Netflix Party: could this group-watching tech gimmick be a lifesaver?
If, like me, you’ve been struggling to summon any sort of buoyancy this week, perhaps it’s worth thinking a couple of years ahead. At some point the coronavirus will be eradicated, and humanity will move on from a dark time changed. Great things can come from times of unbelievable hardship. For example, without the second world war we wouldn’t have the NHS.
The big advancement from this outbreak remains to be seen. It might be universal income. It might be a global blueprint for how to react more nimbly to a future outbreak. Then again it might just be the website Netflix Party. And if that’s the case, then maybe that isn’t so bad.
Netflix Party is a Chrome extension that allows users to chat while they watch the same film at the same time. You log in, share a viewing link with friends, choose one person to be in charge of picking what you watch and, as your chosen show plays out in the bulk of the screen, a chatroom pops up on the right-hand side. You can discuss the show with the people in your room, or argue, or flirt, or veer wildly offtangent because you’ve realised that you’ve picked an absolute dud to watch.
Right now, Netflix Party feels absolutely necessary. Self-quarantine has atomised us, and if this is the closest we can get to watching films and TV shows with our friends, then we’ll grab it with both hands. But then again, even if this wasn’t a time of enormous struggle, Netflix Party would be a terrific idea.
Because the biggest downside to this vast glut of non-linear content is that nobody watches the same thing at the same time any more. There are no more water cooler series, because everyone at the water cooler has to tiptoe around the fact that they might be a few episodes ahead of everyone else, and one stray spoiler slip might ruin it for everyone else. Television has always been a social pursuit, but this element has been lost in recent years.
Netflix Party isn’t a perfect remedy – take it from a decade-long liveblog veteran, watching and typing at the same time isn’t ideal – but it comes close. In the past I’ve tried watching films with faraway loved ones over the phone, and it was always a nightmare of botched schedules and mistimed cues. It was far more trouble than it was worth. But having an in-vision chatroom connected by a centrally controlled show makes things so much easier. It’s such a good idea that I wish it had existed a few years ago.
Imagine watching the penultimate Breaking Bad episode at the same time as a group of friends, all reacting in real time to every sucker-punch moment. Imagine watching the Red Wedding. Imagine watching the Fyre Festival documentary, for crying out loud. The Evian anecdote alone would melt the internet.
There’s so much about Netflix Party to get excited about. Especially now, when we’re all a few days away from going stir crazy from staring at the same four walls all day, this feels like a great gulp of clean oxygen. Sure, the novelty will probably wear off before long, just like it has with every other social network going. Semi-professional Netflix Party trolls might pop up, or Netflix Party influencers who’ve been paid on the sly to artificially increase the popularity of, say, Narcos.
But right now there’s something pleasingly pure about Netflix Party. It’ll never beat the enjoyment of watching a show with a big group of friends in the same room, but it’s the best any of us can do right now. It’s a lifesaver.