Anyone who’s enjoyed a streaming service’s show, just to have it abruptly cut off without any real resolution, knows that streaming companies have been canceling shows left and right. Even a production being wildly successful won’t shield it from the risk of cancellation, despite that previously being a factor. This change is because society has moved away from watching TV, in which ratings are everything, and is now signing up for streaming services. It’s no longer lucrative for a company to keep a show on for many seasons, despite how beloved the series may be because anyone who’s interested in that particular show would have already paid for the streaming service when the first season came out. Therefore, streaming services want to constantly bring in new shows to get new viewers, and aren’t spending budget on later seasons of existing content.

Like many other artists who rely on multiple installments for their content, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery director Rian Johnson is feeling the heat. He’s explained, “It’s been horrifying. The fact that it’s becoming common practice is terrible and adds to the awfulness. In the history of the business, there has been a constant evolution of horrible things. All you can do as someone who makes stuff is ultimately put your faith in the notion that if you make something, it’s going to find its audience.”

It seems that content creators and streaming services may not be able to continue on like this. Just as artists have done in the past, it may be time for directors to find other ways to get their series out to the public. With new platforms popping up, seemingly every day, it wouldn’t be surprising if a new type of movie and TV show platform were to emerge. Until some billionaire or tech genius decides to tackle that project, we’ll stick with our Netflix shows. Just make sure not to get too invested…

Gone are the days when subtitles were for the elderly, or people watching a show in a foreign language. According to a new study, 61% of people aged 18-24 watch TV and movies with subtitles — even when the show or film is in their native language. Given how the dialogue in Hollywood productions keeps getting quieter while the background music keeps getting louder (we’re looking at you, Christopher Nolan) the results of this survey are hardly surprising. Interestingly, only 13% of people 50-64 years old use subtitles, while 22% of people over the age of 65 activate this feature. This could be because people in those age groups are less likely to watch action films, and that’s the genre that tends to have the biggest sound discrepancy.

Of course, people took to social media to express their surprise at the results of this survey. One person wrote, “Surprised at how few OAPs watch TV with the subtitles on; personally, I (22) am unable to watch TV w/o subtitles now as I’ve spent that much time watching stuff with my grandmother, who needs subtitles cos she both can’t afford and can’t be bothered to get her hearing aids fixed.” While another aptly wrote, “I don’t, but I feel like I should do depending on what I’m watching. Yellowstone is hard to watch without subtitles.”

Another social media user posed the question, “I wonder if this is more to do with the audio quality of more modern productions? Older gens watching older shows that don’t have this issue? Watching shows from b4 2015 seem to be better in terms of voice whereas I actually struggle to hear speech on new Netflix shows etc?” While another was all of us when expressing, “Phew — I thought it was just me getting old, but perhaps it really is a combination of actors mumbling and sound editors allowing music and effects to make dialogue hard to catch.” So, if you find yourself needing to turn on subtitles — don’t worry, it’s definitely not just you!