Look, if you take a look at the lineup they’ve put together for this year, the first thing you think is that someone in the Netflix office said: “What the hell, let’s do everything and for everyone.” It’s just that it’s no longer only the home of Stranger Things and romantic comedies, that’s over.
What I see is a two-pronged strategy, and both prongs are hitting hard.
The first: tying you down with series you don’t know when they’ll end, and that you don’t want to end either
It’s their daily bread and they keep exploiting it. But look, it’s no longer just about putting out seasons, it’s about making universes. Now “parts” are in style (what used to be called seasons), like with Bridgerton, where the fourth comes in two batches to keep you hooked until February. Real classics return, like Lupin after three years, or Peaky Blinders, which even though the series ended, they’re bringing out a movie to close (or not close) it all off, with Cillian Murphy again.
It’s the old television tactic: creating a habit. But they add the modern twist: anthologies. Beef was a huge hit, so for the second season they change the entire cast: out go Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, in come Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan. That way, if you didn’t like the first one, the second one might hook you, because it’s a different story.
The second prong: recovering prestige and “real cinema“
This is where I see they’re pulling out all the stops. They’re fed up with being told they only make disposable content. That’s why they’re betting big on huge names and on genres that Hollywood has somewhat set aside.
The clearest example is the movie The Rip, by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. They released it now in January and critics say it looks like a 90s movie, one of those old-school thriller cop movies, no frills and with the actors giving it their all. It’s a statement. And it’s not the only one: they have a heist thriller with Denzel Washington and Robert Pattinson (Here Comes the Flood), and an action one with Charlize Theron (APEX).
They’re also going for big-budget productions that look like summer blockbusters, but for your living room. Look at the most ambitious project: Narnia, a new adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s book… directed by Greta Gerwig (the one behind Barbie), to be released at Christmas. That’s not making just another series, that’s wanting to create a cultural event.
What nobody tells you: the weirdest bets and the formats they’re testing
But the craziest thing isn’t the blockbusters, it’s the other stuff. What they’re testing to see where they want to innovate.
- More live than ever: They’re pushing live content hard. They’re not just broadcasting WWE. In January they did Skyscraper Live, where climber Alex Honnold climbed Taipei 101 live. And they’ve brought back Star Search, a classic talent show, but with real-time voting from viewers. They want you to open the app at a specific time, like old-school TV.
- The perfect miniseries for a weekend: They’ve found a goldmine with tight six-episode thrillers. Him and Her, with Tessa Thompson and Jon Bernthal, is the latest example: a small-town mystery that hooks you and wraps up in a couple of afternoons. They call it “with the spirit of an after-dinner movie,” and that’s not an insult, it’s the key. They’re stories that don’t ask for months of commitment.
- The gems from over here: Not everything comes from Hollywood. For Latin America they’ve announced things that sound like strong bets, not filler. The most talked-about: the adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude by García Márquez. But there’s also a series by Pablo Larraín based on stories by Mariana Enríquez, and another by Juan José Campanella. It seems they’re finally putting serious money and talent behind ambitious local projects.
And what the hell does all this mean for us?
Well, that Netflix no longer competes only with Disney+ or HBO. Now it also wants to be the sports channel (live), the talent show one, the extreme adventure documentary one, the European auteur series one, and the prestige film studio. All at once.
The risk is that it turns into a junk drawer where it’s hard to find the good stuff among so much offering. But honestly, seeing what they’re bringing, it seems they’re choosing their battles well. It’s not a hundred crappy series, it’s a few very expensive projects and other very clever ones, to cover all fronts.
The question isn’t whether you’ll have something to watch, because you will. The question is whether, with so much bombardment of big releases, anything will stick in your head after a month. Because before, you talked about Game of Thrones all year. Now, will we be talking in July about the January miniseries?
