Bateman. Feels like a true detective season well done like the first. How is this show not front and center in the homepage?

Netflix's animation successes are basically where Netflix gets the distribution rights and someone else does the entire thing (this is what Edgerunners did - and yeah it was great).

Near as I can tell, Netflix just plain...isn't good at content. Or I think more accurately, has been getting chronically shafted by trash-tier writers.

Lol - you are not alone. Netflix has weird stuff and in a good way. Ironically - some of their biggest/big name shows are also some of the worst (I am looking at Witcher series), but as a sci-fi fan, Netflix is pretty good.

Disney has so much less content

Does it really? (Serious question.) We got Disney because of the Disney part but I was pleasantly surprised by how much other big name content is on there.

I'm hardly highbrow in my viewing habits and enjoy a good blockbuster movie or popular show as much as anyone. I do like to spend my limited viewing time on stuff that isn't complete junk though.

I've all but stopped even checking Netflix now because the odds of anything on there being Netflix-made junk that I won't even finish watching are so high. Meanwhile I'm probably working through a couple of different shows and have several movies waiting at any given time on Disney. I suspect our Netflix subscription will be ending soon as I don't think anyone else in the house is watching anything on there either right now.

Disney also owns awesome legacy IP; superheros, star wars, pixar and disney movies. It's also a lot cheaper and indeed less bloated. Netflix has zero such legacy content and it's more expensive; soon even harder to use with them locking down sharing!

I don't know how you compared using Disney+ to Netflix and came to the conclusion that it's less bloated. In my experience on a Roku, D+ is SLOW, it takes forever to do anything from loading up, just browsing, thumbnails populating, or actually starting a show.

Netflix is bloated with tons and tons content that does not already have a built in audience/rabid fanbase like Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and Disney classic has. With Disney I click through and see lots of shows with well known characters with decades of familiarity (legacy characters/content). Netflix I click through and have no idea what 90% of the content is via clicking through.

I personally have Never had any connection issues with Disney, Netflix, HBO Max or other streaming services.

Re: app issues, I've had HBO Max crash on me about 100x over the last year'ish - no exaggeration. This was across LG C1, Roku, PS4, Xbox Series X, and Android. It's improved substantially over the last couple of months, but it's still the most likely app to have problems. I would have cancelled a long time ago, but the content kept me hanging on. It looks like I'll be cancelling with the Discovery acquisition.

IME, Netflix still stands heads and shoulders above the rest in terms of UI quality, functionality, reliability, and speed. I've often thought that they should license out their stack. My ranking for apps (which I've used for at least six months), would be Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV, Disney+, Amazon Prime, and HBO Max, with Prime and Max often infuriatingly bad.

Netflix is also doling out shows a few episodes a week to keep people from subscribing, binging, and unsubscribing. That works fine for something like Stranger Things but they're even doing it for shows no one is subscribing to see. Frankly, the ability to binge a show is like decanting a wine or heating sake. It can make a mediocre show a lot better. Taking away that ability should be used with caution.

As a long time subscriber, it's got me thinking about only subscribing a few months a year; since I'd usually rather wait to binge a show anyway...

Why they can't link account age and binge-ability isn't clear to me; guessing something to do with contracts.

Netflix ending binge watching is reported to be a rumor: https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/netflix-binge-release-...

(/me busy binge watching the latest Dragon Prince release).

The only source we have that it's a rumor is Netflix. Netflix is also my source: Several shows that were released in bulk for previous seasons are releasing between 1 and 3 episodes per week for their current seasons.

True, I am relying on their statement. That said, my personal experience is that Netflix is generally still binge-able while every other streaming service is not. Maybe you and I are watching different content.

> Also, shout out to Disney for actually making it easy to restart a show from the beginning. I don't understand how Netflix has dropped so much money into children's programming without doing any sort of user testing to find out that kids generally like watching the same shows again.

I'm baffled at how much of a pain this is. Don't show him more stuff, he very clearly wants to watch what he's chosen; yes again, what do you want from me?

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