{"id":532408,"date":"2026-03-19T07:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T07:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/532408\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T07:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T07:57:09","slug":"we-dont-tell-filmmakers-to-restate-the-plot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/532408\/","title":{"rendered":"We Don\u2019t Tell Filmmakers to Restate the Plot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAt the Oscars, host Conan O\u2019Brien and Sterling K. Brown performed a sketch<\/a> based on the idea that streamers are telling filmmakers and showrunners to restate the plots of their movies or shows every so often, so that non-attentive viewers don\u2019t get lost or confused.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe bit riffed on the classic Casablanca, with Brown, as piano player Sam, saying things to O\u2019Brien-as-Rick Blaine things like, \u201cAnd Rick, to reiterate, you\u2019re just now realizing that you\u2019re still in love with Ilsa, even though she\u2019s married?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe sketch drew some laughs from the audience \u2014\u00a0and apparently from Netflix<\/a> film chief Dan Lin<\/a> too.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere is no such principle. We actually all laughed when we watched that bit at the Oscars, but there\u2019s no such principle,\u201d Lin told reporters at an event Wednesday introducing Netflix\u2019s slate for the rest of the yar. \u201cI mean, if you watch our movies or TV shows, we don\u2019t repeat our plots. I don\u2019t know where that comment came from.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMost recently, it came from Matt Damon, the star and producer (alongside Ben Affleck) of Netflix\u2019s recent heist thriller The Rip. Promoting the movie on The Joe Rogan Experience in January, Damon said<\/a>, \u201c[Netflix is] like, \u2018Can we get a big [action sequence] in the first five minutes?\u2019 We want people to stay tuned in. And it wouldn\u2019t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they\u2019re watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNot so, said Lin, his series counterpart Bela Bajaria<\/a> and Jinny Howe, vp drama series at the streamer. \u201cWe\u2019re just focused on making great movies,\u201d Lin said. \u201cThere\u2019s no formula or procedure that you just mentioned.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBajaria added, \u201cI think it\u2019s 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. So I think, you know, haters gotta hate and people have got to make things up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHowe says Netflix executives \u201cknow how savvy the audiences are\u201d because viewers don\u2019t hesitate to let them know about perceived flaws in a series or movie. \u201cBela is kind of the exposition police,\u201d Howe said of Bajaria. \u201cWe take it really seriously that we\u2019re not trying to dumb things down, and it is about making sure the audience knows it\u2019s for them, and audiences are very savvy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBajaria also noted an instance where a showrunner had, in her view, too much exposition and restatement of what was happening and asked them to dial back. \u201cThat was like, \u2018I know, the subtext is there, please don\u2019t tell me,\u2019 she said. \u201cSo sometimes that even happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile introducing the Oscars sketch, O\u2019Brien didn\u2019t mention Netflix or any other outlet by name. He merely said \u201csome studios\u201d were encouraging the practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the Oscars, host Conan O\u2019Brien and Sterling K. Brown performed a sketch based on the idea that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[30436,147039,88,217],"class_list":["post-532408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-bela-bajaria","tag-dan-lin","tag-entertainment","tag-netflix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}