By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
It’s no secret that Netflix is the largest streaming platform in the world. Over the last 10 years, it’s been the home to an ever-growing catalog of award-winning original series and movies, and in that sense, not much has changed. What avid Netflix watchers have started to notice has become clear with the platform’s April additions, which feel a lot more sparse than they used to.
There are a lot of older blockbusters coming to the platform and original series coming back for another season, but the emphasis isn’t on any of that: it’s on live events. If you’ve thought that Hollywood is making fewer and fewer shows and films each year, you’re right, and when even Netflix is focusing on boxing, baseball, and reality competitions, you know the world of entertainment has changed.
Netflix Is Getting Great Movies You’ve Already Seen
There are some great movies coming to Netflix this month, including the first five Mission: Impossible movies, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the Oscar-nominated sci-fi film Bugonia, and Denzel Washington’s underrated American Gangster. For shows, the first Stranger Things spin-off, Tales from ‘85, is arriving late in April, Beef Season 2 covers a new feud between Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan, and if you like anime, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Steel Ball Run is a must-watch. The problem is a lot of the movies are five years old, or significantly older, and the shows, with the one Hawkings Indiana sized exception, tend to be Season 2, or even later.
You’ve likely already seen most of the movies coming to Netflix. What you haven’t seen is Charlize Theron’s latest film, Apex, an action-thriller about humans hunting humans. It doesn’t sound all that exciting, but then again, neither did the log line for The Old Guard, and that turned into a surprisingly fun romp. Don’t worry, though, because Netflix is continuing its push into live entertainment as streaming becomes more and more like cable with every passing day.
Netflix Is Turning Into Cable
On April 11, Tyson Fury takes on Arslanbek Makhmudov in a boxing match between, and this might shock you considering the streamer’s love of Jake Paul, professional boxers. Two more boxing events, Supernova Strikers: Genesis, pitting boxers against influencers, and Supernova: Genesis, a legit boxing card, airs later in April as well. That’s a lot of boxing that’s on top of the weekly streams of WWE Raw, podcasts including Bill Simmons and Pete Davidson, and now, baseball games.
Netflix is slowing down the output of streaming originals and instead spending the time and effort on live broadcasts, whether you want it or not. The future of entertainment is going back to the past of cable television, where live events ruled the ratings. It’s alright if Netflix slows down it’s releases, not only because the shows coming out this month, including Beef Season 2 and Man on Fire with Wonder Man star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II look like fun, but there’s so much already on the platform it’ll take decades to go through it all.
Compounding the lack of streaming originals, particularly sci-fi this month, is that Hollywood has slowed down the number of shows and films getting release dates. On the one hand, it’s good, as for awhile, it was impossible to keep up, but on the other, it means more four-quadrant concepts and, less wild, creative swings at big, bold concepts. Netflix isn’t going anywhere, but what we watch on the platform is starting to change, and before we know it, the streamer will switch to the weekly release model. When that happens, it’ll be official: cable is back.
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