More and more viewers today are cutting the cord on their cable plans and switching to streaming platforms for their content.

The disruption caused by streaming platforms has led to more original content in production than ever before. Original content is taking up 85 percent of Netflix’s spending, coming out to about $8 billion.

Netflix released its new limited-series “Maniac” this month. It stars A-List celebrities Jonah Hill and Emma Stone, who is an Academy Award winner and was the highest-paid actress of 2017. “Maniac” is a psychological drama and thriller where subjects are admitted to a new high-risk trial for a “miracle drug,” with capabilities to heal all psychological problems.

Transcending time, space and genre, the series offers a glimpse into the minds of patients struggling with mental illness, as well as how they cope when given a drug that reinvents not only themselves but the universe surrounding them.

With an 80 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of Oct. 7, the show has caught the attention of the masses.

The series is just another example of Netflix’s expanding original content. The streaming platform has generated $27.4 billion in global revenue as of 2018. While Netflix’s competitors Hulu and Amazon Video have not come close to that number, they’re not too far behind. All three platforms are transitioning to original, content-based offerings, which is helping change the way we consume media.

The streaming industry has also established a new way for people to “binge watch” television series. Grant McCracken, a cultural anthropologist, conducted a survey in 2014 and discovered that eight out of 10 viewers agreed that binge-watching was more enjoyable than watching a single episode of a series. Blessed with not having to wait a week between episodes, McCracken concluded that viewers crave long narratives that the best shows of today are able to provide. Even though “Maniac” has generated significant buzz, the way people access the series may influence our perspective on the series.

While Netflix has a strong hold on streaming consumers, other corporations are looking to make moves for a piece of the action. Disney is ending their movie-output deal with Netflix in 2019 and will instead air its content on a streaming platform of its own, ready to debut next year. Disney — the biggest media corporation in the world today — has the rights to its original films, Marvel’s films and television shows, as well as Star Wars, constituting some of Netflix’s most-viewed content.

With a variety of streaming platforms to choose from an original series to watch, the way individuals watch television has grown and evolved alongside the industry, providing new and exciting changes for how consumers tune in. We should expect to see more series such as “Maniac” from these streaming platforms, but think about the way you experience the content before making an opinion.

Nick Friedland is a television, radio and film major. His column appears biweekly in Pulp. You can email him at nsfriedl@syr.edu.

Published on October 8, 2018 at 10:15 pm