Bruh. (Gaming)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Sunday, March 29, 2026, 14:28 (2 hours, 7 minutes ago) @ Vortech

If It's what I'm thinking of, it's not quite as dire as that. The statement was that they were writing under the assumption that people were also using a second screen while watching. That meant working lots of informational recap into the dialog ("As you know, Bob, this is the person who stole the maguffin") and having something happen every so often that would bring people's attention back.

Now, I'm not saying that this makes for great art, but it's not so different than the way soap operas were and are written for much the same reasons, or CNN Headline news, which was formatted around the idea that the audience would be transitory, or even Batman Serials because kids are easily distracted. Some TV is just assumed to be something that is on in the background during life. I think the problem is Netflix is something people thought of as different/better than that (when in practice we have seen Netflix run all the same plays once they got near-monopoly power in the market).

My point is, it's not really all that new of a development, so at best you could say that the slide continues, in a direction we don't like. At the same time, radio used to be an appointment event for the family and eventually became that thing that makes commutes less boring.

Vortech said it better than I could, but for more clarity:

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon claimed that Netflix producers asked for more exposition in the script such that viewers who weren't paying close attention wouldn't get lost so easily. Netflix has pushed back on this claim. I'm the first to admit that streaming services have made a lot of forgettable stuff, along with some gems. I think this is part of a larger story about the fracturing of culture. It's not the death of culture, though, IMHO.