WHEN NETFLIX INTRODUCED a playback-control feature allowing viewers to adjust the speed of whatever they’re watching on the platform last year, it opened up some genuinely strange possibilities. Ever thought about watching Peaky Blinders really fast? (It’s fun.) Or Too Hot to Handle at half-speed? (Why would you? Why not?)
To some, the addition was curious. It seemed like yet another instance of Netflix’s increasing technical whimsy, along with its adventures in interactive television and its interest in building out an in-house video-game division. The company’s official explanation for adding the new playback control was that it would make Netflix more accessible. (Whether this was simply shrewd messaging doesn’t make it any less meaningful. I have a geriatric relative, a little slower on the uptake these days, who’s relishing that sweet 0.75x life.) But it also appeared to be another example of the company working to deepen its consumers’ appetites for binge-watching, a phenomenon it helped pioneer. Many of the writers, directors, and actors who work with Netflix initially reacted to the tool with frustration, and I can see how it would come off as a Machiavellian strategy.
But I have very much welcomed the feature into my relatively able-bodied life. Indeed, it has turned me into what could be called a “speed-watcher,” and though I feel self-conscious about having become this sort of person, I’m also in a better place for it.
Bu hikaye New York magazine dergisinin August 2 - 15, 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye New York magazine dergisinin August 2 - 15, 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Drowning in Slop - A thriving underground economy is clogging the internet with AI garbage-and it's only going to get worse.
SLOP started seeping into Neil Clarke's life in late 2022. Something strange was happening at Clarkesworld, the magazine. Clarke had founded in 2006 and built into a pillar of the world of speculative fiction. Submissions were increasing rapidly, but “there was something off about them,” he told me recently. He summarized a typical example: “Usually, it begins with the phrase ‘In the year 2250-something’ and then it goes on to say the Earth’s environment is in collapse and there are only three scientists who can save us. Then it describes them in great detail, each one with its own paragraph. And then—they’ve solved it! You know, it skips a major plot element, and the final scene is a celebration out of the ending of Star Wars.” Clarke said he had received “dozens of this story in various incarnations.”
The City Politic- The Other Eric Adams Scandal The NYPD shot a fare evader, a cop, and two bystanders. He defends it.
On Sunday, September 15, Derell Mickles hopped a turnstile, got asked to leave by cops, then entered the subway again ten minutes later through an emergency exit. This was at the Sutter Avenue L station, out by his mother's house, five stops from the end of the line. Police said they noticed he was holding a folded knife. They followed him up the stairs to the elevated train, asking him 38 times to drop the weapon.
Can the Media Survive?
BIG TECH, Feckless Owners, CORD-CUTTERS, RESTIVE STAFF, Smaller Audiences ... and the Return of PRINT?
Status Update
Hannah Gadsby's fascinatingly untidy tour through life after fame and death.
A Matter of Perspective
A Matter of Perspective Steve McQueen's worst film is still a solid WWII drama.
Creator, Destroyer
A retrospective reveals an architect's vision, optimism, and supreme arrogance.
In Praise of Bad Readers
In a time of war, there is a danger in surveying the world as if it were a novel.
Trust the Kieran Culkin Process
First, he nearly dropped out of Oscar hopeful A Real Pain. Then he convinced Jesse Eisenberg to change the way he directs.
The Funniest Vampires on TV
What We Do in the Shadows is coming to an end. Its idiosyncratic brand of comedy may be too.
The Water-Tower Penthouse
Gigi Loizzo and Angel Molina's apartment on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx looks out on Yankee Stadium.
