| Course Description |
Netflix Culture
“Whether you are in Sydney or St. Petersburg, Singapore or Seoul, Santiago or Saskatoon, you now can be part of the internet TV revolution. No more waiting. No more watching on a
schedule that’s not your own. No more frustration. Just Netflix.” (Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, 2016)
The word “Netflix” refers not simply to the American online video store that became a streaming service in the twenty-first century's first decade and an international production company in the
second. It is a synecdoche for the widespread popularization of Internet TV seen in the success of SVODs (subscription video-on-demand services) like Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Apple TV+. The course will focus on the pioneering role of the Netflix streaming service and its dominant role in the creation and distribution of popular film and television content. In recent years, the success of internationally acclaimed productions has signaled a renewed interest in global histories and cultures, many of which were produced by Netflix and made available worldwide through its streaming service. The course discusses how processes of distribution and redistribution set in motion by the streaming service call for us to reconsider and reapproach ideas advanced by cultural studies that now seem unsuitable for delineating the full scope of Internet TV’s proliferation. We analyze Netflix series in the global scene and examine how global contents are tied to the emergence of unique genres. How do recent Netflix productions change, modify, or reimagine the narratives of national histories and cultures globally? Has the international online platform and film market more generally changed national images and stereotypes? More specifically, which genre conventions emerge from global politics and these new modes of streaming services? How have the series assimilated to international market conditions and audiences? Has the serial dispositive of television (as opposed to film), as well as the different viewing venues (private space of one’s home) and mode of consumption (binging), changed how global contents are presented?
Each week will focus on a different genre and analyze central episodes from two different series.
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