Netflix Reportedly Has Bizarre Requirements With Movies for Audiences Not Paying Attention

Netflix’s approach to filmmaking includes an unexpected directive: make sure viewers can follow the plot while folding laundry or scrolling their phones. According to an investigation by n+1 magazine, multiple screenwriters who have collaborated with the streaming platform reveal a surprising mandate from Netflix executives. The requirement? Characters must explicitly state their actions and intentions to accommodate distracted viewers who might be treating movies as background noise.

This unconventional approach to dialogue becomes glaringly apparent in recent releases like Irish Wish. According to the piece, the Lindsay Lohan romantic comedy demonstrates this heavy-handed exposition when her character delivers lines that sound more like plot summaries than natural conversation.

“We spent a day together. I admit it was a beautiful day filled with dramatic vistas and romantic rain, but that doesn’t give you the right to question my life choices,” Lohan’s character says in the film. “Tomorrow I’m marrying Paul Kennedy.”

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Her scene partner’s response further illustrates this on-the-nose approach, saying, “Fine. That will be the last you see of me because after this job is over I’m off to Bolivia to photograph an endangered tree lizard.” Such dialogue serves less as character development and more as audio waypoints for viewers who might be multitasking.

This strategy aligns with what industry observers have dubbed “casual viewing,” one of Netflix’s thirty-six thousand microgenres typically reserved for “breezy network sitcoms, reality television, and nature documentaries.” N+1 says The Hollywood Reporter recently acknowledged this trend in their review of Atlas, describing Jennifer Lopez’s 2024 sci-fi venture as “another Netflix movie made to half-watch while doing laundry.”

The streaming giant’s embrace of background viewing represents a significant departure from traditional filmmaking, where audience engagement is paramount. Instead of crafting scenes that demand attention, Netflix appears to be deliberately engineering content that accommodates divided focus, what n+1 describes as “Tide Pod cinema” – high-gloss products that dissolve into air. This approach extends beyond dialogue to influence the platform’s entire production philosophy. High-level Netflix executives have been known to greenlight projects without reading scripts, treating content more as ambient entertainment than narrative art. Cindy Holland, the first employee Ted Sarandos hired, who eventually served as vice president of original content, once compared their content strategy to “shoveling coal in the side door of the house.”

Sources told the outlet that at least two high-level Netflix executives have become known for green-lighting projects without reading the scripts at all, suggesting a systematic devaluation of narrative quality in favor of quantity. The platform’s focus appears to be less on creating memorable cinema and more on maintaining a constant stream of digestible content that can fade into the background of viewers’ daily lives. As streaming continues to dominate home entertainment, this shift toward accommodating distracted viewing may signal a fundamental change in how stories are told. The question remains whether this represents the evolution or erosion of the art form – creating content specifically designed not to command attention but merely to occupy it.