As the world of video content matures for the masses and easy viewing, more and more “not great” content is being distributed via “premium” platforms.
The single video content delivery network I pay to subscribe to is Netflix. Netflix has enough quantity of choice for fiction but, for me, it is poor on its documentaries portfolio, both in quantity and quality. Documentaries is the genre which got me to pay for the subscription. I started paying for Netflix because of “Our Planet”: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9253866
Unfortunately, docs of “Our Planet” good quality are rare. In fact, much of “Our Planet” content, one way or another, was already available in alternative BBC productions, so while I adore “Our Planet”, even there I expected better.
My main sources for quality docs are a couple of FREE (and legal) websites: arte.tv and “NHK World”. Both are superb sites to watch quality productions. Yes, my Netflix subscription in under threat.
What is really happening is that video producers now have decades-mature formulas for “reasonable” movies and series, fiction or not. They follow the formulas and achieve distributable, even profitable, results. I suppose their “results” work for the majority of viewers, but most of the time they rarely work me. It is getting harder and harder for me to find a movie or a TV series that I won’t perceive as vulgar or even ridiculous.
These days, at the absolute top of my list of RUN-AWAY-FROM content are movies/series centered on superheroes or with any form of gun violence. They are just plain ridiculous. Do you really want to see the horror of gun violence and become traumatized for life? Youtube has it for you (for example, never watch rvE56R2Vowg). Don’t be stupid and don’t even search for it. Go watch flowers, clouds, the sea, etc., anything but guns.
And for superheroes, the real “super heroes” are probably me and you, who endure everyday life without super powers. Hard to top the ridiculousness in wearing a superhero costume!
Not only Netflix’s video content quality is decreasing, the platform’s search tool is also inadequate. So inadequate that the best thing I found this month on Netflix, I found by randomly typing numbers into the URL. This is the short story I really wanted to share in this post, but somehow I extended myself above.
Hours ago, frustrated with Netflix’s search system, I started guessing numbers for programs (programs have a numerical id), and I found the superb documentary series “Tales by Light” : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5350276/
The URL for the first episode is:
https://www.netflix.com/watch/80168237
Long story short, this is a note to self: eventually better than searching at Netflix, try to discover content by randomly entering program IDs into the URL 🙂