‘Not second screen enough’: is Netflix deliberately dumbing down TV so people can watch while scrolling?
Streaming insiders have claimed they’re being made to rewrite scripts for viewers who use their phones while watching. Is this the end of prestige TV? Or pure fiction?
Be honest: how much attention do you pay when you watch TV? If you’re familiar with the ritual of half-watching a series or film – Netflix on in the background while you check out what your arch enemy has just posted on Instagram, say – it may surprise you to hear that Netflix doesn’t just know you engage in this obscene behaviour. It actually wants you to carry on.
The streamer was in the news recently thanks to an excellent piece by Will Tavlin in n+1, which reminded readers of the platform’s microgenre of “casual viewing”: TV shows and movies designed to be watched while doing something else. One paragraph in particular incited a great deal of frustration. Tavlin claimed that Netflix have told various screenwriters to have their protagonists “announce what they’re doing so that viewers who have this program on in the background can follow along”.
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