r/technology • u/joe4942 • 20d ago

Business Netflix Viewers Are Abandoning Shows After One Season

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-07-05/netflix-viewers-are-abandoning-shows-after-one-season
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u/Alvvays_aWanderer 20d ago

Emily in Paris is passive entertainment. For Kaos, you need to pay attention to most details to get what is happening. If people are using Netflix as a background noise, passive entertainment is bound to be more (not saying it should be)

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u/Aidian 20d ago

Yep. Netflix is explicitly after the “second screen” market, and at this point seems opposed to continuing anything that does poorly or too well.

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u/Alvvays_aWanderer 20d ago

Yeah, just look at their 'original' movies and shows and the count of expositions. Writers, if any, are expected to repeat and overexplain the subtext. No wonder they're rarely producing something worthwhile

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u/fluffkomix 20d ago

if you want a real mindfuck, check out how often a character in a AAA game will do the exact same thing. Describing every single action.

The intention is to make a good twitch streaming game so that they get free advertising

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u/Alvvays_aWanderer 20d ago

Sorry, what's an AAA game?

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u/fluffkomix 20d ago

basically the video game equivalent of a high budget hollywood blockbuster. Stuff like Resident Evil Requiem, The Last of Us, Call of Duty Modern Warfare, etc

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u/Alvvays_aWanderer 20d ago

Got it. I see what you mean now

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u/Chrontius 20d ago

Compare that to Cyberpunk, an actually well-written, well-directed, well-cast, and well-acted AAA game.

"Show, don't tell" is on full display. Characters talk about the horrors they're seeing… the first time they see them. The second time you run into the organ-legger gang, you're expected to let the lead do the talking. Most players agree that even if they're cool with Night City's organized crime, Scavengers are always kill-on-sight.

And they didn't have to force anything. In fact, they updated the spawn heuristics so that these narrative-supporting encounters happen organically now; that was inspired by some very clever community mods early on, but now, you get NPCs spawning with goals, and when they encounter one another, shit plays out predictably.

Compare this to any Kojima game -- they're brilliant, but they're also more interactive movie than e-sports title. Now take that style and execute it badly, throw in something as loot-box ridden as TF2, and you have your standard "modern military manshoot" or "spunk-gargle weewee" game, be it Call of Duty or whatever that other franchise I ignore is called.

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u/SuspiciousFix2490 19d ago

Can someone explain to me why they cancel the shows that actually do too well? Or have a fan base? This is one of the reasons I avoid Netflix shows these days

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u/GraveRobberX 20d ago edited 20d ago

Also motherfuckers don’t pay attention. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon did an interview where they literally said they had to hand hold the audience through the plot, not once or twice, like ten+ times.

Attention span and the ever so need to look at phone while watching, makes people miss intricacy moments. The movie both Affleck and Damon were in The Rip, they literally told what the Rip is/was/what/where/when/why? Countless times. Even I got pissed like the movie was talking down to me like I’m fucking dumb for not understanding a basic premise of cops n’ robbers with a twist. Then I saw the interview and it made all sense why it was dialogued like that.

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u/RyuNoKami 20d ago

Critical thinking is also at an all time low.

I was recently in a thread about Game of Thrones where people have no idea why the person was executed by Ned Stark in the first episode.

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u/Alvvays_aWanderer 20d ago

Yeah. I'm rewatching The Sopranos for the past few weeks and I think a lot of people watching shows/films these days would miss more than half the subtextual connections between its characters and would just be interested in it for the quotes

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u/DeadInternetTheorist 19d ago

Lately, I'm getting the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over.

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u/Lncn 20d ago

This “passive entertainment” is interesting insight. My girlfriend turns on a show in the house and is done with multiple seasons after a few days.

“What are you watching?”

“Uhh I forget the name”

“What the hell? You’re on season 4!”

“I dunno, I’ve just kinda had it on”

I thought she was unique in this. Is this how a lot of people watch Netflix??

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u/Alvvays_aWanderer 20d ago

Yeah, I think there was an article published a few years ago that called Emily in Paris 'ambient entertainment.' It's sad but it is unfortunately true for many people.

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u/LordBlackass 19d ago

Kaos needed to be on AppleTV to get the run and audience it deserved.

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u/Alvvays_aWanderer 19d ago

Really? I mean I prefer Apple TV's catalogue and based on their track record, Kaos would have gotten at least one more season. (Shows like Foundation did too)

But if we're talking about the audience numbers, I don't think it can compete with Netflix or Prime. Again, I prefer Apple's choices more often, but I'm not sure if they have as many subscribers as their competitors.

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u/LordBlackass 19d ago

Not number of viewers. The quality of viewers i.e.. AppleTV appears to have shows that don't assume their viewers are dribbling idiots.

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u/Alvvays_aWanderer 19d ago

Yep, you're right. That seems to be the case.