this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2026
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Television

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[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 175 points 1 month ago (19 children)

Make movies that are engaging enough to keep people from checking their feeds while they wait for something to happen.

[–] MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net 68 points 1 month ago

That doesn't sound very streamlined or profitable to me.

[–] lobut@lemmy.ca 55 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] muffedtrims@lemmy.world 35 points 1 month ago

Can't right now, ow my balls is on.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 38 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 35 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] BremboTheFourth@piefed.ca 30 points 1 month ago

Matt Damon is suggesting

It definitely reads more as "Netflix execs suggest and Matt Damon complains about"

[–] WhyIHateTheInternet@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 month ago

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.

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[–] reallykindasorta@slrpnk.net 110 points 1 month ago (8 children)

I find shows and movies that show something happen clearly and then restate it in the dialogue immediately quite annoying. Very common in anime.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 71 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Wait, you're telling me that restating dialog makes you annoyed, especially because it happens so frequently in anime?

[–] yakko@feddit.uk 35 points 1 month ago (1 children)

In anime, you should expect repetitive exposition. Can it be that Netflix has gained this power, too?

[–] Hexarei@beehaw.org 9 points 1 month ago

Netflix has gained the power of repetitive exposition? Such a feat has only been attained by anime before! One should expect it there, but now it's really bothering OP!

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[–] Switorik@lemmy.zip 60 points 1 month ago (2 children)

This is what kills any articles on the web. The first three paragraphs repeat the question you're looking to get answered and the last paragraph vaguely answers it.

I feel like an old person now but I've started watching movies from the 90s/2000s and I can't believe how much worse movies have become over the years.

[–] criss_cross@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] rhombus@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 month ago

Also the more repetition the more room on the page for ad spots. Same reason so many Youtubers restate the same shit almost verbatim over and over and over; it pads the video so Youtube can cram in more ad spots.

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[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 57 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Make content that makes people put their phones down.

[–] Triasha@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

This is part of the genius of kpop demon hunters. It moves fast, sometimes frenetically.

[–] BaraCoded@literature.cafe 52 points 1 month ago

Writer insight : if people start pulling their phone when they should be watching your movie, it means your movie is shit, not that it should be made even sloppier. Watered down shit is still a shit cocktail.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 43 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Is that why the last season of Stranger Things spent half the season rehashing how all the characters had felt about anything ever throughout the previous four seasons?

[–] ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I think re-explaining things that happened in previous seasons is a different issue. They're worried that you don't remember what happened because it has been so long.

And that's fair. I know I watched Season 2 (and it definitely had my full attention, because I'm incapable of doing two things at once), but the only thing I can actually remember about it is the episode where El went to Chicago and met some shadowrunners. And something about tunnels. Everything else is a blur.

[–] DeliciousDoorknob@piefed.social 16 points 1 month ago (11 children)

The last season being a big mess aside, it was 100% guilty of re-explaining the plot, not just the recaps. Together with those unnecessary "LET ME EXPLAIN" scenes, like Robin using vinyls to explain a very basic concept. They really treated us like idiots. 

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[–] Ilandar@lemmy.today 10 points 1 month ago

That was definitely part of it, but I think they also wrote themselves into a corner in previous seasons by not properly laying the groundwork for any of the supernatural stuff. In Season 5, they had to constantly infodump the viewers in those "plan" scenes to keep up.

What, do you expect the audience to pay attention and infer how characters are feeling based on things like subtle body cues? What like acting?

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[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 33 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I wouldn't have my phone out to begin with Netflix if you didn't start adding ads.

[–] BigBananaDealer@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago

🏴‍☠️

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[–] FreddiesLantern@leminal.space 30 points 1 month ago (15 children)

It’s the big tech social media disease.

Everyone, frigging everyone who steps away from fb/insta/twittler/yt/tiktok/… says the same “holy shit my mind is so peaceful all of a sudden.” And somehow it’s not substantially part of the daily discourse. Somehow between that and EVERYTHING else these mfrs are responsible for (protecting pedos, encouraging insurrections, …) just flies.

It’s a disease, an addiction, a plague and we gotta start naming it as such. Talk to your loved ones and carefully try to get them off that shit.

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[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

It's not just me, right? Modern movies and shows have less things happen in same duration of time.

[–] TheOriginalGregToo@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago (7 children)

I would actually argue the opposite. Modern movie plots are an ADD fever dream. There are so many things going on that keeping track is an absolute chore.

[–] portifornia@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think you're both right, somehow.

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[–] ambientdread@lemmy.world 28 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Or we are on our phones because the movies repeat their themes over and over and over again

[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

i dunno, most people i see watch netflix seem to use it as just another mode of stimulus because they need to always be completely inundated with flashing screens at all times to feel calm

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[–] 4am@lemmy.zip 26 points 1 month ago (8 children)

Why? What the fuck do they care as long as people watch it?

Make good stuff, and people will come.

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

People will leave if they don't like what they see. People won't like what they don't understand. People won't understand what isn't either simple or redundantly written because they don't pay attention.

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[–] fort_burp@feddit.nl 24 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Can't believe how prescient this movie was. We're on our way!

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[–] TheFonz@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think Netflix manufactured this problem first. Originally they were going for volume so they added a lot of padding to their og shows. To the point I stopped watching (torrenting) any Netflix originals. So people got in the habit of doing other stuff while waiting for the plot to start moving again. Now they claim that their shows are meant for second screens. Motherfucker: we are in the golden age of TV, so there's plenty of engaging content being produced. Marvelous Mrs. Maisle is so fast paced and brilliant I never felt the need to pick up my phone.

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[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 month ago

Bad movies need to do this. You know, the average movie Netflix signs off on.

[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

That stupid and reminds not to watch Netflix movies or shows.

[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

You could absolutely do it in a funny way like Kronk (Emperors New Groove) or Luis (Ant-Man).

[–] calliope@retrolemmy.com 9 points 1 month ago

I think I read a different article about this months ago!

For some reason I’m kind of surprised to hear about it again because not a lot of people seem to talk about it.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

Now I'm curious, am I checking my phone after they've repeated the same thing 3 or 4 times and now I'm bored / annoyed?

[–] yogurt@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

The amount of reciprocal effort art is socially allowed to demand from the audience changes. The art form gets refined and people respect that and are willing to invest more attention, then at some point it's opera and nobody goes because it requires too much attention and respect. Netflix might suck but on the other hand Christopher Nolan is making movies with inaudible dialogue and Game of Thrones has invisible fight scenes because they got out of hand with it and think they can demand you only watch their thing alone in a soundproof HDR screening room.

[–] Nangijala@feddit.dk 8 points 1 month ago

Good thing we canceled our Netflix subscription last year when Trump threatened to invade our country the first time.

Even greater that now that he is threatening to do it again, and seemingly is more serious about it, we are one year into being back on physical media and we fucking love it. Dvds and blurays are so much better than shitflix.

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