Completing Netflix might not appear the impossibility it once was due to the impact lockdown has had on the creative industry. But should viewers be alarmed that what is now deemed good watching as the bar has been lowered considerably? Few of the latest releases and mediocre programmes are gaining viral status. A sign of lockdown causing viewers standards to slip would be a reasonable conclusion.
Controversial though it may be, mediocre is how some have described the recently made-popular Schitt$ Creek. A programme that provided much needed comfort and as our own TV Critic Rosa Georgiou said of the programme ‘certainly not a narrative full of shocking twists and tales, rather one which mulls over its character arcs, embracing the slow charm of the small town life.’ This is an accurate assessment, but the question remains, why are viewers okay with this arguably mediocre programme and movie roll out and what are the long-term impacts?
The direction of TV and film before COVID was promising and exciting, from the female superhero Captain Marvel saving the day to the traumatising historical show Chernobyl. One of the few programmes that feel like a legacy to the premium style viewing of a pre-pandemic era is period drama The Great on Channel 4. A series which follows a young Catherine the Great of Russia which appears to have gone overlooked and beaten to the No1 spot of popularity in favour of rival period drama Netflix’s Bridgerton, described by our own TV critic Rachel Hartley as ‘a welcome distraction’. A fitting description for a period drama full of inaccuracies and ridiculous costumes offering another ‘slow charm of a small town’.
Anything that offers light relief and resembles a life outside the walls of our houses are welcomed but I wonder how many of these latest releases beginning to flop such as Capone starring Tom Hardy was never meant to grace our screens following its completion. How many of these releases such as Coming 2 America starring Eddie Murphy were seen by producers and decided against release but now, on the back of unlikely successes such as Bridgerton, and the re-discovered, 6-year running Schitt$ Creek, are being rushed to release to the public in the hope that lockdown might save them in the end?
I am inclined to blame the pandemic for two reasons. Firstly, slowed down, mulling movies have become more relatable. We are forced into a similar state of contemplating life, living in lockdown. Secondly, and perhaps more long-term, the absence of good TV creation as theatre and film have reduced considerably in lockdown.
Will expectations continue to follow this trajectory as viewers become accepting of the shows on Netflix that previously they would never have entertained?
We need to lift our heads from our microwaved bowl of popcorn and take notice because the direction film was going before the pandemic was a good one involving large scale productions with new and exciting plot lines; Black Mirror, Black Panther, and Weinstein being bodily removed from Hollywood not to mention representation of people of colour, LGBTQ+ community, Women and disabled persons beginning to finally be recognised for their talents and contributing to wildly more interesting television and film. The fate of television in the hands of the viewers.We don’t need any more scare mongering and certainty not about something, which on the scale of things seems trivial such as the pandemic and what it has done to our televisions but our standards have slipped. What will be the long-term effects? More Netflix commissioned mediocre series or will “The Greats” rise again?
Image: Chris Winters via Flickr