Illustration by Gina Ledor
Today, television and films are one of our society’s main source of entertainment. Many watch shows on Netflix every day and it has quickly become a TV show provider giant. This year Netflix will have seven hundred original shows as well as eighty original movies, according to Netflix CEO David Wells.
Netflix has clearly shown how much the media landscape and industry itself has changed because of its arrival and growth, while regular cable is seeing a decline even with some of its stronger shows on popular networks.
One of the biggest reasons for this drop for regular networks and cable seems to come back to Netflix’s appeal: it’s easy and convenient. The industry in Hollywood is not as inclusive in having many different stories even though it has recently been loosening up a bit. Netflix changes all of that by giving more people shots to be producing, directing or acting in new and fresh TV shows or films.
Breaking into the industry is a very hard thing to do but with Netflix creating so many different kinds of shows, this allows for an unknown actor to become a household name. One of the brightest examples is one of Netflix’s original shows called Stranger Things. No one knew about Millie Bobby Brown or Finn Wolfhard before this show came out. This show is unique in terms of its formatting and content. The show is made possible by Netflix because if it were just on cable, the episodes would be more condensed or filled with too many commercial breaks.
By being on Netflix, it gets to be however the creators want it to be, and this allows the Duffer brothers — who created the show — to map out their vision. Netflix changes the game by being a platform that allows for creative freedom because it doesn’t have to be formatted like much of regular network TV is.
With all these benefits that Netflix has, it is not hard to see how these changes affect the older parts of the industry. While there is some magic to going to the movie theater or watching a show on regular television, Netflix has become what a lot of people prefer nowadays.
Netflix is a well-rounded, all ages kind of provider and this shows that the older parts of the industry might have to renovate if they want to keep up with the latest discoveries that are being unearthed.
Although some movies and shows will do better on cable, a lot more of the industry will find that Netflix has a significantly wider audience. In this day and age, it is the trailblazers that continue to thrive and Netflix has undoubtedly done that.