The Long-Term Mission Is Clear
In its continuing mission to become HBO for the “woke” generation, Netflix has released its next big, niche hit from Ryan Murphy, The Politician.
Former writer and producer of such woke fare as Glee, Eat Pray Love and episodes of the overwrought and overrated American Horror Story, Ryan has developed a show that…
…well, let’s let him tell it:
The Politician is a class takedown in the vein of such satirical 1970s films as The Candidate and Shampoo — but with a modern, Trumpy twist. “It’s wealthy people behaving badly,” he says. “All of this has been percolating in the culture, particularly under this president and this idea of Ivanka and Jared [as] the sort of satanic poster boy and girl for privilege and nepotism.”
Yeah.
Ok.
In light of the loss of subscribers that Netflix has recently experienced, I wonder if this is the best direction for them to go in with their original content?
Losing The Office, Friends (eventually) and shelling out money to Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy to develop original content, isn’t going to stop the bleeding of Netflix’s 60 million subscribers in the US.
Internationally, because of the view of American politics — and as a result, American popular cultural sensibilities — from afar, this show may fly, but I doubt that too many of Netflix’s “deplorable” subscriber base is going to appreciate being lectured about politics, wealth, class, culture, and nepotism by a guy whose personal quote on his IMBD page is as follows:
“Face it, I’m legend. It’s happened.”
