I finally noticed how Western shows changed after 2020

Went back to watch a season 1 from 2019 and the lighting, pacing, and dialogue felt totally different compared to the newer seasons on the same platform. Am I the only one who feels like streaming services shifted their whole production style after that year?

3 comments

3 Comments

evan_green521mo agoMost Upvoted

...and the lighting thing is what really got me when I started noticing it. I swear every show now has this weird flat, clinical look like it's being filmed in a doctor's office, you know? Like, back in 2019 they actually used shadows and warm tones to set the mood, but now everything is so bright and sterile it almost feels like a different medium. The pacing too, it's like every scene has to be either rushed through or stretched out to fit some algorithm instead of letting the story breathe naturally. I'm honestly shocked at how obvious the shift is once you compare them side by side.

wesley_jones1mo ago

Four years ago my landlord neighbor repainted his whole apartment complex the same flat beige as a rental car. Same thing. Someone decided that color and texture were too much trouble so now everything looks like they dipped it in oatmeal. You see this lighting thing everywhere now - grocery stores swap out warm bulbs for those blue white LEDs, restaurants paint over brick walls with flat gray, even my local bar switched to that surgical light setup. It's like we're slowly converting the whole world into a waiting room. The algorithms are just the same impulse in a different format. Smooth out all the rough edges until nothing casts a shadow anymore.

sage_green1mo ago

The lighting shift is the biggest tell that they're optimizing for mobile screens now since flat bright lighting reads better on a tiny phone display than moody shadows do. That algorithmic pacing you mentioned feels like they're literally editing for binge retention instead of letting a scene have any natural rhythm.