2022.06.02 陌生事物不会拯救Netflix

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Stranger Things Won’t Save Netflix
If anything, the hit show’s triumphant return is only further proof of the streamer’s unsustainability.

By Shirley Li
Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven lying with eyes closed, wearing a white body suit
Netflix
JUNE 2, 2022
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Netflix, long branded as Hollywood’s disruptor, has lately looked to be in need of disruption itself. In April, the company revealed that it had lost customers for the first time in a decade, as rising subscription costs and increased streaming competition drove audiences away. Shares plummeted, as did shareholder confidence. Discussions began over plans to introduce ads and crack down on password sharing. Previously ordered projects, even those with A-lister support, were canceled to help reduce spending.

Enter Season 4 of Stranger Things, the sci-fi horror series that returned over the weekend after a three-year hiatus. In the weeks leading up to its latest season, critics speculated that the show would be the streamer’s best hope in reversing its misfortunes: It had been one of Netflix’s most reliable hits, as sure to draw eyeballs with each new installment as monsters are to escape the Upside Down. It’s the archetypal Netflix title, with a plot fueled by escapist, algorithm-friendly nostalgia and a cliffhanger-ridden format that makes it highly bingeable. Besides, Netflix seemed to have gone all-in on everything Hawkins: The company reportedly spent $30 million per episode for the new season, and treated its rollout like an event, splitting the season into two parts and bloating each episode past hour-plus run times. The show’s 1980s pastiche catapulted it into the zeitgeist when the series began in 2016; now, in 2022, money would help it do the same.


The supersizing worked—according to Netflix, at least. The streaming platform reported Tuesday that Stranger Things 4: Volume One had garnered a staggering 286.79 million hours watched over the course of its first weekend, breaking the platform’s record for an English-language TV show. All three previous seasons also landed on last week’s top-10 list, accumulating almost 85 million hours of viewing from audiences around the world who were either catching up or rewatching.

And yet, the numbers indicate little beyond the success of Stranger Things itself; they demonstrate the series’s popularity, not Netflix’s return to form. Even watching Stranger Things 4: Volume One showed the limits of Netflix’s strategy, which has been built on spending exorbitantly: The show looked cinematic, with seamless visual and special effects, but the story strained to fill the increased run time. Some of the enhancements came off as unnecessary, if not absurd. Millie Bobby Brown's face was superimposed onto an even younger actor's body throughout repetitive flashbacks. A subplot taking place in California caught fans up on supporting characters such as Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), but it dragged on to the point where some of those same fans questioned the need for these narrative detours. Another demogorgon battle took place, except this time in Russia, because, well, why not? The coffers weren’t empty yet.


But watching the series show off its budget stings, too: Behind the scenes, Netflix has been laying off hundreds of employees, some from departments it had created only months before, in an attempt to recoup its losses. With one final season of Stranger Things to go, how much more will Netflix sink into the show to make it a chart-topping triumph? How much will a Netflix subscription cost by the time Season 5 comes around?

Read: When Stranger Things finally gave its villain a voice

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The success of Season 4, in other words, is only further proof of Netflix’s unsustainability. A $30-million-an-episode budget is unlikely to be replicated for other projects in the company’s pipeline. Not every show can afford to be turned into event viewing. And as with previous headline-making statistics the streamer has released, the figures touted this week come with a heap of salt: Stranger Things last aired in 2019, and since then, Netflix has changed its model of determining ratings, making it impossible to accurately compare the success of this season with that of previous ones. (The third season also broke records, for instance, but viewership at the time was tallied according to the number of households watching at least 70 percent of an episode, not the number of total hours streamed.) So yes, 286.79 million hours is indeed a record-breaking number—but only in terms of data the company began collecting last year. And even then, the show’s achievements seem paltry when non-English-language series are added into the mix. In its best-performing week, the Korean drama Squid Game accumulated more than 571 million hours viewed, eclipsing Stranger Things’ total.

Perhaps a data point Netflix doesn’t track would be more instructive for the company. Over the weekend, Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” hit No. 1 on iTunes. The song first topped charts almost 40 years ago, back in 1985, but peaked again after being used in the show during a pivotal scene in Episode 4. In it, Max (Sadie Sink) is on the brink of death, trapped in the Upside Down, but she’s reminded of reality by the tune, which happens to be her favorite. Her subsequent escape is both epic and poignant—memorable enough for Stranger Things fans to search for the track, immersing themselves in the show beyond simply pressing “Next Episode.” Maybe that’s the lesson Netflix should take away from the show: The company doesn’t need to turn entire seasons into can’t-miss events by maximizing as many elements as possible. Being selective can be just as powerful—especially if a good story is being told.

Shirley Li is a staff writer at The Atlantic.
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陌生事物》不会拯救Netflix
如果有的话，这个热门节目的胜利回归只是进一步证明了流媒体的不可持续性。

作者：Shirley Li
米莉-鲍比-布朗（Millie Bobby Brown）饰演的Eleven闭着眼睛躺着，穿着白色的体恤。
Netflix
2022年6月2日
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长期以来，Netflix被打上了好莱坞颠覆者的烙印，但最近它自己看起来也需要颠覆。今年4月，该公司透露，由于订阅费用的上涨和流媒体竞争的加剧，它的客户在十年内首次流失。股价暴跌，股东的信心也下降了。人们开始讨论引入广告和打击密码共享的计划。以前订购的项目，甚至那些有明星支持的项目，都被取消了，以帮助减少开支。

进入《怪事》第四季，这部科幻恐怖剧在停播三年后于周末回归。在其最新一季到来之前的几周，评论家们猜测该剧将是流媒体公司扭转其不幸的最大希望。它一直是Netflix最可靠的作品之一，每部新剧都能吸引眼球，就像怪物们能逃离天翻地覆一样。它是Netflix的典型题材，情节由逃避现实的算法友好的怀旧情绪推动，悬念迭起的形式使其具有很强的可播放性。此外，Netflix似乎对霍金斯的一切都很上心。据报道，该公司为新一季每集花费3000万美元，并把它的推出当作一个活动，把这一季分成两部分，每集的运行时间超过一小时。该剧在2016年开播时，其1980年代的模仿作品将其推向了时代潮流；现在，在2022年，金钱将帮助它做到这一点。


至少根据Netflix的说法，这种超大规模的做法起了作用。该流媒体平台周二报告说，《怪奇物语4：第一卷》在第一个周末获得了惊人的2.8679亿小时的收视率，打破了该平台的英语电视节目的记录。之前的三季也都进入了上周的前十名，从世界各地追剧或重看的观众中积累了近8500万小时的观看时间。

然而，除了《怪奇物语》本身的成功之外，这些数字并没有说明什么；它们显示了该系列的受欢迎程度，而不是Netflix的回归。即使是观看《怪奇物语4：第一卷》，也显示了Netflix战略的局限性，该战略一直建立在高昂的支出上。这部剧看起来像电影一样，有无缝的视觉和特效，但故事为了填补增加的运行时间而变得紧张。一些增强的效果是不必要的，甚至是荒谬的。米莉-鲍比-布朗（Millie Bobby Brown）的脸在重复的闪回中被叠加到一个更年轻的演员的身上。发生在加利福尼亚的一个次要情节让粉丝们了解了乔纳森（查理-希顿）等配角，但它拖到了一些同样的粉丝质疑这些叙事迂回的必要性。另一场食人魔之战发生了，只是这次是在俄罗斯，因为，为什么不呢？库房还没有空。


但是，看着这个系列展示它的预算，也很刺眼。在幕后，Netflix一直在裁减数百名员工，其中一些是在几个月前才成立的部门，以试图挽回损失。随着《怪奇物语》最后一季的播出，Netflix还将为该剧投入多少资金以使其成为排行榜上的胜利者？到第五季的时候，Netflix的订阅费用会是多少？

请看。当《怪奇物语》终于给它的反派一个声音时

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换句话说，第四季的成功只是进一步证明了Netflix的不可持续能力。每集3000万美元的预算不太可能被复制到该公司的其他项目中。并非每部剧都能负担得起变成事件的观赏性。与流媒体公司之前发布的头条统计数字一样，本周吹捧的数字也是带着一堆盐的。陌生人》最后一次播出是在2019年，从那时起，Netflix改变了确定收视率的模式，因此无法准确地将本季的成功与之前的成功进行比较。(例如，第三季也打破了记录，但当时的收视率是根据观看一集至少70%的家庭数量来统计的，而不是流媒体的总时数）。因此，是的，2.8679亿小时确实是一个破纪录的数字，但只是就该公司去年开始收集的数据而言。即使如此，如果把非英语系列节目加入其中，该节目的成就也显得微不足道。在其表现最好的一周，韩剧《乌贼游戏》的观看时长累计超过5.71亿小时，超过了《怪奇物语》的总时长。

也许Netflix没有跟踪的数据对该公司更有指导意义。上周末，凯特-布什的 "Running Up That Hill "在iTunes上排名第一。这首歌在近40年前，即1985年首次登上榜首，但在第四集的一个关键场景中被用于该剧后再次达到顶峰。在这一幕中，麦克斯（萨迪-辛克）正处于死亡的边缘，被困在颠倒世界中，但她被这首曲子提醒了现实，这恰好是她的最爱。她随后的逃亡过程既史诗又凄美--令人难忘，足以让《怪奇物语》的粉丝们搜索这首曲子，让自己沉浸在剧中，而不仅仅是按下 "下一集 "而已。也许这就是Netflix应该从该剧中吸取的教训。该公司不需要通过尽可能多的元素将整季节目变成不可错过的事件。有选择性的做法也同样有力--尤其是在讲述一个好故事的时候。

Shirley Li是《大西洋》杂志的一名工作人员。
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