This thing could do a billion streams and it doesn’t change one simple fact: originals are only an asset if they elevate the overall content quality expectations of subscribers. If you stream a disappointment a billion times, all you’ve managed to do is disappoint a billion viewers. You know, like “Cloverfield Paradox”. It’s a brilliant opportunity…until subscribers actually watch it.

Allowing the Netflix original features brand to become shorthand for “pale imitations, test screening failures, and Sundance rejects” will ultimately prove to be highly corrosive and extremely expensive to correct.