How Streaming Elevated (and Ruined) Documentaries: A Statistical Analysis

How Streaming Elevated (and Ruined) Documentaries: A Statistical Analysis .

Unpacking streaming's embrace and erosion of non-fiction storytelling.

We'll explore the mainstreaming of documentary film and the consequences surrounding this development.

Presently, nonfiction filmmaking (in the form of docuseries) stands as a cornerstone of streaming economics.

In 2022 , Netflix reported subscriber declines for the first time in ten years , prompting the streamer to overhaul its content strategy and scale back costs.

Prestige projects (like Edelman 's Prince epic) were deprioritized in favor of true crime and sports series.

This paradigm shift spawned an immediate decline in documentary quality.

Once a bastion of critical praise, non-fiction content has seen a slow-moving dip in online ratings.

Netflix has ridden the efficient market hypothesis to infinite photocopies of Making a Murderer, Wild Wild Country, Drive to Survive , and now they're worth $ 300B. Netflix churns out a bunch of garbage, and I think this stuff absolutely stinks and is ruining our culture.

While I understand that people enjoy celebrity docuseries, I would appreciate it if documentary filmmakers would instead risk financial ruin to produce low-fi, vérité projects optimized for the film festival circuit.