The Society has officially been canceled at Netflix. After renewing the series for season 2 last year, Netflix pulled the plug on The Society season 2 before the filming had started on the second.
There’s no denying the fact that Netflix has irrevocably changed both the movie and television industries over the last few years.
When it comes to television, Netflix has antiquated the television rating system, made binge watching a regular activity, and boosted the crime documentary tenfold.
- Netflix has changed its mind about “The Society.” The streamer reversed its renewal decision about the YA drama due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After initially getting renewed last summer, filming on the show was delayed for months.
- In April 2017, Netflix reached 100 million subscribers worldwide. With 50 million in the U.S. Alone, it has revolutionized the way people consume entertainme.
- B ut Netflix, along with other video-on-demand giants such as Amazon Prime and Hulu, hasn’t just changed the way we consume television: it’s changed the way it is made. As with House of Cards.
- The Society is an American mystery teen drama television series created by Christopher Keyser, that was released via streaming on Netflix on May 10, 2019. The series stars Kathryn Newton, Gideon Adlon, Sean Berdy, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Jacques Colimon, Olivia DeJonge, Alex Fitzalan, Kristine Froseth, Jose Julian, Alexander MacNicoll, Toby Wallace and Rachel Keller.
When it comes to the movie industry we’re still really waiting of find out what Netflix’s longterm impact is going to be.
This summer, thanks to the likes of “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” and “Set It Up,” it has rejuvenated the romantic-comedy genre, while the fact that Oscar winning talents Alfonso Cuaron, Martin Scorsese and The Coen Brothers have new films coming out on the site in the next few months proves that directors no longer have any qualms about working with Netflix.
Over the last few weeks I have spoken to a variety of directors and actors that have worked with Netflix, during which time I asked them about how the site has changed the movie and television industry.
“All The Boys I’ve Loved Before’s” director Susan Johnson …
“They have an advantage, in that they can see what viewers are looking for. They’re 24/7, they have teams everywhere literally looking for what people are searching for.”
“So when they realized that people were looking for romantic comedies and they didn’t have enough material they put this all together. It is so smart. Studios can’t do that, and independent studios certainly can’t do that.”
“They knew what people were looking for. And I think that is really exciting. They have the ability to change what is being made by researching what people are looking for. It is a little Big Brother. But it is also extremely exciting.”
“Set It Up” actor Glen Powell …
“I got this script 3 years ago. It was originally at MGM. Emilia Clarke was on it, I did a chemistry read with her, and then she went onto ‘Han Solo.’ There were a couple of reasons why it didn’t work out over there.”
“But I couldn’t feel more blessed that we ended up at Netflix. They let us make the movie we wanted to make. They gave us no bad notes.They trusted Claire Scanlon and Katie Silberman who wrote it and lets just do our thing. I think the movie is all the better for it.”
“Sometimes at an old fashioned studio there are a lot of cooks in the kitchen, there are shareholders to be responsible, too, and there are a lot of people that can get in your ear and they can syphon out the goodness that a movie starts off with. They can suck it dry.”
“I think this movie was made with pure love, is straight from Katie and Claire. That’s the great thing about Netflix, too.”
“You’re not beholden to the MPAA and the old school rules of like, ‘Wait, if we say the F-word here we are going to get this rating.’ You start to worry about that.”
“Suddenly the business starts messing with the creative, and you start feeling that business, and then it starts feeling like it was made by a studio rather than people just wanting to put a great movie out into the world.”
“This movie was made with love. I don’t feel like you feel the corporation behind it. Netflix are just true fans of this movie.”
Director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade on the impact of “The Staircase” …
“Netflix has changed totally the way people and the audience can watch this kind of documentary series. As I said, the first time that the first eight hours of ‘The Staircase’ was shown was at Sundance, and very few people could watch it.”
“But now with Netflix and other platforms so many people can get the access to this kind of series and that changed everything. But of course the exposure not just of the series but all the characters and people in the series changed totally.”
“We have to be very careful in the way we are all responsible for putting the life of real people available for millions of other people. That’s why I said I was quite concerned with Michael Peterson’s family and the attention they might get from other people.”
“I feel responsible for that, and can feel it very deeply. Of course I am very happy for Netflix and the series but on the other hand I didn’t really expect so much success and exposure.”
by Caroline Malcolm-Boulton
The good, the bad and the binging…
In 1998 a small American DVD mail group was established. Little did we know that 18 years later it would be a prominent global business. In 2007 this back-seat company, known as Netflix, began providing and streaming a library of films and television series. But now in 2016 it has become a corporate giant, with 83 million subscribers in over 200 countries. In Britain alone, by December 2015, we had five million subscribers, a statistic that has been steadily rising each year.
Of course, we all know that the number of Netflix users greatly outweighs the number of account holders. The Digital Statistics Articles group belonging to DMR found that 30% of people share their account credentials with others and 86% percent of accounts are accessed by one or more family members.
Therefore, it has now got to the point that if you don’t subscribe to Netflix, you still use Netflix, and if you don’t use it, you know someone who does.
But with this entertainment service becoming one of the most visited sites on the internet, the question still remains – what are the pros and cons of Netflix?
Well, on the plus side it is clear that Netflix has changed not only what we watch, but how we view and use it. A pro of Netflix is that it meets modern needs.
Whether contemporary busyness is real or superficial, we like to access everything quickly. Also, with a world which is saturated with choice, we now expect variety and value wherever we go. So, with the evolution of Netflix, we now have a vast range of entertainment options at our fingertips and we can press play and pause whenever and wherever we want.
On another note, it is proving cheaper for customers to access Netflix than to use traditional methods such as going to the cinema, borrowing from places such as Blockbuster, or buying DVDs at Tesco.
With Netflix offering a vast range of material and featuring fresh new releases, viewers are no longer spending their hard-earned cash at the movies, waiting for that precious copy of your coveted DVD to be returned to the renting shop or to be stacked onto supermarket shelves.
We can now view thousands of films and series from a variety of genres for a staggeringly low monthly cost, and all from the comfort of our own homes. No more assaults on our bank balance, return dates or walks out in the rain to get that exact film you need to go along with that bottle of wine and a takeout.
But are there any cons to using this highly popular site? Well, DMR has also found that 70% of those watching series on Netflix are binge watching and engaging with the site on an average of six hours per day and a total of 10 billion hours a month.
As fun as watching House of Cards, Orange is the New Black and Jessica Jones can be, does it hurt our general health? Studies conducted by Stanford University between 2013-2015 showed that overindulgent Netflix use is leading to issues such as sleep deprivation, weight gain, hormonal imbalance, and slight brain damage, all of which can cause short and long-term physical and mental health problems.
Also there are the social implications of overusing Netflix. Even although we may spend many a happy hour watching it with friends and family, it stunts the development and practice of our everyday social, interactive and even practical skills. This can then lead to gradual relationship breakdown and a decreased ability to form new relationships or interact healthily.
So, with Netflix taking our leisure time by storm and becoming the most popular medium for indoor recreation, there is a lot to think about.
Netflix Impact
There is no denying that it is forcing the entertainment and technology industries to reconsider how they create their products to meet our unique twenty-first century needs, and this is in our interests.
How Netflix Changed Tv
However, binge watching is also clearly leading to increased health and social concerns that could have a negative long-term influence on various aspects of our wider life and development.
So as I settled down during the up and coming dark nights with my Death in Paradise or The Tudors – don’t you judge me – I will be thinking twice about the bigger picture of how Netflix is shaping my life and my society.
* First published: September 26, 2016 in Brig magazine.
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