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I'm an Australian, based in the Washington, DC, area, with extensive experience in the US, UK/Europe and Australia. I have also lectured in IT and Law related topics at King's College, London, and at The Australian National University.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The "Netflix model": "the forgettable is supreme and the supreme goes unseen?"

Laurence Barber asks, on the Crikey website: "does the 'Netflix model' diminish television as art?". The argument is that binge-watching leads to degraded artistic quality as audiences have less time to digest content, shows no longer need to maintain suspense from week to week, and producers lack the opportunity to respond to feedback.

It's a pretty interesting argument. However, after thinking about it for a couple of days, I'm not sure I agree. I habitually watch entire TV series in a short period of time, and, if anything, I think that can foster a better appreciation of a well-written story arc. There are also plenty of traditional weekly TV shows with patchy scripts. At the end of the day, good writers will continue to write well; and the "Netflix model" simply offers consumers more options about how—and when—they consume content.

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