27.12.2024
So it's week 52 of the year and my third week of writing these Artist Weeknotes. I'll be honest I'm slightly late writing this week, the swing from manic festivities to gaping abyss of nothingness has occurred and I could barely recognise what day Friday was. It's a strange time of year, the days meld into one and trying to keep some form of rhythm or routine is difficult. I've simply made it my aim not to indulge in the nothingness too much and try to keep some form of balance. This does seem to be working and I'm interspersing this with a fair bit of reading and researching. This week I'm going to reflect on an article I read which I think is quite pertinent this time of year when lots of us spend time catching up on Films and TV programmes we may have missed throughout the year.
Casual Viewing - Why Netflix Looks Like That by Will Tavlin
This is a very long read but takes a deep dive at the Netflix platform and their model for creating content. It looks at why movies made by Netflix generally fit a template, are generally not very well received but are still made regularly, this is primarily to do wth the idea that Netflix is a streaming business run for massive profits not for gaining creative commendation. It also looks at the model that has been created which means the platform needs feeding with content that appeals to the largest audience, an audience by all accounts that might not even be paying full attention.
One tag among Netflix’s thirty-six thousand microgenres offers a suitable name for this kind of dreck: “casual viewing.” Usually reserved for breezy network sitcoms, reality television, and nature documentaries, the category describes much of Netflix’s film catalog — movies that go down best when you’re not paying attention, or as the Hollywood Reporter recently described Atlas, a 2024 sci-fi film starring Jennifer Lopez, “another Netflix movie made to half-watch while doing laundry.” A high-gloss product that dissolves into air. Tide Pod cinema.
The article also points out that big directors have made films for the platform that have won awards such as Martin Scorsese and Alfonso Cuarón but those films just disappear into the depths of Netflix's algorithm once you've seen them.
But this article also made me think about all the great stuff that has been created and is hiding on Netflix that you can watch so here are some of my recommendations:
And to see out the year I'm going to share a poem I always revisit at this time of year, written 174 years ago it feels contemporary and is a hopeful reminder of what the future could hold.
Ring Out, Wild Bells- Alfred Lord Tennyson
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.