Netflix is missing the biggest TV trend of 2022

Date:
Sat, 19 Mar 2022 11:00:49 +0000

Description:
The biggest TV trend of 2022 turns the tables on tech CEOs but Netflix's
list of scintillating corporate dramas has been paper-thin.

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For a time, the world couldn't get enough of tech startups.

In the same decade that Eminem ruled the airwaves and Bluetooth emerged as
the greatest thing since sliced bread, Facebook ( now Meta ) was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard roomies, Niklas Zennstrm launched Skype with long-time partner Janus Friis and Netflix doubled down on ending video rental stores forever.

Silicon Valley as we know it today was born in the noughties, and the exclusive crop of companies who still occupy that hallowed plot of land in
the San Francisco Bay Area continue to dictate digital (and by extension, popular) culture to this day.

Its only natural, then, that film and television studios would want to take audiences behind the scenes of these technological success stories but more specifically, those of their entrepreneurial (and often fascinating) CEOs.

The Social Network is perhaps the greatest example of a tech tale-turned-Shakespearean drama. Although David Finchers 2010 biographical movie documents the indomitable rise of Facebook in absorbing detail, its
even more interested in the moral fall from grace of its founder, Mark Zuckerberg and television in 2022 is tapping into that same gleeful schadenfreude. A trio of takedowns

Youd be forgiven for thinking that every streaming service but Netflix has a shamed CEO in their sights this year.

Showtime Anytime, for instance, recently added Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber to its library; a seven-part drama charting the demise of Uber
co-founder Travis Kalanick (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Kalanick was ousted from the company in a boardroom coup following allegations of harassment and bullying in 2017. (Image credit: Showtime)

Disney Plus and Hulu have The Dropout, which stars Amanda Seyfried as disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, who was recently convicted of defrauding investors through her companys phoney medical machines in the
early noughties.

Then theres WeCrashed on Apple TV Plus , an eight-episode skewering of property rental startup WeWork and its CEO, Adam Neumann, whose success came undone when evidence of his hard-partying lifestyle (funded by the companys dime) came to light.

All three series take a microscope to once-impressive youngsters whose arrogance outran their innovation, a like-minded premise that makes for equally gripping television, and Netflix would do well to cash in on the
trend while the iron is hot. Great Success(ion)

Of course, it must be noted that Netflix is doing just fine without a slew of corporate drama series in its original content armoury. The platform
continues to rank as our number one pick for the best streaming service in 2022, with shows like Stranger Things , The Umbrella Academy and Sex
Education still among the most popular television around.

But the entertainment industry is a constantly shifting beast, and the surprising success of HBO Max shows including Euphoria and Succession
suggests a renewed appetite for mature (dare we say old school?) TV drama in recent years.

Succession, in particular, is an interesting case. Theres an argument to be made that it too sits alongside WeCrashed, The Dropout and The Battle for
Uber in the black-and-white genre of biographical drama, it being a fictionalized take on the Murdoch media empire. (Image credit: HBO)

But even if it doesnt and, admittedly, Bryan Cranstons Logan Roy is
certainly no carbon copy of Rupert Murdoch the buzz Succession creates among millennial viewers with every new season suggests audiences enjoy looking inside the glamorous but cutthroat world of big business. After all, who doesnt like seeing corporate greed get the better of unlikeable rich folk?

Showtimes Billions, too, plays off the same psychology, and while Netflix has dipped its toes in the boardroom bust-up water before with Suits and House of Cards, it hasnt commissioned a Succession-like business drama biographical
or not for some time. A move towards human drama

The good news, for Netflix fans, is that the streamer appears to have preempted the trend highlighted by the aforementioned Apple, Disney and Showtime shows (though we suppose a $13.6 billion spending budget must inevitably buy some degree of foresight).

We recently published a list of seven Netflix series to look out for over the next 12 months, and theres at least a couple of office-based dramas on the way. The Diplomat will find Americans star Keri Russell juggling politics and marriage while working in international relations, and The Night Agent will follow a White House FBI agent drawn into a conspiracy involving (ding ding!) a young tech CEO.

At present, neither project has the attached star power of a Jared Leto or Amanda Seyfried, but they nonetheless hint at a renewed focus on realism for
a streamer that has spent recent years occupied with (admittedly profitable) fantasy lands.

Might we see a ten-episode takedown of TikTok on Netflix in 2023? The jury is out on that front, but the last few years have proven that reality is often stranger than fiction when it comes to good sources of entertainment. 8 new movies and TV shows on Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max and more this weekend



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/netflix-is-missing-the-biggest-tv-trend-of-2022 /


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