[retrac98]

I remember signing up to Netflix to watch house of cards back in the early 2010s and being absolutely blown away.

I don’t think there’s been a single show on Netflix I’ve genuinely looked forward to in the past couple of years. It’s like they completely gave up on quality content and just shovel out the most mediocre slop. I’m amazed people still pay these ever increasing prices.

[mdasen]

In the early days, Netflix benefited from other media companies not recognizing streaming for what it was: their replacement. They licensed content to Netflix cheaply without thinking about how it would impact DVD sales or cable tv subscriptions.

It's kinda like how IBM didn't see the value in software and that let Microsoft become Microsoft.

[randusername]

I am still trying to recover from whatever Witcher season 3 broke in my brain by its audaciously low quality.

I was kicked out of the suspension of disbelief so hard I can't unsee things about the production process now, like makeup, continuity, costuming, sound design.

It was like the whole crew from script to editor just gave up, totally bizarre for headliner content.

[denysvitali]

Severance (Apple TV) and Fallout (Amazon Prime) are pretty amazing TV shows that came out somewhat recently. Nothing on top of my mind came out of Netflix for which I really felt the need of resubscribing.

I miss the quality of TV shows we reached with Mr. Robot, Silicon Valley, Utopia (UK), and Westworld :(

[snovymgodym]

I pretty much declared streaming show bankruptcy after sitting through Severance season 2 last year.

I know a lot of people liked it and maybe I'm just cynical, but to me it seems like every "serious" streaming show eventually falls victim to the "stretch a 2 hour movie's plot across a 12 - 16 hour season" strategy. They know it works because enough people binge watch or feel compelled to finish a series they've started.

At this point, if I'm watching a show then it's something where the episodes are sufficiently satisfying self-contained stories (e.g. something like Star Trek, X-Files, sitcoms). If I want something with a more involved plot, then I'll watch a movie. These formats are better because the limited runtime requires the creators to be intentional about what they dedicate screen time to. Meanwhile in a modern "story-driven" streamslop show it's painfully obvious when they're just padding out the runtime with fluff to make it to 8 episodes.

Of course there are exceptions to this, and there are stories for which a miniseries or a long-form series is the ideal video medium to convey them. But what happens so often is that you get 1-2 seasons of compelling storytelling followed by N more mediocre seasons that keep getting made because enough people keep watching. And the latter are just not worth the time investment.

[arkaic]

That is disheartening about Severance, I've been meaning to catch up on s2 after a phenomenal s1. But that you're totally on point about the padding. The last good series I saw that finished well was Mr Robot, getting closer to a decade ago now. No one knows how to write a well contained long running series anymore without stretching it with slop and content.

[snovymgodym]

Well it's just one man's opinion. Lots of people liked S2 and it got good ratings, so don't let me color your opinion of it.

[Supermancho]

* Silo (Apple TV)

* Pluribus (Apple TV)

* Paradise (Paramount+)

* Landman (Paramount+)

* A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (HBO Max)

First few seasons Netflix keeps it together before crapping the bed:

* Witcher (Netflix)

* Stranger Things (Netflix)

* Mindhunter (Netflix)

[lostmsu]

I also really liked Foundation on Apple TV