It’s pretty obvious that movie-viewing has changed over the past few years. From buying VHS from Blockbuster, to marvelling at how good DVD and BluRay was, to switching from movie to movie on Netflix, our generation has certainly seen a significant change in the way that movies are viewed. One of the most prominent aspects of this change is the idea that now you no longer sit and absorb a movie in silence, but aim to use the time in which you’re watching the movie to comment and disparage said movie. Maybe it’s a testament to our shortened attention spans that we can no longer go any period of time without talking or multitasking some way. It could perhaps also be a result of need for social interaction in an age where we’re so caught up in our screens and technology. The question still stands why it’s so fun to watch a movie just in to make fun of it, and Netflix has been making movie after movie after movie that people watch with the preparation to ridicule.
The Christmas season has seen masterpieces like A Christmas Prince, the Royal Baby, The Knight before Christmas and the rest of the haul of movies that we watch not because we’ll enjoy them but because we’ll enjoy the experience of watching them with others. This is not just a Christmas phenomenon however, Noah Centineo has based his entire career making movies that are kind of sub-par, but sub-par enough that they are enjoyable. Even TV shows like RIverdale made their mark because they were so fun to make fun of, with each season getting worse—and better. Being able to make fun of the gargoyle king Jughead’s weird hat added an element of fun and sociability to the experience that perhaps wouldn’t be the same with a genuinely good show. So why have our standards for what we spend our time consuming lowered so significantly?
It could even be a result of hubris: it’s satisfying to watch something and think to ourselves how much better we could have made it, and increases our confidence in our choices and awareness of what society likes. The idea of something being so bad that it’s good is one that perhaps taps into a shared emotion the whole audience can partake in. When we go into watching something expecting it to be bad, we have no fear of voicing negative opinions of the movie. We are not ashamed but can join in a collective laughter surrounding a film we know we could have made better if given the chance.
It also might be the idea that with internet streaming we’re no longer directly paying for the media we are consuming: even on Netflix we pay for a collection of movies and not one particular experience, which is why I’d be less sad watching a bad movie in a living room with friends rather than buying an expensive ticket to traipse to a theatre with friends to watch a bad movie and waste my time. Therefore, the Netflix era seems to have encouraged a norm surrounding watching movies that we don’t actually enjoy, and allows movies that perhaps don’t really deserve such praise to make substantial amounts of money off of our desire for disparagement.