## Mass drubbings
After a year of critical drubbings for the corporation, another mauling will barely warrant a second glance. A fortnight ago, heavily promoted Naomi Watts psychological thriller Gypsy arrived to titters and head-shakes.

Not only was the charismatic Watts horribly miscast as a sexually repressed mother and wife – worse yet, the supposedly steamy plot, in which she slow-dallied with Sophie Cookson's quirky rock chick, had all the unbearable tension of a weekend Snakes and Ladders marathon. 
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/on-demand/2017/06/30/TELEMMGLPICT000133425661-large_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqEPGeX_Yp7hmXpGUPDpSlJm4Iinu-qSa05ARoa3j0-xo.jpeg
[Source](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/on-demand/2017/06/30/TELEMMGLPICT000133425661-large_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqEPGeX_Yp7hmXpGUPDpSlJm4Iinu-qSa05ARoa3j0-xo.jpeg)
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## HBO wars
As I waded through the series with a super-sized wine glass – drinking utensil of choice for middle class types with a hidden deviancy – I couldn't help recall Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos's 2013 assertion that "The goal is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us".

In a 12 months in which Sarandos's company has assailed us with controversially "white-washed" Marvel adaptation Iron Fist, toxically self-satisfied Sophia Amoruso biopic Girlboss and  soggy doc The Keepers, his words ring increasingly hollow. HBO will this weekend unveil season seven of Game of Thrones and it feels as if half the planet is on tenterhooks. Which of Netflix's current roster could garner one tenth of that anticipation? 

**Netflix is just another furnisher of low-brow, take-it-or-leave-it escapism – a one-stop shlock stop no different from American networks such as ABC and NBC or, this side of the pond, Sky or Channel 5. That may be a smart way of shoring up its subscriber base, in the short term at least. But if Netflix is just another font of banality, is it really worth a a hard-earned six quid every month?**

@mindhunter
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