A
Andy Meek
Guest
- For Netflix, new series like Space Force, and reality shows like Too Hot to Handle and Floor is Lava have been a boon for the streamer, even if they haven't been necessarily met with universal critical acclaim.
- In terms of viewership, those shows were checked out by tens of millions of households within Netflix's subscriber base, the company raved in its second-quarter shareholder letter released on Thursday.
- Along the same lines, the company said it added 10.1 million new subscribers in the just-ended quarter, compared to 2.7 million during the second quarter of last year.
Netflix's just-released second-quarter shareholder letter for 2020 reiterates a fascinating reality that's become increasingly plain from one quarter to the next for the world's dominant streaming video service. It's a simple truth about the nature of streaming TV shows and movies, and that truth is this: Critics don't matter as much as they used to anymore. Maybe even at all.
Here's what I mean. After getting an early look at Netflix's much-anticipated Steve Carell-led comedy Space Force -- a 10-episode series that reteamed Carell with The Office creator Greg Daniels -- I found it to be lighthearted, plenty of fun, and overall a solid return to form for Daniels. You only ran into trouble if you started comparing it to other things or couldn't enjoy it on the surface, for what it was. The show is just a simple little half-hour comedy, Daniels told me an interview, "but it’s a character comedy. And it’s not mean-spirited. It’s trying to, like, do justice to the optimism of trying to get (to space).” Critics, by and large, ripped the show to shreds -- but that didn't dissuade audiences. On the contrary, look how lopsided the show's ratings are over at Rotten Tomatoes -- it currently has an abysmal critics score of 39%, but audiences have given it a score of 76%. More importantly, though, is the fact that audiences watched. In Netflix's shareholder letter, issued Thursday in tandem with the streamer's latest quarterly results, the company raved that 40 million households according to its proprietary metrics watched the show, which offers a comedic look at the Trump administration's real-world creation of a new branch of the military focused on space.
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Streaming audiences obviously don’t read reviews before their Netflix binge originally appeared on BGR.com on Fri, 17 Jul 2020 at 01:53:13 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Via BRG - Boy Genius Report