this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2024
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[–] [email protected] 72 points 5 days ago (1 children)

so that viewers who have a program on in the background can follow along without having to miss plot strands

So the people who don't give a crap about what you wrote can keep not giving it a crap, uh.

[–] jaybone 47 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Seriously if this is how you choose to watch something, then you should expect to be missing stuff. Go get an audio book instead if thats how you prefer to consume entertainment.

[–] frunch 13 points 5 days ago

I agree with your take--when applied to the viewer.

This is Netflix going out of their way to coddle viewers and make it easier to continue scrolling on their phones while the movie plays...their goal is to keep people paying the monthly subscription--if it means making movies that are super low-effort to watch, you can absolutely bet on them exploiting it.

[–] TwoBeeSan 2 points 5 days ago

Considering the amount of "haha on my phone while watching x" adhd or other memes make me think this is a natural progression for our shrinking attentions.

Must be disrespectful as a writer to be told this.

Hope this kills netflix.

[–] Winged_Hussar 47 points 5 days ago
[–] Hobbes_Dent 41 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] lath 27 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I am lying to you.

"Great post!"

Now i am upvoting your post.

That is also a lie.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

I am thinking about a witty reply but nothing comes to mind. Now I am thinking about deleting this before posting as I fear nobody will find this funny.

I am posting it anyways now

[–] lath 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I find this post agreeable and upvote it sincerely.

Then i move on and completely forget about it in the next few minutes.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I half heartedly made a comment, thinking that was the last of it. Imagine my surprise when I have a nightmare later tonight involving bad narratives

[–] lath 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I left the comment unanswered to make your nightmares more vivid and enjoyable. Now I'm laughing as i imagine your deep discomfort. Heh heh heh

[–] 9point6 32 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I mean, there's often audio description tracks for people with poor vision anyway?

This seems redundant

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

I think you're off the mark a little. By "announce what they are doing" that doesn't mean physical on-sceeen actions, like a blind person would need. It means "directly explain the context of what is happening"

Example from.the article:

“We spent a day together,” Lohan tells her lover, James, in Irish Wish. “I admit it was a beautiful day filled with dramatic vistas and romantic rain, but that doesn’t give you the right to question my life choices. Tomorrow I’m marrying Paul Kennedy.”

In a lot of more traditional movies, that would have all been in the subtext. We'd have experienced the romantic day, and through those subtle nuances of character interaction we'd understand how the characters feel. We'd understand Lohan still plans to marry Paul, without her even having to explain.

What Netflix is really saying is, people aren't paying enough attention to pick up on subtext and nuance. That's why the message to filmmakers is to make content that spells it out directly and unambiguously so that no actual attention is needed.

It's not about listening vs watching. It's about viewers giving the show only 30% of their brain while their real focus is elsewhere.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago

Yay, I love awkward exposition dumps.

[–] skeezix 1 points 5 days ago

You mean that?

[–] sylver_dragon 24 points 5 days ago

so that viewers who have a program on in the background can follow along without having to miss plot strands.

I would have thought it was to make up for the fact that everything is so dark in modern shows that it's impossible to see what's going on.

[–] Rixonomic 18 points 5 days ago

Ah yes, the golden rule of writing: tell, then show

[–] Whelks_chance 21 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Can they fix the audio balancing at the same time, so we have a chance of actually understanding it without needing subtitles?

[–] frunch 8 points 5 days ago

Sounds like an upgrade option ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago

Great.

That will be the last you see of me because now that taking this screenshot is over I’m off to redditwitter to repost it.

[–] hOrni 13 points 5 days ago (2 children)

The weirdest sentence in this article was "starring Lindsey Lohan".

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 days ago (1 children)

“We spent a day together,” Lohan tells her lover, James, in “Irish Wish.” “I admit it was a beautiful day filled with dramatic vistas and romantic rain, but that doesn’t give you the right to question my life choices. Tomorrow I’m marrying Paul Kennedy.” “Fine,” he responds. “That will be the last you see of me because after this job is over I’m off to Bolivia to photograph an endangered tree lizard.”

This reads like the writer got the note and decided to just go all in on malicious compliance.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

the last sentence there really sounds like it's about to transition into a tree fiddy joke

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

My wife keeps watching everything with LL in it. I find it unbearable. They’re like Hallmark films but worse.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

I have to admit that they have a point. My wife works 60-80 hours a week and during that time, Netflix or Max's infinite supply of competition shows is playing. I didn't understand how or why she keeps them on as background noise until now. They are literally designed to be background noise.

[–] Melonpoly 4 points 5 days ago
[–] ch00f -4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

To be honest, this is the reason I find Star Trek to be great background content. At least for TNG, the special effects weren’t good enough to tell the story on their own, so the characters would always narrate what was going on.

[–] jaybone 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Wut? Really? I didn’t get this impression of TNG. Also I thought the effects were pretty good especially for the time. Had to double take, thought you were talking about TOS.

[–] skeezix 1 points 5 days ago

Most TOSsers are satisfied with the original series’ graphics and wouldn’t change. And they don’t like the special editions.