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Welcome back to Worth the Watch!

New streaming originals have a dialogue problem. And it’s getting worse. During the press tour for their latest film, The Rip, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck went on record and finally confirmed what most viewers have felt for years: studios are intentionally dumbing down their stories.

Netflix said to them,

—Matt Damon

As they go on to explain, the way viewers consume movies and shows has fundamentally changed—scrolling TikTok, working on a laptop, cooking dinner, or caring for your kids are common occurrences while watching movies or shows at home. Rarely do viewers give their TV undivided attention anymore.

It’s not a deliberate, malicious attempt to make shows and movies worse, but rather an initiative designed to increase user retention. Watch time is king, so a shift in viewer behavior (treating shows & movies as second-screen activities) leads to a shift in how Netflix creates stories (reiterating plot points, excessive exposition dumps, and surface-level dialogue).

Netflix is certainly not the only culprit—the trend is happening across the entire streaming landscape—but it is the most notable and obvious offender. Thus, the term “Netflix Slop” was born. A phrase that encapsulates the enshitification (yes, this is a real word) of Netflix content.

Here are some of my favorite videos on the topic:

Let’s look at Stranger Things, for example. Many viewers, myself included, felt that Season 5 was the weakest one yet. There’s a lot to critique about the recent seasons, but the downfall of the series falls largely on the writing. The writers ham-fistedly reiterate the plot multiple times per episode. They beat you over the head with every little detail, as if you weren’t watching the show.

AI chatbots are often criticized for being the catalyst for shows and movies getting dumber. And they certainly deserve a slice of that blame. In the recent documentary, One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, there’s a scene that shows ChatGPT open on one of the writer’s monitors during production. The doc director denies the allegations that the Stranger Things team used AI to write the series, but the point stands: AI-generated, or at least AI-assisted content, is being used to some degree in most avenues of entertainment.

But chatbots are more of a symptom than the disease. I believe Damon and Affleck pulled back the curtain on a broader and more alarming problem in the industry: studios no longer trust the viewer’s intelligence. Society’s collective shortening attention span leads studios to churn out low-quality, easy-to-follow, and eye-rollingly generic scripts. I’m sure studios have plenty of evidence to prove that this type of content leads to increased watch time, which is better for their bottom line. This is troublesome and we shouldn’t be okay with it.

When chatting with my dad about this trend, it surprised me that he hadn’t even noticed it. That’s what inspired me to write this edition of Worth the Watch. Although this trend isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, I wanted to let you know what’s happening. The only way that we, as audience members, can let our voices be heard is by thoughtfully choosing what we watch. It may sound dramatic to take something as chill as watching TV this seriously, but I genuinely believe it’s important. The type of media that gains viewership quickly becomes the norm.

I’ve always believed in watching content of “quality”, whatever that means to you. Quality is subjective, and I totally understand that there’s a time and place for trashy TV—I’m currently loving TLC’s Four Weddings just to laugh at how judgmental the contestants are! But there’s a difference between a trashy, silly-fun show and a show that is uninspired and frustrating to watch. I say skip the latter.

The good news is, the brain-rotification of shows is not happening across the board. There are certainly still bold, nuanced, must-watch original series that respect the viewer’s intelligence. Shows like Adolescence, The Diplomat, Baby Reindeer, and Dept. Q are a few of the recent Netflix originals that don’t fall into any of the Netflix Slop pitfalls.

Great TV is still being made. The trick is being a little more deliberate about what you press play on and not settling for whatever is on the “Top 10 This Week” tab when you open up the streamer. I’d love to know: What’s your favorite underrated gem that more people need to know about? Let me know by replying to this email!

There are still plenty of one-of-a-kind series to enjoy; you just need to know where to look. Here’s a curated list of 20 must-watch series that are so great, you won’t be able to look away.

TV Shows So Good You’ll Forget Your Phone Exists

John Farrar went to film school, spent a few years as an editor, then accidentally built an audience online by sharing his passion for cinema. He covers film and TV for Pix Media, interviews the people behind some of your favorite shows and movies, and has never once successfully talked himself out of buying a movie ticket.

Currently watching: DTF St. Louis