Nolte: Netflix Can Only Save Itself By Entertaining Instead of Lecturing

Netflix can either behave like what it is, a powerful studio, or watch its stock price and subscriber base shrink even further.

Last quarter, Netflix lost 200,000 net subscribers.

Next quarter, Netflix expects to lose two million more.

Over the last six months, Netflix’s stock has collapsed from $690 per share to just $199.

Over the last month, the stock dived from $390 per share to $199.

Just six months ago, Netflix was flying high. So what happened six months ago? What changed? After all, we didn’t learn of subscriber erosion until this month.

Competition certainly hurt Netflix. Disney+ and HBOMax are Netflix’s primary challengers. But HBOMax launched all the way back in March of 2020. Disney+ launched in November of 2019. In other words, Netflix managed to ride high for more than a year after those launches.

That means something else happened, and here’s an educated guess…

Stockholders watch TV, and you can bet Netflix stockholders watch Netflix. So, it’s not hard to imagine Netflix stockholders checking out their assets night after night only to suffer in the same way all Netflix subscribers suffer — you know, exploring that mountain of shit Netflix calls content.

Imagine checking out one of your investments, an investment that’s borrowing billions to produce an endless pile of content, and 99.9 percent of that content is unwatchable.

Wouldn’t you sell?

I would.

Netflix’s entire problem is content.

And Netflix has a content problem because left-wing, woketard propagandists are in charge over there instead of adults who want to deliver compelling entertainment fronted by appealing actors and stars.

It’s no more complicated than that.

Netflix has a subscriber base (some 200 million worldwide). Netflix has all the money in the world (billions and billions) to produce all the content anyone could want. And what did Netflix do with that unprecedented opportunity? It produced one piece of shitty propaganda after another. Almost everything on Netflix is gay propaganda or trans propaganda, racial propaganda or feminist propaganda, or environmental propaganda. And not only is none of it any good, but this garbage tarnishes the most important thing Netflix has: its brand.

Netflix is also burning out its stars and potential stars.

You see, a studio, a smart studio, a studio interested in producing a profit, protects its brand by protecting its stars, and often, you have to protect your stars from themselves.

The sad fact is that artists are frequently their own worst enemy. Actors, writers, producers, directors… They’re different than the rest of us. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not slagging artists. On the contrary, I love the artists I’ve had the privilege to meet and work with. But they are different, they just are, and with no one to protect them, they often hurtle down a path of career destruction by egos, fetishes, self-regard, and politics.

 

A smart studio protects artists from these self-destructive impulses. A smart studio says to the artist that if you want to have a long and prosperous career, you must first earn the audience’s goodwill. And what’s the best way to do that? Entertain, enthrall, and thrill them. Make them laugh. Make them scream. Cast a spell. Take them away. Most of all, laugh at yourself. After you’ve won them over, we can talk about doing something important and personal.

But Netflix doesn’t do that. Netflix doesn’t protect its artists. Instead, Netflix allows them to self-destruct. And the result has been catastrophic to both Netflix and the talent. The content on Netflix is garbage. The talent is presented to us in the most unappealing ways imaginable: smug, pretentious, angry, entitled, self-involved jerks who see themselves as superior, as our betters, and as a result, make the worst first impression possible. That’s called career suicide.

Never has so much money and talent been wasted in such a short period.

Netflix needs to grow up and put some adults in charge.

If not, Netflix’s days as a growth business are over.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.