Alex Heath
Squid Game season 2 is Netflix’s most watched premiere ever.
The streamer says the new season broke all kinds of records, including garnering 68 million views in its first week, which made it the number-one show in 92 countries.
Netflix Archive
Archives for December 2024
Wes Davis
The Netflix effect.
Here’s a nice, long read from n+1 on Netflix’s victims, from Blockbuster to residuals for TV and film creators (which it now must pay) to the Hollywood film, buried in what author Will Tavlin calls the Typical Netflix Movie:
From the outside, the TNM looks ... designed to cater to each of Netflix’s two thousand “taste clusters,” the genre-like groupings Netflix uses to ... recommend films and shows to subscribers. The TNM covers every niche interest and identity category in existence, such as a movie about a tall girl, Tall Girl, but also Horse Girl, Skater Girl, Sweet Girl, Lost Girls, and Nice Girls.
Richard Lawler
Netflix has released the Beyoncé Bowl.
According to Netflix and Nielsen, peak viewers for the streamer’s Christmas Day NFL games reached over 27 million during Beyoncé’s halftime show. Now, it’s available to stream directly without the football game.
Image: @Netflix (Threads)
Emma Roth and Richard Lawler
Here’s what to watch over the holidays in case all those live sports broadcasts don’t work out.
Ash Parrish
After years of brand tie-ins and ill-conceived spinoffs, the series is back — and it’s just as tense as ever.
Andrew Webster
Umar Shakir
Netflix’s Christmas NFL stream is working fine so far.
The Chiefs just beat the Steelers, and we’re not hearing about any Paul vs Tyson-level issues other than scattered reports of weird buffering blips and TV going-to-sleep bugs.
But the real test for Netflix’s live broadcast ambitions will come when Beyoncé performs during halftime of the Ravens-Texans game (Update: if you missed it, the stream is staying up for three hours after the broadcast ends, and Netflix says it will be available as a standalone soon.)
One way or another, Netflix’s help page is setting expectations early with a warning message.
Screenshot: The Verge
Chris Welch
Netflix teases Happy Gilmore 2 ahead of today’s NFL stream.
There will be a lot of eyes on Netflix today for the 1PM ET Chiefs/Steelers game, and the company is using that big holiday spotlight to remind viewers of some original content coming next year.
This first look at Happy Gilmore 2 includes familiar faces (like Shooter McGavin) and a very timely cameo. The movie’s release is expected later in 2025.
Umar Shakir
Netflix is suing Broadcom over VMware virtual machines.
Netflix filed the lawsuit in Califonia federal court Monday, claiming Broadcom subsidiary VMware has cloud software that infringes on five Netflix patents. As reported by Reuters, Netflix says VMware’s vSphere platform for deploying and managing virtual machines infringes on Netflix patents related to virtual-machine communications.
Wes Davis
Robert De Niro leads a TV series for the first time in Netflix cyberattack thriller Zero Day.
De Niro plays a former President called in to investigate a cyberattack that resulted in plane crashes, train derailments, and thousands of deaths in the limited series, premiering February 20th on Netflix.
Zero Day was created by Eric Newman (Narcos) and Noah Oppenheim (The Maze Runner) and also stars Angela Bassett, Matthew Modine, Connie Britton, and Clark Gregg.
Netflix is good at streaming. It quickly learned that streaming live is a whole different ballgame.
David Pierce
Andrew Webster
“I’m so exhausted. I’m so tired.”
That’s Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk talking to Variety in a story that explores how the show became a worldwide phenomenon and a massive business for Netflix. Most notable, though, is how much the creator seems done with it all:
I’m so sick of my life making something, promoting something. So I’m not thinking about my next project right now. I’m just thinking about going to some remote island and having my own free time without any phone calls from Netflix.