Netflixification
Aside from a few shows, the material available from Netflix ranges from clichéd to super clichéd and this would not matter that much if they were not so dominant in the streaming era. Most of the shows follow tried and true formulas. Some are procedural in nature and others are thrillers, dark and brooding from Scandinavia, chaotic from Spain, pandemonium from Italy and so on.
Take as an example the new show, “Hit and Run,” which started its ‘run’ last Friday, August 6th. Aside from being the five hundredth film or TV series on Netflix devoted to the WRONG MAN theme, it is also without craft, depth or aesthetic qualities. It is effective as manipulation, as an example of male violence, as yet another deep state conspiracy with a plot so completely unoriginal as to be laughable and so improbable as to be a joke were it not also an inventory of everything that spy /crime films have dwelled on for many decades. The creators of the show made sure that every chase scene is exactly the same just to reassure us that we won’t lose our footing even as the ‘hero’ constantly seems to lose his. There is the vengeful aggressor and the truth-seeking victim. There are the master manipulators and the seemingly endless cohorts of violent employees who die in great numbers but reappear wearing different clothes and who shoot at or beat up by the wrong(ed) man who suffers so many indignities that we are pulled into more and more closeups of his face looking either desperate or crying for what he has lost. The final indignity that we have to suffer through is the kidnapping of the hero’s daughter and this was done in order to leave us hanging for the next series which will presumably feature more murder and mayhem. Funny, another Netflix show, “Lupin,” far superior but basically focused on the same themes left us hanging or dangling when the hero’s son was kidnapped. Sound like a pattern? At least “Lupin” is self-aware and moderately self-conscious as well as self-deprecating.
As more and more of these shows dominate the streaming platforms, they begin to reveal an inventory of the concerns of contemporary culture. It seems that to be falsely accused of crimes you did not commit or statements you did not make, but nevertheless to be hunted and to be wronged, are the only tropes that the showrunners and their screenwriters think audiences want to see. At least that is the case on Netflix, Amazon and to a lesser extent some of the other streaming services. It seems the only thing that sells are stories about the uber-evil monsters who secretly run our society and never get caught meaning the innocent are roughed up or killed because of their machinations. Sound like Q-Anon?
