this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2026
533 points (99.3% liked)
Television
2856 readers
562 users here now
Welcome to Television
This community is for discussion of anything related to television or streaming.
Other Communities
- !casualconversation@piefed.social
- !movies@piefed.social
- !animation@piefed.social
- !trailers@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Television Communities
A community for discussion of anything related to Television via broadcast or streaming.
Rules:
- Be respectful and courteous to all members.
- Avoid offensive or discriminatory remarks.
- Avoid spamming or promoting unrelated products/services.
- Avoid personal attacks or engaging in heated arguments.
- Do not engage in any form of illegal activity or promote illegal content.
- Please mask any and all spoilers with spoiler tags.
List of Best Rated TV Series as voted by the Fediverse
founded 8 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Make movies that are engaging enough to keep people from checking their feeds while they wait for something to happen.
I dunno man, I can't get my friends to watch some stellar movies because their attention span has been shot over time.
Believe it or not, they'll watch crappier movies because they don't need to pay attention.
Can't right now, ow my balls is on.
That doesn't sound very streamlined or profitable to me.
My wife said that the Wire was hard to follow and boring, but she also checked her phone every 5 minutes and was carrying on a conversation there with her friends. She also impulsively pulled out facebook and scrolled a bit. I pointed all this out but Its still the shows fault somehow.
Part of it is the movie, but a large part is that short form video trains your brain to need frequent dopamine fixes. A 5 second video does that, while a 90 minute movie might not give it until the climax.
It's not much different than a smoker taking a break during a movie.
If someone starts a movie and immediately pulls their phone out or starts cleaning, that’s on them.
And movies absolutely should not be made to cater to addiction. Nothing should, except for something explicitly designed to help people recover from addiction.
When movies have a good idea and are given the proper attention to make them well, regular people won’t be checking the time or reading blogs when they become bored. The problem is that studios say that, good idea or not, proper attention to the craft or not, we’re making this many movies this year. We’re lucky if a few of those movies are something future generations would consider good.
Matt Damon is suggesting that movies be made even worse than they already are.
It definitely reads more as "Netflix execs suggest and Matt Damon complains about"
I can't stand short videos. I won't even watch videos that aren't an hour or longer myself. I don't get these shorts, it's so unsatisfying.
We get our short attention span jones from reading headlines and comments.
It literally doesn't work for most people anymore
Short form videos fried people's attention and dopamine needs
Oh fucking please.. that has nothing to do with it.
lol yea, toootally nothing to do with it. That's why nobody ever talks about great movies, and movies toooootally aren't getting longer nad longer... yep, totally not a quality to attention thing.
Not like there are legendary movies that are several hours long that people still watch... Yep, quality has nothing to do with how long people stay engaged with movies!
The fact that classics exist has literally nothing to do with this discussion. Also, no, movies aren't getting longer. Source.
There are plenty of great films still being made every year. If you don't watch or like them, that's a you problem.
Nowhere did I say they no longer make good movies.
K bud
Reading comprehension hard. I'm sorry you struggle so much in life you've just internalized it. Very sad.
Do the people who have their phones out in films nowadays watch those old movies without looking at their phones, hmm?
Your snark makes you sound like an arsehole.
My snark is because it was an assinine statement that was said rudely. I don't know why you're mad at me and not the rude person with the wrong opinion.
The Intro to the film, "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" comes to mind.
Great film, slow, steady, meaningful.
Bud.. people are on thier phones constantly.. there nothing that will stop that..
That’s the problem they don’t want to discuss. Writing has gotten seriously shitty.
If you watch shitty movies, yes. There are still plenty of good movies being made.
I've watched through ‘Severance’, which is very popular afaict. It's chock full of protracted shots padding the runtime. Either the directors (mostly Ben Stiller) think they're new Kubricks, or the directive was to make the show longer. Idk what Netflix gets from a longer show, when a season is dumped all at once anyway — presumably more space for ads, which are apparently there now. I wouldn't feel much guilty about checking the phone in between any meaningful action.
The only new film that really gripped me in the past few years was ‘The Substance’, which felt like oldschool Cronenberg stuff. Ironically it's comparatively long, and doesn't even have much dialogue.
First and foremost, you're complaining about pacing, not writing. Second, that's your opinion and that's fine. Personally, I don't think every single second needs to move the plot forward. I'm perfectly fine with sections of it being transicions or world building or other stuff.
Your opinion's fine though. Just go watch something else. However, you not liking something doesn't mean that it's necessarily bad, nor good.
If the substance really is the only film that gripped you in the past few years, then you either are terrible at picking movies or you just don't really like cinema all that much.