“Movies and TV shows are getting dumber and stupider”, title the South German newspaper. “And that’s intentional”affirm to the Bavarian daily “creative” who collaborate with Netflix and other streaming platforms, in a survey published Friday February 6.
It all starts with the testimony of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, guests of Joe Rogan’s conservative podcast to promote their new action film The Rip. With a frankness that few still dare, the two Hollywood stars, who produced the film with their company, spoke not of stunts or box office, but “of cinema in general, its degradation and the responsibility of Netflix”.
Matt Damon says that the platform asked them to “move some of the action to the beginning of the film to prevent viewers from immediately changing channels.” A requirement that “disrupts the classic three-act structure”, but above all another, even more disturbing: “repeat the plot three or four times in the dialogue, because people are on their phones while they watch.” This confirms the “persistent rumors about instructions with obvious dramatic consequences”regrets South German newspaper.
“Algorithms are not creative”
On YouTube, TikTok or Reddit, continues the investigator, Internet users wonder about dialogues judged “absurd” in the last season of Stranger ThingsOr “the characters explain their thoughts, intentions, and motivations to each other.” The article also cites Back in ActionNetflix production with Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx, where each action is verbally doubled. “The trend is clearly towards radio soap operas”quips the German newspaper.
According to several screenwriters interviewed anonymously, this simplification would be largely dictated by data analysis and AI tools. A screenwriter recounts having received precise instructions: “a certain number of jokes at a certain frequency”validated not by humans but by the algorithm. Result: producers “don’t like it, I don’t like it, but the algorithm does”she laments.
At a producers’ summit organized in 2024 near Berlin, at which only the South German newspaper had access, the message was clear: “the best scenes should be in the pilot episode as early as possible”the rhythm must remain “always supported”et “something must happen every two or three minutes”.
The conclusion of the article is bitter. Behind the promise of “cheeseburger gourmet”, A standardization machine is emerging. “Algorithms are not creative”slices the newspaper. “They’re looking for the lowest common denominator.” Through optimization, the differences disappear. And the South German newspaper to ask a scathing question, taken from an outing by Thierry Frémaux at Cannes in 2021: which filmmakers have the platforms really revealed? “Name one.”
date: 2026-02-08 05:07:00
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