The sheer horror of having to watch a credit sequence on Netflix
Harry Marks (who writes over and Curious Rat) and I have differing views about the state of media and how companies should respond to modern technology. When we’ve discussed things on Twitter, he’s very much in the ‘black and white’ camp regarding piracy, and will even go so far as to rebuy media digitally rather than ripping CDs to iTunes. I’m generally more of the opinion that media companies should be doing a lot more to make content available, accessible, affordable and not hugely annoying to use. Although I almost never torrent anything (one of the side effects of having a reliable but capped broadband connection), I find it hard to sympathise with companies whose work is widely distributed in that manner when they’ve been region locking it in some way or charging obscene money.
Today though, I’m mostly of the same opinion as Marks regarding his takedown of John Siracusa, who decided to whine about credits being attached to every episode of Netflix’s House of Cards. Marks says:
First, the problem was not being able to get the content we wanted when we wanted it. Then, came the laments about pricing. How dare seasons of television cost anything more than [INSERT ARBITRARY NUMBER… I REMOVED FROM MY RECTUM]!
Now, people are getting their panties in a twist over having to sit through opening credits? Where does it end? At what point does this blatant selfishness turn into, “I hate this actor/these mushy love scenes/this director. If you remove all of that, I’ll be beating down your door to give you money, then complaining some more.”
Netflix has its problems—the lack of a ‘wish list’/’save for later’ option is especially annoying—but credit sequences aren’t one of them. They’re a staple of TV, and although you might choose to watch several episodes in a row, until the systems are intelligent to recognise this and chop out the credits, you’ll just have to sit through them. Except you won’t, because Netflix—unlike many shiny discs—doesn’t lock the content it’s streaming and you can fast-forward through it. (Additionally, such sequences often have ‘previously’ sections, which might include a useful reminder that you’d otherwise miss, thereby making your experience worse. This won’t be rectified until we’re all wearing Google Chip In Brain™, some time in 2017.)
Mind you, here’s where I depart again from Marks, who says:
So, I’m going to finish this season of House of Cards and sit through every opening credits sequence because people worked hard to build it.
But if and when I also watch that show, I’ll sit through one credits sequence and fast forward through the rest. What I won’t do is complain about them.
Well, I want to start out by saying that Marks wildly paraphrases what Siracusa actually said, and ends up completely mischaracterizing Siracusa’s point. At one point, John says:
“Question the assumptions of your business. Give people what they want and they will beat a path to your door.”
Marks takes this, and paraphrases it as:
“Give us what we want, when we want it, how we want it, and for the price we’re willing to pay for it and we’ll happily hand over our money for it.”
Wha? That’s not even close to what Siracusa said.
Second, the credits thing isn’t the focus of Siracusa’s article. His article is about how progress isn’t always about big changes, but can often be about improving tiny details. He brings up the credits as an example for this, which explicitly shows that he sees them as a minor issue.
Third, he’s actually right. I often buy TV series on DVD, and watch a few episodes in a row. Having to re-watch the credits every 40 minutes is annoying. It’s not a huge problem, obviously, but it’s one of these tiny things that can add up over the course of a day.
Finally, Siracusa’s blog is called “Hypercritical”. If Siracusa didn’t complain about tiny stuff, his blog’s name would be a lie. So he’s basically contractually obligated to complain about insignificant details.
After reading Harry Marks and John Welch reaction to the Siracusa post, I was surprised to see the venom from those two. Siracusa’s post is in my opinion more balanced what they try to paint it as. He seems to be happy in general with Netflix as a service, he doesn’t complain about the price, but Marks deemed it fit to bring it into this discussion. He just don’t care about the credits when he’s watching multiple episodes in a row. I even read into his post that this is minor complaint.
I do agree with the sentiment that Marks has written about in this and other post that we as customers always seems to be finding new excuses for not paying for all the content we are consuming. Eg. the discussion about Game of Thrones or Homeland that isn’t available in iTunes before the next season is airing or close to airing on the cable networks.
Eg. http://parislemon.com/post/44021318025/so-now-that-game-of-thrones-season-2-is-available-to
But I do feel that they are misrepresenting the tone of Siracusa’s ‘complaint’.
After all, the tagline for the Hypercritical podcast was «Nothing is so perfect that it can’t be complained about»
Lukas/Kåre: Thanks for the comments. Not my finest hour on here and in retrospect, I agree with both of you. I was actually mostly trying to stay upright while writing the post, due to dizziness, and hoping that would trigger me into being able to write a commercial piece. Really, I should have just backed the hell away from the keyboard. Anyway, lesson learned, and I’m not going to delete anything.
Kåre: I’m not surprised to see such venom coming from Harry Marks. IMHO, he becomes a frothing-at-the-mouth looney whenever addressing topics related to piracy. I stopped reading Curious Rat a while ago because I was so put off by this.