Matt Damon recently accused Netflix of purposefully simplifying plots for viewers who might be watching titles while scrolling on their phones. But the streaming service has denied this is the case.
The discussion around “second screen viewing” gained so much heat in Hollywood that it inspired a skit at the Oscars, in which host Conan O’Brien and guest Sterling K Brown performed a script that rewrote classic film Casablanca to reflect this demand.
Netflix film chairman Dan Lin said executives in the room laughed the joke off, but insisted: “There's no such principle.”
Speaking at a press event on Wednesday (18 March), Lin added: "If you watch our movies or shows, we don't repeat our plot, so I don't know where that came from. We are focused on making great movies.”
Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria added that "it's so offensive to creators and filmmakers to think that we would give them a bad note like that and they would just take it”.
She continued: “I think, you know, haters gotta hate and people have got to make things up.” Bajaria claimed the opposite was the case, revealing that she previously asked an unnamed TV showrunner to reduce the amount of plot exposition. “That was like, ‘I know, the subtext is there, please don’t tell me,’” she said.
In January, Matt Damon, while promoting Netflix thriller The Rip, suggested that directors are asked to change their films to cater for casual viewers.
“The standard way to make an action movie, we learnt [years ago], is you usually have three set pieces,” Damon explained on Joe Rogan’s podcast.
“One in the first act, one in the second, one in the third. You spend most of your money on that one in the third act. That’s your finale. And now [Netflix] are like, ‘Can we get a big one in the first five minutes? We want people to stay’.”
He continued, quoting Netflix: “‘And it wouldn’t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they’re watching’.
He said that this alleged new way of making films is "going to really start to infringe on how we're telling these stories”, but his co-star Ben Affleck suggested that not all Netflix storytelling, including shows like Adolescence, follows said rules.
The final season of Stranger Things also received widespread criticism after characters appeared to repeat plot points several times during one episode in an apparent attempt to catch up viewers whose attention might have waned earlier on.
Jameela Jamil, who starred in The Good Place, claimed this is “a directive that’s being handed out” routinely by studios.
She said during an interview with comedian Romesh Ranganathan in 2025: “That’s why you’ll notice now in TV shows with really good actors, they’re laying out the entire plot line and all of their emotions and motivation have become really bait and on the nose.
“That’s because the writers are being told that they have to write in a way that someone can carry on with doomscrolling or shopping online while following in the background.”
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