Top 10 Reasons Why Netflix Has Gone Downhill
Man, I remember the first time me and my family got Netflix. Each of us watched a few shows and movies at our own time here and there in the past. But eventually, we got bored and had no time to stream Netflix, so we got rid of it, unfortunately. Although... considering what Netflix has become nowadays, I'd say it's rather more fortunate for me and my family. To think that one of the most revolutionary streaming services in the industry that helped changed the way audiences view televised content has now become a hollow shell of itself. Everywhere from how limited its content distribution is these days to how much of a drop in quality has been seen in most of its original content, Netflix has really made some poor business decisions on behalf of the streaming service itself. So I've decided to create a list detailing 10 reasons why Netflix has gone downhill. Most of these reasons may range from being majorly valid criticisms to perhaps a few minor but understandable nitpicks here and there hating on certain content they've given us. Anyways, feel free to vote, comment, remix, and add to this list. Thank you all and I hope you enjoy this list.If any of you have had Netflix at least one time in your life, there was probably a show or movie that you watched on Netflix that you truly loved with all your passion and would watch it all over again if you could. Unfortunately, watching that show or movie on Netflix at free will is now only a bittersweet memory. Why? Because now Netflix is taking away much of its good and highly popular content and then replacing them with bad content. For example, why would Netflix take away some of its iconic Cartoon Network classics and then, of all things, add awful shows like The Powerpuff Girls (2016) to the streaming lineup? Two things. One, I have no idea why they would do that. Two, Netflix is probably being run by executives brainwashed by Christina Miller and letting her negatively influence their business practices. Other than that, it's incredibly frustrating to see that Netflix is taking away content that people WANT to watch and giving them content that they DON'T want to watch.
This sucks, because I would run out of content I would want to watch and that I haven't seen before. That really happened in the mid 2010s when they replaced it with originals and other crap nobody cares about. Around the time it was removed and before there was Disney+, many shows and movies are not on streaming and that you have to pay to watch instead of paying for the type of subscription that's on Netflix. But thankfully, they are now back the way they were on Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock (I don't have that service) and Paramount+, and have cheaper subscription payment than Netflix does. I have not watched Netflix in months because of my focus on Paramount+ now.
UPDATE: I started a trend of watching movies I would pick since last October, and I stopped watching shows on Paramount+ last month because I was getting tired of it. I am now running out of movies to watch and have been watching BoJack Horseman since last week.
At least, they still have Pulp Fiction, Jaws, Full Metal Jacket, The Prestige, Memento, E.T, No Country for Old Men, and a few others. How come Netflix is going to stream Hateful Eight, but not Reservoir Dogs or Kill Bill? They took off a lot of good classic movies and the line-up of films that are streaming this month is very disappointing, especially since it's October. You'd figure that they would have a lot of great stuff to stream. But no! They had to choose a sorry line-up! After binge watching some great films on Netflix, I feel like they need to add some other great choices like Batman: The Animated Series or GoodFellas instead of that Death Note film or Jaws: the Revenge.
They're going for the "mom" and "quirky" and "teen girl" and "hipster" audiences. Those groups eat up something like IFC, Lifetime, WE, or the "feel good movies of the season" media. Moms don't like Goodfellas, quirky artsy don't like Waiting to Exhale, and hipsters dig weird and off-the-cuff "low brow "intellectual"" stuff. And think about the bulk of who the sales for Blumhouse horror comes from.
Netflix is basically just another version of IFC, mixed with the ID channel (murder, murderers, murdered, suburban serial slashers 24/7). It's garbage, 123movies is better.

The library of movies is getting smaller and smaller. Big push for Netflix movies. Very small search options (again small library of movies.)! there are some good older movies but most of the good classic movies are not there.
Yeah I agree. Stranger Things and OITNB are the only 2 good Netflix originals, yet they have their flaws. First of all, Stranger Things started off strongly, however the storyline became more choppy in season 3. Second of all, despite the rave reviews of Orange Is The New Black, OITNB has prompted a divided response from parents; some people believe OITNB has a lot of positive messages to offer while others believe that it has gratuitous levels of pornography. And don't get me started on 13 Reasons Why. 13 Reasons Why has started a terrible downward trend when it comes to Netflix original series as most Netflix originals today mainly exploit humanitarian issues such as suicide, racism, and religious discrimination just for money grabbing purposes. Netflix's plan to remove Friends and The Office from its streaming library only proves how egoistic they're becoming over the years as they have a lot of control to do whatever they want, without thinking about the user's feelings. And worst ...more
The bottom 4 movies/shows in my remix for this list are prime examples of how much Netflix's original content sucks these days. I'd say 2017 might be Netflix's worst year yet in terms of content and business practices. We all know Netflix is primarily supposed to be a streaming service where you can watch your favorite shows and movies anytime and anywhere. However, the scope of Netflix's main purpose has since turned into more of a cable-like network where they focus more on pumping out original content (most of which are just uninteresting and bland live-action shows) rather than giving us acquired content that we as the consumers desire. So let's go down the list. Death Note (2017)? Yet another failed attempt at creating a faithful and high-quality live-action anime adaptation! The Magic School Bus Rides Again? What is this? Teen Titans Go! 4.0? Neo Yokio? Well... it's pretty hard to tell if "The Jaden Smith Anime" is so bad that it's good or the fact that it fails at even trying ...more
Hopefully, with the positive reception of Stranger Things 2 and the recent acquisition of Twelve Forever when the pilot was initially turned down by Cartoon Network, Netflix can turn around both its original and acquired content quality and be great again. They're REALLY going to need it after the slew of bad content they've given us in 2017.

Adding further to the previous item, this is another aspect of the issues Netflix is facing with its streaming content. Not only are good stuff being taken away and being replaced by bad stuff, but content is being removed at a more rapid pace than it is being added. I wouldn't say it would eventually get to the point where they have little to zero shows and movies to watch on Netflix, but I seriously don't see anything positive about this trend. It's absolutely detrimental to both the streaming service's quality and the consumer, since their range of how much content they have access to is constantly being limited by numbers. If Netflix doesn't do anything about this problem, they'll eventually start doing poorly against their competitors such as Hulu and Amazon.
Based on the graph, I notice the big gap between how Netflix was back then and how it is now. The fact is, I think that Netflix is honestly going down in general. Why? Netflix is lacking creativity.
Do some shows REALLY need more seasons? They were good, now they're just flat out wrong.
I honestly enjoy Netflix and appreciate the streaming service allows on-the-go watching experience (excluding Disney) and for you to watch unlimitedly every possibility there is and what is available, but I have recently noticed the changes in Netflix's service. One of those reasons are the reason I had voted- the taking down of movies. Pointlessly, Netflix removes good content and replace it with the things we see today. We lose GOOD content and get the BAD content instead.
I learned about, recently, how Disney's making its own Netflix, yet based off their content, but do they really have to? Netflix just got a whole lot worse.
New releases are probably just garbage at this point.
Decreasing number of content is insane. We see that movies are fading and T.V. shows almost seem to not exist anymore, so why doesn't Netflix just... I don't know... just quit?
The lack in qualities of content that does exist in Netflix these days haven't been as good as they were in 2016 or maybe even farther back. The truth is... I think Netflix should shut down due to this. If Netflix does, however, not shut down, less and less people will be interested in Netflix and they will lose money.
I keep seeing less and less content with creativity these days. And seeing what's happening, Disney removing their content, I perfer to use less and less of Netflix for these reasons in particular.
I won't even bother to check the latest releases.

Eh, this is a pretty broad item, but this does apply to Netflix in many aspects. Aside from all these new releases of "original content", Netflix hasn't been doing much to try and acquire new shows and movies that are the most recent and current. To build upon what WholeGrainNeko said, lots of companies like Disney and Funimation are not letting Netflix acquire much of their content rights anymore to make room for their own streaming services. While Netflix isn't really to blame for, they should at least TRY to acquire content from companies that ARE willing to let them stream their content. While Cartoon Network has a streaming service app and a cable feature called "on demand", Netflix should try to make the best use of what it can gain that's the newest big thing out there. Otherwise, it gets pretty stale and old if they can't keep up with all the latest popular and great shows and movies.
There was a time netflix was much better than amazon prime, now it's the opposite. I cancelled my netflix acct. I'll only temp reinstate if there is something I must watch which is rare

And... now I think we've reached the area where this list goes into my nitpicks (or at least the nitpicks I've seen from what other people have conjured up). I don't know about you, but while I haven't used this new system, I can understand why others dislike it. The new rating system is more inept at giving people good recommendations of shows and movies they can check out based on what they watch and how much they like a certain show or movie. Kind of like how people miss the five-star rating system for YouTube. I'm all for change and all, but while this isn't the worst change out there, it's understandable as to why people don't like this change at all. If the new rating system can't tweak the best recommendations for you, might as well bring back the old one.
Thank you for mentioning this! Even if I dislike something, Netflix will still recommend it to me! Say what you will about YouTube but when click on a video and click "Not interested" it doesn't show it to me anymore. Plus it's very vague on how good the quality of the show is.
WHY? The star-rating is accurate although I used to think Netflix was weird because the rate Boy in the Striped Pajamas a 4.5-star and was very immature of me. I'd pick the star rating.
Ah, I remember when this happened on Youtube - I was a wee baba then, but I still knew how to access Youtube.I saw the day when it went from Imdb to Siskel and Ebert.

I wish they did try harder to get other shows. I was so happy to see Inuyasha and Bleach come onto Netflix! I've rewatched those series on Netflix plenty of times. But if they lack getting the rights to shows and movies and just try to make their own content, I don't know how willing I would be to stay.
How does a streaming service go from streaming to little to no streaming? Well, I'd say Netflix pretty much exemplifies that scenario. While I can understand from a business approach that creating original content is cheaper and easier to produce (much like how live-action sitcoms on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon and CN Real shows on Cartoon Network were made), it doesn't make for a good movie or T.V. show. Netflix was probably the pinnacle of online streaming in its prime, but now that they've changed for the worse to try and give us more original content rather than focus more on acquiring the rights to movies and shows people want to watch, that is now more or less a distant memory and further solidifies the fact of how far down Netflix has fallen with what it was trying to give its audiences in the first place. If Netflix can't so much as focus primarily on streaming rather than producing original content, why even call it a streaming service to begin with?
Rates went way up. They took away multiple screen option and now we pay 3 times the amount for only one screen...at home only! Quality of service went way down after price increase!
Netflix is greedy
That is not good, I cancelled my subscription almost a year ago since it isn't as good anymore

Pretty much what WholeGrainNeko said about other companies splitting off from their streaming services. To reiterate what she said, Disney is now splitting up with Netflix and creating its own streaming service for its shows and movies. The new streaming service for Disney is called DisneyNow (correct me if I'm wrong). I'm torn on whether I should be hating on Netflix or Disney for this (maybe mostly Disney, but I mostly hate both for their own reasons for this list.), but man, this is just detrimental to Netflix's library of shows and movies. At this rate, other companies like Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon might start pulling their shows and movies from Netflix and doing the same thing Disney is doing. It's really a sad cycle, I tell you. At this rate, the way Netflix replaced Blockbuster is pretty much going to bite Netflix in the butt real hard if other streaming services kick it to the curb and cement its decline in quality for good.
You may have had to actually GO to BlockBuster when it was still open, but at least they didn't do stupid things like remove stuff that people want and add stuff that people don't want. Maybe in 2010-2012 I would've preferred Netflix, but now I'm just praying that Blockbuster reopens.
No. They just added bolt.
It sucks I wanted to watch incredibles 2 but it got removed off netflix

Okay, now I officially think Christina Miller is a bad influence on the executives at Netflix. Because Netflix somehow thought it was a good idea to make a cheaply-animated reboot of a beloved education kids' show! While the reboot may not lack educational value, it certainly doesn't do justice to the original show and books! Not only is the Flash animation bland and generic, but the characters are really hard to get attached to and getting Ms. Frizzle's "twin sister" or whatever to be the main female lead instead of her predecessor was just an absolute disgrace. With the new theme song sung by Lin-Manuel Miranda being one of the only saving graces of the show, The Magic School Bus Rides Again feels more like a desperate cash grab attempt at appealing to nostalgia fans of the original show. Which, in all honesty, makes it no better than other awful reboots like Teen Titans Go!, The Powerpuff Girls (2016), and Ben 10 (2016).
This is how Netflix has been spending its money. Making horribly animated cartoon reboots of a classic children's cartoon. In grades 1-5, we would either watch the original Magic School Bus or Bill Nye if we were learning about a subject in science that they covered in one of their episodes. It was nice, but I'm seeing a lot nowadays that a lot of teachers have Netflix. Yes, Netflix has both TMSB shows, but if you browse around the Netflix categories, The Magic School Bus Rides Again pops up more frequently. I asked my little sister about this show a few months ago, and she said they watched a few episodes in her class. There you have it. Now, kids have to watch the reboot, and not the quality original. Eventually, due to their Magic School Bus, Netflix will most likely remove the original, so only their version remains, and to make space for whatever crappy original series they come up with next.
This reboot sucks, if they at least kept the original animation, but having it look more modern, it would be good. But the flash animation looks cheap and bland. Ms. Frizzle looks like a teenage girl here when she is a woman in her late 20s or 30s. And the characters aren't as entertaining and have horrible designs.
Yay, more bad cartoon reboots. I've recently gotten around to TTG and Powerpuff Girls 2016. As someone who doesn't have nostalgia for either shows, they're not that good. And if this is like those two reboots...oh boy...

Rates went way up. They took away multiple screen option and now we pay 3 times the amount for only one screen...at home only! Quality of service went way down after price increase!
Before in the past, I'm pretty sure lots of people would have preferred Netflix over cable since the former had a cheaper and better price than the latter. While it may still ring true to this day, it does reasonably seem more overpriced compared to its competitors such as Hulu and Amazon. Just last year, Netflix increased its streaming service price significantly, making it even MORE expensive than Amazon's streaming service. Not to mention that Hulu is cheaper than Netflix as well nowadays too, considering that Hulu's max price of $7.99 after the first year of subscription is actually the same price compared to Netflix's price... for BASIC! Yeah, that's right! BASIC! If Netflix can't even so much as save as much money as its competitors do if it can't even conjure up a good price for just BASIC, Netflix needs to really step down its prices a lot and also improve its content quality if they want to get their head back in the game.
The content is not worth the price!

Great. Now it looks like Fate/Extra Last Encore is going to be a Netflix exclusive series too. Can the Fate series just STOP being only exclusive to Netflix? Again, I would have preferred if it would just air on Crunchyroll. At least they would have SIMULCASTED it instead of waiting months for Japan to finish its initial broadcasts.
Yeah I've noticed this too. Some studios seemed to be solely involved and not all. Like how Trigger Studios has Little Witch Academia and Kill La Kill. Or even worse, when they don't add in all the seasons of an anime like with Naruto.
You want to know how I had to watch Fate/Apocrypha? Well, one way it's going to be seen is when Netflix exclusively streams it... in November of 2017. And boy, when did the anime first air in Japan? July 2, 2017. So basically, Netflix is streaming Fate/Apocrypha... THREE LONG MONTHS after it originally premiered in its native country! Seriously, what a rip-off! I've seen so many anime YouTubers (ones I don't really care for these days like Gigguk and Glass Reflection and ones I despise like Mother's Basement) make videos addressing this issue. Honestly, I think me and every anime fan can agree that the way Netflix is barring its anime exclusive titles several months after its native country first aired it is a truly ineffective and pointless business practice. What happened to simulcasting an anime as it airs in Japan? Crunchyroll does it and it's one of the reasons why it's a popular anime streaming platform to use if users can get access to new episodes of airing anime as soon as ...more
This is why Crunchyroll is better to watch anime than Netflix. It has less dubbed shows but releases them right after they air. Not to mention a lot of the anime series on Crunchyroll aren't on Netflix.

Thought Ghost in the Shell (2017) was bad? Death Note (2017) takes it up a notch. Apparently, Netflix thought it was a good idea to throw their head into the ring in an attempt to make a successful live-action adaptation of a manga and anime franchise. Considering we've gotten horrible live-action adaptations such as Dragonball: Evolution and Avatar: The Last Airbender (yes, I know that is not based on an anime, but it suffers the same problems live-action anime adaptations do.), it was no surprise Death Note fans were appalled to see their favorite anime become whitewashed and driveled-up trash as blatant Americanization, a huge disregard for the source material, and overall poor execution ruined this movie. With one of the only good things being the casting of Ryuk while the other actors and actresses sucked, Death Note (2017) certifies itself as yet another god-awful live-action adaptation of a beloved anime.
I hate this movie, this is my favorite anime, and they turned it into garbage with this movie. There are so many things wrong with this movie that are not in the anime. Why is L black? (not to be racist)He is originally a white asian, not black, that is like making Huey from The Boondocks a white blonde with blue eyes when he is black. Second, L would never reveal his name in public, or else Kira would know his name and write it down to kill him. Third, why does Light Yagami share the Death Note with his girlfriend when he isn't supposed to share it with anyone? Plus, the actor does not look like Light Yagami.
A cheesy show with a great casting choice for Ryuk. What's next? Another live-action White-washed version of Negima?
Just as long as they don't make the sequel (like they want to) I can learn to forget about this movie.
Absolutely agree...Way way to much Indian programming. For a while there I thought someone in India bought out Netflix.
To much Indian, Asian, Turkish... content and very low number of blockbuster
WAY too many Asian and foreign language shows on American Netflix

The UK isn't the only one that suffers from this issue, but a lot of international platforms for the Netflix streaming service are severely limited. Especially for the UK, while it does have American Netflix content, it only has about HALF of what the American Netflix streaming service has in the US. Which is really unfair since UK consumers have to pay MORE just to get the same content us Americans have on Netflix. Or worse, they're stuck with only 50% of American content at the same price American consumers pay for the full package. Netflix isn't just having a domestic decline, it's also having an international issue as well.
I swear there is a technique to fiddle with that.
I feel that this is partially a reiteration of my previous reasons on this list, but in a way, I feel that this is a different aspect of its own. I'm pretty sure Netflix streamed both movies and T.V. shows in its debut and prime, but as for the change of landscape in the demographic, that's quite more understandable. I wouldn't say it's as noticeable of a problem as other ones on this list, but I can really see that more of the content that Netflix pumps out these days are aimed primarily at younger demographics than striving to impress not only all demographics, but especially also mature adult demographics as well. To be honest, I don't really quite grasp the concept of this reason, but if we're talking solely about the demographics here, then I might be on board with understanding the decline of Netflix's age scope.

Family Guy, Futurama, Bob's Burgers, American Dad, Phineas and Ferb, Adventure Time, Regular Show were all removed.
I've heard they might remove Attack on Titan too.
They removed Dexter's Lab and the Powerpuff Girls. The former isn't even on Hulu anymore.
Not only did they go downhill, but they give us garbage stuff that we watch nowadays!
And that's why I watch Hulu instead.
I search "Spongebob" And the first result is a Puss In Boots ripoff.

Not just the worst 2020 movie, 2020s movie, one of the worst movies of the 21st century, but considered one of the worst movies of all time. It actually broke US laws about child pornography. It features 11-year old girls who want to be twerkers and strippers. The directors allegedly forced many young girls into this, which is pedophilia. This is worse than the lies of Leaving Neverland. This film should be banned from many countries. My state Texas had to sue Netflix for this. I cannot believe this is still on Netflix as of September 2021.

Didn't they remove the show long before this list was made?
Even worse, they have One Course Meal, A Pal For Gary and The Splinter.
I don't remember any more spongebob being on here after they removed it a few years back

I saw this on Netflix and out of curiosity, I watched it. After the first episode, I was completely baffled by what happened. Then I read some info of how it was supposed to be a parody anime. So with that in mind, I watched the rest finally. Boy does it fail at being a parody anime. Gintama and Hetalia are better at parodying anime. This anime just felt lazy. Like Vampire Sucks, Meet the Spartans and Haunted House 2. Just because it's a parody, doesn't give it the excuse to be lazy and this is no different. I'm staring at the screen blankly rather than laughing at the jokes. When you get no reaction out of someone who's supposed to be laughing, you messed up.
The only thing I like about this is how much diversity there is in this anime, there is people of all different colors and races, which I don't see a lot in anime(I do like anime though). But the art is sadly less realistic looking than an actual Japanese anime. Plus, the story doesn't seem very good or interesting, just some person born with powers, that is used in a lot of shows.
And now for the last item. Neo Yokio, or should I say "The Jaden Smith Anime", is apparently this new Japanese-American animated series co-produced by Netflix and animation studios Studio Deen and Production I.G. What a horrible attempt at parodying anime. I initially didn't care for the show since it didn't fit my preferences and I had other stuff I was interested in like Fate/Grand Order, but after seeing all the overwhelmingly NEGATIVE reviews for the show, I had to see what they had to say. I have yet to actually see it for myself, but I already know everything wrong with this show. The production value is really low in terms of animation, voice acting and casting, dialogue and script, etc. Speaking of casting, let me repeat that JADEN SMITH, the same guy who was the most try-hard loser actor in his role for the movie After Earth, plays THE MAIN CHARACTER! The main character, named Kaz Kaan, is an absolute monotonic and unlikable rich boy who's apparently born with ...more

There are adult cartoons out there like South Park, Rick and Morty, and Bojack Horseman that use their profanity to tackle major adult issues and make you think about important topics. On the other hand, there are adult cartoons like Big Mouth that just use shock value and nothing else. I hate shows like this because they put a bad stigma on adult animation as a whole. There are tons of talented, creative writers out there who put loads of effort into their shows and then you have effortless crap like this that lowers the reputation of the entire medium.
This is easily not only one of the worst Netflix original series of all time, but probably one of the worst adult cartoons and cartoons in general of all time! (This next sentence is copied and pasted from my respective comment on the Worst Cartoons of 2017 list) You know, it's fine for adult shows to have satirical content that categorize into a wide array of highly sensitive and controversial subjects. However, Netflix doesn't seem to know that America (might as well throw the whole world into this as well since cultural barriers won't stop people from other countries from hating this show) has standards when it comes to creating these types of shows. Everywhere from the horrid production value in terms of the shoddy animation and voice acting to the show essentially being child pornography passed off as an "adult cartoon" pretty much cements that this will go down as Netflix's biggest blunder in its company's history. I could care less about Death Note (2017) or The Magic School ...more
I thought SMFA was the worst cartoon ever until I heard of this. The art looks hideous and even worse than The Problem Solverz. The show isn't funny and is just gross, why a show about kids puberty? That is disgusting, thank god I never watched this piece of trash. Worst cartoon ever, Netflix sucks nowadays.
I watched the trailer. If this is what I'm supposed to expect of Netflix in the future, I will drop my subscription for Hulu and Crunchyroll.
As long that Dreamworks keeps their bad cartoons off of Cartoon network, I'll be fine. I don't want a Shrek cartoon making CN even worse than it then it is.
It's not just that, but they turn not good dreamworks movies into a piece of CRAP!
The only good DreamWorks show on Netflix is She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.

I got a lot more out of Netflix when I was able to explore international catalogs and find titles I actually wanted to watch that weren't on American Netflix.
Vpns also work for me. I use the VPN to watch The Backyardigans on korean netflix sometimes.
Imagine if it was dear black people.