Reel Talk

Reel Talk
Small
Small Screen, Big Battle
How Netflix is rope-a-doping HBO, and the world
Popcorn Pushover
How to improve America’s favorite
snack
Ant-Man & The Wasp
Marvel’s cracks begins to show

Battle of the
Boardrooms
Netflix is pushing quantity
over quality. HBO is focusing
on prestige television. Who’s
right?

I scroll through Netflix to find something to watch, and though
I’m surrounded by titles to watch, nothing seems good. I’ve heard
of maybe one of these, two at most, but they’re called The Crown
and Stranger Things and I binged those on release. Do I want to
watch Alex Strangelove? Maybe, but not today. I’m inundated in
mundanity. How could Netflix do this to me?
Frustratedly, I head over to HBO. I know the network behind
Westworld and Game of Thrones has my back. The thing is, as I
look for something else to watch besides Westworld or Game of
Thrones, I can’t find anything. I’ve watched The Sopranos, gone
through The Wire, twice, and now I can’t find anything new. Oh
well, at least I loved what I did watch.
The problem is, though, that I won’t get Westworld season
three for another two years, by which time my interest in it will
have waned significantly. So I’m stuck watching another season of
some Netflix soap. And though Netflix has some real diamonds in
the rough, like Bojack Horseman, Master of None, and GLOW, the
viewer’s lack of self control doesn’t let the experience last nearly
long enough.
So Netflix is happy keeping you hooked so long as you crave
that next hit. It’s the French fry beckoning you to eat the next one,
and the one after that, even though the nutritional value is close to
none. HBO is the Michelin starred meal - a tiny portion served on a
gargantuan plate.
And the American people, or at least the retired TV
professionals among them, are leaning towards the French fries.
The 2018 Emmy nominations saw Netflix edge out HBO with 112
nominations to HBO’s 108. In true American form, we have chosen
quantity over quality. How many awards Netflix walks away with
will be indicative of whether its business model is truly working.

Seasoned Veteran
Movies’ favorite seasoning
hasn’t changed since the
50s - should it?

What do you think of when you hear the word Flavacol? Surely
you think of some business man in the 50s, smoking a
cigarette in his Don Draper suit and his Lucky Strike
cigarettes, speaking in his southern drawl, in a world above
the rest. The word itself, Flavacol, is deeply sinister. It sounds
like the chemical it is. The worst part? It’s delicious.
The movies are made inherently better by the presence
of popcorn. Maybe it’s the oral fixation involved, maybe it’s
the indulgence of pigging out on popcorn in a dark room
where no one’s eyes are on you. Whatever it is, all roads lead
back to Flavacol. It’s so salty it’ll make you blow $6 on a 12
ounce bottle of Dasani, but not salty enough to make you
realize it. It’s packed with so much artificial umami you feel
like you’re eating the best popcorn known to man, before you
realize it’s a yellow, salt-like powder creating that sensation.
We’ve moved on from the blissful ignorance previous
generations lived in. We are now in a state of perhaps
knowing too much, and we can only reconcile that with flavor
by being creative. So let’s be more creative with our popcorn,
instead of settling for the same old same old? How about
adding some Tajín, a Mexican chili-lime spice my family adds
to everything from mango to chips. Or opt for kettle corn —
movies are so expensive nowadays that you might as well
indulge in the food that goes therewith. Be creative! But don’t
settle for something you don’t know the ingredients of.

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