Curator's Note:

The launch of Netflix as a subscription-funded streaming video on demand (SVOD) service and its subsequent transformation into a studio has dramatically altered the business practices, deal structures, labor, distribution, and audience behaviors. Although much has been written about how Netflix has disrupted some of the legacy distribution practices of the media industries, there has been less scholarship about how Netflix and its business practices have altered narrative form and style. Popular critics have bemoaned the “slipshod quality” and examined the effects of Netflix’s camera restrictions on viewing. Scholars have also considered how Netflix privileges certain genres, but art of the challenge of pinning down a “Netflix Style” is appropriately identifying where to attribute authorship.

In Spring 2026, graduate students at Georgia State University were challenged to consider the hypothesis that Netflix has a house style. This hypothesis goes against what Netflix CEOs and Presidents have claimed, but if Netflix has been able to disrupt other aspects of the business, why not style and narrative?