The revolutionary cultural impact of Netflix on Western society.
In the nineties, the distribution network of films in American cinemas was reaching very high costs with a profit reduced exclusively to the screenings of a couple of weekends. The bearers of technology and supporters of capitalism found the way to simplify things by switching to digital technology. 3D technology was relaunched, and a new image standard was adopted. It is something that actually incorporates a technology already used in the 1950s. In the 50s, when televisions were already within everyone’s reach, a number of 3D movies were released. There was a film by United Artists entitled Bwana Devil, which was released in 1952 and it was the first 3D movie of the 50s. A year later, in 1953, another film in 3D was released, it was entitled House of Wax.
Doesn’t this title remind you of something?
After debuting in 2012, with its first original content series entitled Lilyhammer, in 2013 Netflix introduced a new series: House of Cards opening the doors to the binge-watching concept providing the releasing of a TV series all at once and drastically lowering the costs of streaming TV series. Once the standard was set in the digital image, it took a little time for the films to be brought from theaters to homes. The mass use of IPhones and smartphones and the great idea of pandemic they helped a lot by kicking the new system, hidden behind the veil of technology, in everyone’s daily life. And so everyone passed from the collective to the individual vision. Giants like Netflix, which, among other things, is listed on the stock exchange, had a major revolutionary cultural impact on Western society by investing millions of dollars in TV series. In 2016 Netflix spent $ 5 billion a year on its productions. In 2018 it spent 12 billion, in 2019 15 billion, in 2020 it invested 17 billion. It is an ever-growing company, however it is indebted to the point of unbelievable. Born in Silicon Valley, it is monopolizing the entire audio-visual distribution chain. It is the result of capitalist society with the sole aim of making money go around and aiming for quantity at the expense of quality. Fewer films are produced today than a few years ago. They will tell you because “it does not give continuity” but behind this there is the fact that the production must be rich, fast and must be consumed immediately, just like… paper cups. Even if a good film comes out and it finds the consent of the public immediately, one thinks of making a series of it, remaining on the same theme, sinking into monotony and addiction. There is basically a political reason too. Netflix, as an economic giant, is a company that uses cinema and TV series like sugar to attract flies. Through Big Data (transaction processing systems, customer databases, internet click stream logs, mobile apps, social networks) and its algorithms, it controls and conditions the behaviors, habits and tastes of the nearly 214 million paid users who remain chained for hours in front of a tv series, stripping their mind of themselves and letting be manipulated. No one goes to the movie theater to watch a movie anymore and always fewer good films come out for lack of money. Young and old today follow TV series. One of the most popular series is Gomorrah, an Italian crime drama television series which started from the book by Roberto Saviano and which deals with strong and violent themes featuring stories of Neapolitan criminals who almost appear as heroes. Americans like this. This is something they invented. Gomorrah is very popular in U.S.A. first of all because it brings money. Undoubtedly it is a great production that has made many actors work and makes use of the technology
that they like so much and that obviously makes the insiders feel closer to the American level. But beyond this it proposes the usual clichés that do not go anywhere, which are ends in themselves. Always the same format that uses technical methods and technologies without art or new contents. Gomorrah narrates the cruel dimension of life in the Scampia district of Napoli. However, it deals with the issue in a superficial way. This can be interesting for those who do not live a real life and who experience only through books and fictions, from home, on their smart phone / iphone or computer, to admire the escalation of power. In Los Angeles, people get scared when someone on the street raises their voice and immediately call the police if an engaged couple has an argument. Signs are displayed on school campuses advising students to dissuade any gun owners from using them. Meanwhile, for $20, anyone can buy a taser on market stalls, gun shops open up everywhere and most of the inhabitants of this self-contradictory city they come to a high degree of excitement when they watch the violence manifested on a screen. Probably because they believe it is far from them. However, they do not realize that this affects their behavior and their way of acting. They are the ones who surely prefer a TV series to a “film d’auteur” (an art house film). It is a fact that TV series take the lead for most of people who do not have basic culture and are constantly looking for a manual for everything.
