Have you ever enjoyed a movie or a TV show on a streaming platform only to realize it’s automatically queueing up another random title to stream before what you’re watching is even over? And then you’ve had to frantically reach for your remote control trying in a desperate race to stave off the countdown before getting zapped to another title?
Culture critic and The Ringer head honcho Bill Simmons sounded off against the pervasive “Next Episode” countdown feature during the most recent episode of The Rewatchables, where he cursed out multiple streaming platforms for keeping him from watching movie credits in peace.
Simmons pointedly called out Prime Video for rushing him through the “surprise ending” and the credits of 1983’s Eddie and the Cruisers during a recent rewatch. “I’d like to do this as a public service [announcement] to all the streamers watching right now – including Netflix,” he said. (Worth noting: Netflix is the streaming home for a few of The Ringer’s podcasts, including The Rewatchables, The Bill Simmons Podcast and The Big Picture.) “Amazon’s counting me down in the bottom right corner because it’s about to send me to the next thing. And now I really want to hear the ending and you have to grab your phone or your remote and frantically try to stop it so they don’t send me to like fucking Harry Potter Season 7, or whatever they’re gonna send me to.”
He went off on the streamers, prompting producer Craig Horlbeck to comment this rant could be “some of your best work.”
“Fuck off,” Simmons complained. “Let me enjoy the end of the movie for 20 seconds before you’re sending me to the next thing so you could bill your fake streaming hours when all I did is leave the TV on and you pretended I watched something else. Fuck you.”
Journalist Van Lathan also chimed in and praised Simmons for speaking out about this “despite current business situations.”
“Let me watch the fucking movie before you give me five different things to watch,” he added.
View this post on Instagram As they pointed out, the queueing feature is convenient when streaming television shows, but it keeps viewers from being able to enjoy whey just watched as they’re being rushed to stream yet another episode or title. Netflix arguably revolutionized television by establishing the binge watching model. Now, platforms have baked that model into every aspect of streaming, optimizing the viewing experience to keep viewers tied to the screen, consuming as much content as possible with little value put towards quality.
Chris Ryan complained on The Rewatchables that he doesn’t “wanna live in a country” where viewers “need someone to spoon feed you the next episode or the next movie before you come to the conclusion of the artistic statement that you are taking in.”
While Horlbeck called the feature “anti-below the line” for not letting viewers see movie crews get their credit, Simmons ended his rant with a scathing indictment about the streaming industry.
“Stop telling us you actually care about the movie industry and you won’t let us see closing credits for anything,” he said.
The statement seemed to refer to the promises Netflix made during its failed deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. CEO Ted Sarandos suddenly changed his tune and promised to maintain the 45-day theatrical release window, walking back his previous stance that consumers should be able to stream movies at home sooner rather than later.
Hopefully, streaming platforms can lay off the “Next Episode” countdown feature and give all viewers a little more breathing room.
