I'm watching the newest Netflix show, Shadow and Bone. It's YA fantasy, based on books. I read most of them and I have an opinion on them. Basically, the author used to have some nice ideas, but then it all devolved into typical teen girl fare.
But what Netflix does is so typical of what happens with shows and movies now. The main character in the books goes through this long period of being a fish out of water. An orphan girl suddenly becoming a powerful person, living in the royal palace. Everyone is superficial and a total backstabber, they make fun of her. They have gone through the same kind of rigorous training through abuse, but nobody tells her, so she feels she is worse than them.
Then in time she finds her place, and it turns out everyone else also felt those things.
In the show everyone, except like one girl, automatically accepts and loves her, but then mean people are... RACIST, because she is half their world's equivalent of Asian in the show (she was 100% white in the books).
Why do these people always, always trade universally understandable human emotions for in-your-face, comical Muh Racism? It's not like she would have suffered any less if they went with everyone being a catty bitch to her.
It almost feels like the creators don't understand human beings have feelings other than oppression. Like you can be lonely even if you are not coloured. You can be an outsider without having the gays. You can have limited opportunities without having a vagina.
But that's too complex for them. Too much thinking.
Netflix has been cashflow positive since last year.
The reason people don't care about net debt is because it's assumed the money they borrow will be sunk into capital assets (ie. the shows, or new studios, or other "one-time" costs), and those investments have been coming closer to paying for themselves every year (until last year, when they started making more than they cost).
Netflix's content is a fixed cost for the company. They need just enough new stuff to keep people from leaving every year, but they don't to add, say, another show for every million subscribers. It was only a matter of time before the math worked out in their favour, based on what they were posting for EBITDA.