The irony is sickening, last year I was almost nothing but positive about Netflix. Their animated film output last year was phenomenal, to the point where I actually said, or at least implied, that I was happy Nimona was being put on Netflix. Well, guess what everyone is saying now, that Netflix is a bad service with bad business practices and doesn't deserve Nimona. Okay, fair is fair, I don't think anyone actually said the first part and I've seen only one person say that last bit, but you get my point, right? The year was 2022, I had little bad to say about Netflix and finally decided that they may be turning over a new leaf, and not even in the next year, literally during the same year, everyone began turning on Netflix. Why is that?
Admittedly, my disdain for Netflix has always been from a movie-goer perspective. Netflix seemed to have the strategy to place their name on any pile of garbage and hope that enough people watched it to earn a profit. Pets United, The Larva Island Movie, Duck Duck Goose, and lest we forget about the poorly marketed dumpster fire that is Cuties. Even when Netflix released a good movie, like Arlo the Alligator Boy or Klaus, I mean I liked those movies, but I wouldn't say they're some of the greatest animated movies of all time. Klaus was good, but it wasn't as good as Treasure Planet or even something like Felidae. Maybe it's because 2022 was so devoid of anything spectacular, that I was giving heaps of praise to Netflix for producing so many unique kinds of movies. Apollo 10½, Wendell & Wild, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, very unique movies that were different from most of the rest of the 2022 line up. This however, completely ignores the other aspect of Netflix, the shows.
Netflix played host to a variety of different types of shows, and being in the animation community, lots of people gravitated towards shows like Dead End: Paranormal Park and Inside Job, which a lot of people really liked. Inside Job stands with a 91% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.7 Rating on IMDb, meanwhile Dead End: Paranormal Park stands with an 86% audience score, a 100% on the "Average Tomatometer" (BTW, that looks like it should be pronounced Tomay-TOM-itter), and a 6.9 on IMDb. Granted, none of that is a measure of quality, but it is a measure of popularity, and these shows were clearly popular. You don't get a 91% if you're not popular on some level. So clearly, Netflix would see these ratings and think to give both shows more seasons right?
Oh my goodness, if they actually thought that, one; I wouldn't be writing this, and two; you wouldn't be here. Netflix decided to cancel both shows because... actually I don't know, but I'm sure it's a stupid reason, because of course it would have to be, it's Netflix. This is the streaming platform that thought that Vanguard's movies were good investments, I don't think there is a single brain cell working at the executive table at Netflix. Cancelling these two shows, despite their popularity, is like Disney cancelling DuckTales... oh wait... Disney did that too... and that's why we're stuck with the divisive finale. Oh ho.
All of that however, is just the moist pork and asparagus cake compared to the salt and vinegar frosting that is Netflix's password sharing policies. According to DiscussingFilms, Netflix has introduced a new method to keep people from being happy, forcing users every 31 days to log in on a home Wi-Fi network, or else have the account blocked. Now, does Netflix have the right to implement this? That's not the question, the question is "how is this a good idea in the first place"? All it's going to do is make even less people use Netflix. There are plenty of users who use a shared Netflix account because they can't afford their own, or are spending their money on another service, or they're, you know, trying to buy basic necessities because they get paid so very little. Netflix seems to be under the impression that when it comes to decided whether someone wants to have food or Netflix, they'd choose Netflix. The reality is, if someone had to choose between food, rent, utilities and Netflix, Netflix would literally be the first thing to go, because who the actual Hell would choose getting to watch Duck Duck Goose when you have no food, no shelter and no electricity to watch it with?
The irony of it all makes me sick, but I guess at the end of the day, a string of quality does not support the heavy weight of awfulness. Netflix's disrespect to animation, complete buffoonery of password sharing deterrents, and selection of awful, awful "Netflix Original" movies, really does mean that at the end of the day, the joke was on me. Giving Netflix any amount of slack was a joke at my expense, and I should not have been at all surprised when people began saying things like "Netflix doesn't deserve Nimona". because at the end of the day... they're right. Nobody deserves Nimona really.
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