Netflix is standing on top of the entertainment industry, but it is not a position that really has much artistic strength. There are some diamonds in the rough, but it isn’t enough. Netflix simply doesn’t have a unique direction to its productions.
Netflix seems to be more interested in remaking the greatest hits and not making anything new or surpassing what came before. Stranger Things remakes the Goonies or any teenage band of misfits movie from the 1980s. Ransom Canyon is basically many rural shows that were shown on various broadcast channels in previous eras. It seems that they want to be a facsimile rather something unique.
Considering that the company began as a way to deliver DVDs and collect your information while doing so, this isn’t surprising to me. Netflix is an information services company providing movies and tv shows in the form of data to your device here. They are still of Silicon Valley not Hollywood or any other studio city on the planet.
They may rent studios to shoot movies, but this is content not art.
Netflix has many subscribers, but does it have fans who like it for more than content?
Network effect really bolsters many of these companies, but Amazon is not Sears, neither is Netflix a new Hollywood which can capture the imaginations of Americans. These two companies have done great at capturing market share and making money but can they really sustain it? These companies are not really interested in America as nothing more than a place to sell their assets here.
Amazon has an easier time as their products are tangible. However, Netflix seems to be on shakier ground here. Their movies are not physical media but, in the cloud, here. Can they really create the same love for their movies as has remained for The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, even Metropolis? These are old movies now but the fact that Netflix is buying Warner Bros show that they understand the importance of these symbols of Americana.
Making money is one thing but having staying power is another.


