This is a part-rant, part-existential crisis on how I spend my time. I don’t know about you, but I love watching Netflix shows. (Seemingly) endless options to choose from at a decent monthly subscription rate. What’s the question?
Yet, recently, I have found myself watching more and more shows which have ended, not because there was a satisfying conclusion, but because the show was cancelled. Not out of any virtue signalling or moral conflicts, just cancelled by Netflix.
As I write this, I’m aware I’m currently watching a show I know has been cancelled before its third season. The reason? A poor earnings quarter and low subscription numbers for Netflix.
There’s a lot that can be read into this about entertainment, the monopoly of big business, the demise of Video Ezy, and the questionable benefit of having a subscription-based streaming service. But I want to ask a different question about joy and how we opt to spend our time.
Monetising time
As lives get busier and we find increasing demands on our increasingly limited 24-hour days, we find more and more ways to get more value from less effort.
Everything from Facebook posts to podcasts that summarise books in 15-minute segments to, well, just about anything that gives us more satisfaction from less effort.
Don’t want to catch up with friend in-person? Follow their Instagram and Facebook feed. Don’t want to take the time to read that book? Find a summary of it. Don’t want to read the Bible? Well, we tell ourselves, we’re not saved by works so it doesn’t matter if we do (tragically poor logic but for another time).
We end up finding easier and easier ways to achieve the same goals, with the same level of satisfaction, with less effort and less time expended.
The cancellation dilemma
So what about Netflix shows (or any show that gets cancelled for that matter)? When you consider the idea of movies is to make money (lots of it – looking at you Avatar), TV shows pose a strange problem.
TV shows drag on. Some episodes are better than others. Some seasons just don’t make sense. Let’s not forget all ten seasons of Supernatural after season five.
This is all to say, companies like Netflix seem to have cottoned on to the expectation that every episode must be good, every season must be great, and if it’s not absolutely amazing, then cut your losses.
But what does this expectation say about us, not just as viewers, but as people, as members of society… as Christians?
What are we expecting?
We increasingly find ourselves in a culture where everything we do must bring satisfaction with less effort. We have a desire to feel entertained not just all the time, not just always at the same level of intensity, but with less and less effort.
The way society, Netflix, social media, podcasts etc. operate fuels this desire. It’s no surprise to anyone that this is a general expectation (entitlement, even) to how we view things in life.
What do we expect this will produce? The fruits of the Spirit? Faith? Perseverance? Joy?
I don’t think this culture of endless entertainment grows any of the kinds of virtues we find in Scripture.
So my simple question is: why? Everything good given in Scripture that speaks of our character, who we ought to be in Christ, is built out of longsuffering, perseverance.
The question that we must ask ourselves is: what are the habits we ought to foster that will draw us towards a mindset of perseverance and away from the relentless craving to be entertained?