“The quality of its TV shows and movies must improve.”
While Netflix was making news with the elimination about 1,000 jobs from its global workforce, the streaming platform also parted ways with two senior executives: its chief content officer and its film chief.
A-List producer and director David Fincher is also moving on after a three-picture deal and a collaboration that reportedly paid him approximately $100 million.
From Variety:
“David Fincher isn’t renewing his pact at Netflix after his deal at the streamer expires next year. Fincher, the acclaimed director of Fight Club, The Social Network and Gone Girl, has enjoyed a long creative partnership with Netflix, starting with the company’s seminal television series House of Cards and Mindhunter. He forged an exclusive partnership with Netflix in 2020 and made three movies, Mank, The Killer and the upcoming The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth.”
Supposedly the only streaming service that is profitable, Netflix “spent $135B on original shows, films and licensing from third parties” over the past decade,” Deadline Hollywood reported in May 2026.
The aforementioned House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright was good for the first couple of seasons, but according to Breitbart News senior writer John Nolte, Fincher’s “two Netflix features — Mank (2020) and The Killer (2023) — were more content than cinema. The second season of Mindhunter was hijacked by woketardery and fashionable identity politics.”
Added Nolte about Fincher’s exit: “This is probably good for Fincher and good for Netflix. Fincher floundered at Netflix. Netflix spent hundreds of millions for nothing on Fincher.”
Mank, which was about Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, was pretentious, boring, and potentially historically inaccurate, with an unsympathetic, if not obnoxious, main character.
Oddly, the actor who portrayed Citizen Kane director, co-writer, and star Orson Welles had minimal screen time.
There is a movie to be made about the backstory of 1941’s Citizen Kane – which is often regarded as one of the greatest films ever produced — but not this one.
The Killer was another Fincher misfire, as it were, because the basic premise made no sense.
The unnamed hitman in this fictional movie stresses the importance of refraining from being conspicuous in his line of work.
Yet throughout the whole opus, the character who similarly prides himself on meticulousness and detail orientation actually calls attention to himself in many stupid ways.
This “savvy” globe-trotting, under-the-radar contract executioner would have been pulled over and detained by even the most inexperienced beat cop — or even a security guard at a shopping mall.
Even brilliant and versatile lead actors (e.g., Gary Oldman in Mank and Michael Fassbender in The Killer) can’t save a substandard script.
As an aside, you also have to wonder why the movie industry is so enamored with serial murderers, including those who do it professionally.
About departing film chief Daniel Lin, Breitbart’s Nolte writes that “Overall, though, while Lin may have succeeded in cutting costs, where he failed miserably was finding and producing mid-budget movies that were any good. Netflix remains a half-trillion-dollar pile of below-average content.”
Although Netflix has some good stuff here and there, perhaps among the remaining Netflix 15,000 employees, including whoever ends up replacing the two top executives, someone can take some time to actually read scripts or watch footage before green-lighting new content or acquiring already-completed works.
Speculation has already emerged that the upcoming Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, which will premiere first in theaters, could be a disaster for Netflix if it is more faithful to identity politics than the C.S. Lewis source material.
“Between production and promotion costs, Netflix will probably pour about a billion dollars into Cliff Booth and Narnia, and for what? To what end? Where’s the upside as far as the only thing that matters to the bottom line, and that’s attracting new subscribers?,” Nolte wondered.
Netflix seems to have plateaued as far as adding subscribers is concerned, and the stock price has taken a hit, while social media content creators increase their following.
As [your]NEWS previously explained, the staff cuts come as Netflix confronts growing competition for viewers’ attention from traditional entertainment companies and digital platforms, including YouTube and TikTok.
Although Netflix remains one of the world’s largest subscription streaming services, its growth has slowed as the North American streaming market becomes increasingly saturated.
Netflix has tried to diversify its offerings with live sport events, podcasts, and documentaries.
In the 3rd quarter of 2025, revenue “grew 12 percent from a year earlier, to nearly $12.9 billion, its lowest quarterly revenue percentage growth in three years. Net income rose 44 percent, to nearly $3.7 billion,” the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
Further from the New York Times: “The time that viewers spend on the service has stagnated, as YouTube increasingly becomes a competitor.” And according to a financial analyst that the Times spoke to, “Netflix has an engagement problem, and that’s a worrying trend going forward…Netflix needs another hit on the content side.”
Although Netflix has new movies and series in the pipeline, it remains to be seen if they turn out to be worth watching or just more of the same.
“The quality of its TV shows and movies must improve,” Nolte asserted.
In scrolling through the catalog, Netflix subscribers or former subscribers have probably noticed that an inordinate number of scripted dramas often revolve around an all-powerful, all-knowing female who vanquishes evil or incompetent (or both) males in various ways for various reasons.
Netflix seems to have forgotten that cinematic art is at its best when it features strong (and often flawed and nuanced) male and female characters who face challenges that they need to overcome.
“Netflix accounted for 7.8 percent of all television viewing time in the United States in July, according to Nielsen, a full percentage point drop from a year earlier. YouTube’s share was more than 14 percent,” the Times added.
“Netflix needs to decide whether it’s fish (a studio) or fowl (a streaming service). I’d suggest it stick to the latter and focus on mid-budget content that doesn’t suck,” Breitbart’s Nolte opined.
At the risk of oversimplification, it remains to be determined, too, how and to what extent the embrace of AI technology will have a positive or negative effect on content.
Original article
Comments