The Churning Out Of TV Shows – How Long Can We Keep Sacrificing Quality For Quantity?
To churn or to not churn? That is the question for all the content producers out there...
Gone are the days where only two TV channels existed for consumption and the Internet being something you shared with your siblings for an hour a day, to dial up, do your ‘homework' or play Tetris on. Nowadays, we're faced with an abundance of content; an explosion of TV networks, enough streaming company Gods to worship and a new Star Wars film every five minutes. With such an overwhelming amount of content being made to keep the big giants streaming – are we sacrificing quality over quantity?
But how many times have you dedicated your waking hours to a show, its characters, lovers, twists, turns, intricacies and mistakes... to find out it’s cancelled? Again!
Too many, right? And you're still wondering why The Walking Dead is still walking? Or potentially staggering at this point, until its expected death in 2022.
‘Churning out’ is defined by The Free Dictionary 'To produce in an abundant and regular manner'. This has since become a key ingredient, not in butter making, but the streaming God's business model. If you put yourself in the position of Netflix, with over 193 million paying subscribers and over 8000 employees on a wage – is it economically agreeable to cut expensive shows out of the mix, that frankly aren't bringing in the butter? Hence why 13 Reasons Why, Killing Eve and Riverdale are still being unnecessarily churned out (no offence producers!). On top of this, there are countless free trial users who cancel their trial before they pay up. So, it makes perfect sense to grab the next hot series and promote it as a marketing tool, to convert the freebies into paying watchers. Although with recent news of Netflix cancelling their free trial service, I wonder how this might turn out? Or should I say churn out?
However, just because it makes economic sense, does not mean that it's acceptable. One could argue that keeping the persistently loyal customers happy is more important, than trying to catch new subscribers that could potentially cancel after their shiny new series gets cancelled (again!). Sure, it's not like Netflix have a lack of ideas or producers pitching to them, but the playground politics can soon turn very ugly – with restrictive contracts that mean the cancelled shows can't take their content elsewhere for many years. This was the case for the hit 'American Vandal', which was sadly cut after two seasons. Many other shows have experienced this same fate, including 'The OA', 'Sense8' and 'Ozark', with Netflix axing 18 original series within 2020 alone, after only the first season. Not only is this upsetting for us die-hard audiences, but also the creative teams; whose hard work have been forced to a halt.
On the other side of the coin, according to the life cycle of a business, we are left to imagine what could have happened to those brilliant originals, cut off in their infancy. A prime example is the US-version of 'The Office', which was ridiculed by the critics in 2005 after one season. Yet, after its renewal from season two onwards, it seemed to win both critics and audiences over, proving its worth to the NBC network for nine seasons. Only nowadays, audiences (and our attention spans) are maybe not as patient and instead we're cutting shows before they've even had a real chance.
It goes to show the same is true in the film world, with remakes popping up every decade for the next generation to be sucked into. I'm not sure about you, but these feel like a contest to show off how advanced our technology has become, rather than maintaining the quality and honouring the story of the original. 'The Lion King', 'Cinderella' and 'Cats' spring to mind here. Technology is great, but if the story isn't there, then the magic isn’t either. And magic is what that generation will treasure and remember for generations to come.
I hope that Netflix are reading this and will be more compassionate towards shows before cutting them off whilst they are still little green buds, just about to bloom and become something special.
Written by Kheira Bey
Kheira is an actress, living and working in London and loves anything fresh in the world of theatre, film and art. She works across theatre and film, and is trying to get better at watering her plant collection. She has previously contributed to: Voice Magazine, The Sun and Good Morning Britain; and is passionate about championing female narratives.