@Mercurius You're not wrong, but you're also not right. IMO. Let me explain-
There was a golden time, some years ago, before every other media company had their own streaming service. Netflix had (or it seemed like they had)
all the content. (Stage 1)
Then there was the great retrenchment and expansion, as the vast media companies both
clawed back their libraries and spent untold sums of money buying and making more content to compete with Netflix. (Stage 2)
We are now in the third stage- suddenly, Wall Street isn't just rewarding growth. Companies that were freely spending on any and all content can't do that any more. Serious questions are being asked about streaming services that once seemed like the invincible or inevitable competitors of Netflix (I've covered HBOMax's problems in detail, and Disney+ is embroiled in controversies that are reaching a boiling point given the massive streaming losses, and so on). (Stage 3)
Netflix is still chugging along, no longer the amazing "everything provider" they were in Stage 1, but also not the throwing money at everything streamer and supported by a constantly-increasing stock price of Stage 2. But the question is- what is the value proposition that they are providing?
The answer, unfortunately for many of us, is that they are succeeding largely by appealing to the majority of people- in keeping them on with "good enough" programming, sprinkled with some occasional "event TV." Here's the Top 10 from the past year-
- Stranger Things season 4 (1.87 billion hours)
- Wednesday season 1 (1.314 billion hours)
- Dahmer (962.4 million hours)
- Bridgerton season 2 (775.2 million hours)
- All of Us Are Dead season 1 (659.5 million hours)
- Extraordinary Attorney Woo (662 million hours)
- Inventing Anna (654.5 million hours)
- The Watcher (395 million hours)
- The Sandman season 1 (393.1 million hours)
- Virgin River season 4 (304.8 million hours)
Of these, we can see a few things- first, that Netflix's emphasis on foreign TV (Squid Games was 2021, this year was All of Us Are Dead and Extraordinary Attorney Woo) continues to pay dividends. But the "high-concept" shows ... well, there is Stranger Things S4 and Sandman S1. And that's about it.
Netflix continues to support a lot of inventive TV (I enjoyed Alice in Borderland), but they are really likely to pull the plug earlier rather than later. But that doesn't make them unique, unfortunately- I think this is simply a reflection of where streaming is going. We have arguably moved past the point of Peak TV.