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Netflix film chief Dan Lin and chief content officer Bela Bajaria have denied the suggestion that their films and series reiterate their plot points multiple times throughout a work so the audience, often second-screening with their phones, can keep up.
Though the notion had been out there last year, widespread talk on this crystallised in January when Matt Damon and Ben Affleck appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast to promote their Netflix thriller “The Rip”.
They indicated Netflix had asked creatives to repeat “the plot three or four times in the dialogue” to account for people being on their phones. The comments became well-known enough that a whole skit at the Oscars, with host Conan O’Brien and actor Sterling K. Brown recreating “Casablanca,” was made to make fun of it.
At a Los Angeles press conference attended by Variety, Lin dismissed the notion saying their films and shows don’t do it:
“We actually all laughed when we watched that bit at the Oscars, but there’s no such principle. I mean, if you watch our movies or TV shows, we don’t repeat our plot. So I don’t know where that comment came from. Certainly, we are focused on making great movies.”
Bajaria went further, saying they have measures in place to avoid over-explaining: “I think it’s so offensive to creators and filmmakers, to think that first of all, we would give them a bad note like that, and they would just take it.”
Scripted series head Jinny Howe joked that Bajaria in fact serves as “kind of exposition police” on their shows and is “very against being overly explainer about things” because they “know how much fans are paying attention”.
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