10 Things Everyone Hates About Modern Movies
4. The "Netflix Original Aesthetic"
Obviously it would be ridiculous to say that all Netflix Original movies look bad - Roma and Mank would certainly say otherwise - but there is nevertheless a tendency for direct-to-Netflix films to adhere to a frustratingly homogenised visual style.
This is because Netflix actually publishes an enforced house style for their Originals projects, which must be shot on a prescribed list of 4K cameras with certain standards for framing, aspect ratio, colour grading, and so on.
While this can be a good thing for ensuring a consistent professional standard across their projects, it also doesn't necessarily leave much room for experimentation and creativity.
Though Netflix presumably bends the rules on films they purchase, their original comedy films in particular often look overlit, flatly framed, and basically just "clean" to a fault, not entirely unlike a YouTube short produced by some talented amateur filmmakers.
It's often something that more casual audiences can't quite put their finger on, but they know the Netflix Original aesthetic when they see it, and it's so often inferior to the results which can be produced outside of those boundaries.