3. Quit the binge
Sure, sometimes we can’t wait to see what happens next but be careful what you wish for. Binge-viewing multiple episodes doesn’t make for memorable TV or viewer satisfaction. With top-tier shows, Netflix should forget the boxset format and schedule series across several weeks, the old-fashioned way, as it is doing currently with season six of Better Call Saul. Buzz builds. Viewers can discuss it without fear of spoilers. We might think we want infinite choice and control but we don’t, as evidenced by the hours we spend scrolling listlessly through the home page. Ration the good stuff.
4. Create a great sitcom
One of its Achilles heels is comedy. Netflix simply isn’t very funny. Its biggest so-called comedies are Sex Education, Master of None, BoJack Horseman and Ricky Gervais’s After Life – all bittersweet, genre-defying “dramedies”, rather than flat-out laugh-fests. Where is the Netflix equivalent of Friends, Frasier, Modern Family, The Office or The Simpsons? Apple TV+ has the Emmy-winning Ted Lasso, Netflix has embarrassing flop Space Force.
5. Hire world-class British writers
Who are the UK’s top TV screenwriters? Well, it’s a matter of taste but names that spring to mind include Russell T Davies, Sally Wainwright, Jed Mercurio, Paul Abbott, Michaela Coel, Jesse Armstrong and Jeff Pope. Netflix should be knocking on their doors. And they should listen to Coel, too, who famously turned down $1 million for her series I May Destroy You (which she eventually made with the BBC) because of Netflix’s “exploitative” copyright terms. Sign up the best writers, treat them with respect.
