Netflix has rapidly become a ubiquitous part of nearly all of our lives, with its incredibly
deep, constantly shifting, streaming catalog of movies and television series.
Usually, the phrase "there's something for everyone" is mere hyperbole, but not in the
case of Netflix, which absolutely has something for you whether you're a fan of extreme horror,
an actual toddler, or anything in between.
Of course, with such an extensive selection, there's bound to be some content that's a
bit problematic.
Whether it's the material itself, the production's background, or inappropriate scenes, Netflix
has put up a surprising amount of material that's drawn controversy for one reason or
another.
Here's a look at some of Netflix's most controversial offerings.
13 Reasons Why
When 13 Reasons Why debuted in 2017, it immediately became a lightning rod for controversy.
The story picks up after high schooler Hannah Baker takes her own life, leaving behind a
series of cassette tapes that details the reasons for her actions.
Via flashbacks, the show depicts disturbing instances of assault, bullying, and Hannah's
own final moments.
Despite its seemingly self-contained premise, the series was picked up for a second season,
providing a fresh round of controversy in 2018.
The new episodes' more problematic scenes include an explicit depiction of a young man's
assault by another man, an incident that nearly prompts a school shooting.
To its credit, Netflix has added content warnings before every episode.
There's also now a companion series, Beyond the Reasons, to encourage discussions of the
issues the show presents.
But some continue to label it mere exploitation.
Blue is the Warmest Color
2013 French drama Blue Is the Warmest Color won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival,
despite drawing controversy for its shockingly graphic, seven-minute long lesbian love scene.
Comments from lead actresses Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux concerning the film's production,
and director Abdellatif Kechiche's reaction to them, have only added to the controversy.
In a Daily Beast interview, Exarchopoulos and Seydoux praised Kechiche as a genius.
But they also called the making of the film "horrible" and insisted that neither would
work with him again, with Seydoux saying,
"In America, we’d all be in jail."
Kechiche then took his stars to task for their comments, even threatening to take them to
court.
The film is undeniably brilliant, but with this context, it's tough not to see its more
demanding scenes in a new light.
Atypical
Building a wacky sitcom around a main character with high-functioning autism is nothing if
not tricky.
Atypical has its heart in the right place, but it also hits every stumbling block along
the way.
It can be forgiven for failing to put together a complete and accurate picture of the condition,
as there are far too many variations along the spectrum for one character to embody them
all.
But some have taken the show to task for attempting to play up the condition for laughs, while
still failing to be insightful, or funny.
"I'm doing research on how to steal a woman and Bailey is the perfect test subject because
she's a skank."
Outlets like Huffington Post and Salon have slapped the show with labels ranging from
"stereotypical" to "offensive."
Creator Robia Rashid and her team have also inspired criticism for failing to consult
any actual autistic people.
But the series seems to have found its fanbase, as Netflix has renewed it for a second season;
perhaps with a little course correction, it can become the shining example of mainstream
representation that the autism community was hoping for.
For now, it's just more of this:
"Bazinga."
Love
Gaspar Noé seems to live to provoke controversy.
The mind behind such famously challenging cinematic experiments as Enter the Void and
Irreversible, Noe used his 2015 film Love to tell the fairly simple story of the birth,
life, and death of a romantic relationship.
But Noé being Noé, he told it in a fashion that's anything but simple.
Specifically, he included unsimulated lovemaking and shot it all in 3D.
In case you're wondering, yes, there is an explosive shot that takes full advantage of
the 3D format.
"No, God!"
"No, God, please no!"
It's a supremely silly moment in what is otherwise a rather serious and grounded film.
Critics generally agreed that Love was underwhelming, self-indulgent and strangely un-erotic.
Even so, it's without a doubt the closest thing you'll find to hardcore content on Netflix.
If that's your thing.
We're not judging.
Big Mouth
Netflix has generally fared quite well with its original animated offerings, with titles
like BoJack Horseman and F is for Family soaking up critical acclaim despite their adult themes
and humor.
But with Big Mouth, they took a considerable risk.
An examination of puberty, the show leans heavily on vulgarity and gross-out humor.
While some critics have found it to be sharp, funny and engaging, others have deemed its
utter commitment to nastiness a bridge too far.
The criticism ranges from supposed confusion over whether the show is aimed at children,
to its alleged liberal agenda, and sideways references to homosexuality and things.
The series has also managed to draw ire for casting Jenny Slate, a white actress, as the
voice of a black character.
But despite all of the brouhaha, the first season was a significant hit with viewers,
and Netflix will be back with more for season 2.
"So, did you guys hear the news?"
Nymphomaniac
Professional provocateur Lars Von Trier's Nymphomaniac arrived in two feature-length
volumes.
It's the story of a woman recounting her devastating romantic history to a seemingly sympathetic
older man after she's brutally beaten.
Nymphomaniac is not so much titillating as it is psychologically uncomfortable.
Of course, it's the lovemaking scenes that stirred up the most controversy, causing the
film to be banned in multiple countries.
But if it's eroticism you're looking for, you won't find it here.
Nymphomaniac is an unforgiving portrait of how its main character's compulsions inevitably
ruin her life and the lives of nearly everyone she comes into contact with.
And sadly, there's no redemption to be found in its jaw-dropping ending.
The Push
Netflix's original special The Push stars English mentalist Derren Brown, who wowed
viewers with a viral video in which he demonstrated the seeming ability to literally put thoughts
into people's heads.
This involved convincing actor Simon Pegg that he had always wanted a red BMX bike as
a child.
I don't know what's going on. What's my name? He's going to have me in a pickle jar by 2.
I know it
But in The Push, he enlists the help of over 70 actors to attempt to put a very different
kind of idea into the mind of an unsuspecting mark.
The actors guide an ordinary man named Chris through a series of increasingly bizarre situations.
Ultimately Chris must decide, under intense pressure, whether to push another man from
the top of a tall building.
Brown isn't actually trying to get Chris to commit murder, just to convince him of the
idea.
But that's a distinction that walks a very fine line between bizarre prank and psychological
torture.
The Paperboy
2012's The Paperboy is the kind of quirky, tonally challenged film that might have come
and gone in limited release with few having noticed, despite the presence of bankable
stars Nicole Kidman, Matthew McConaughey, and Zac Efron.
Though it features stylish direction from Lee Daniels, this melodramatic thriller is
kind of a mess and mostly unmemorable, except for for one truty weird scene.
After Efron suffers a jellyfish sting, Kidman attempts to alleviate the pain by urinating
on him.
And that may not even be the film's most disturbing scene, thanks to the bizarre prison hanky-panky
between Kidman and John Cusack.
But it's just not every day that you get to see major movie stars peeing on each other,
and that was pretty much all anyone could talk about leading up to the film's release.
"I don't even know what I expected"
Step Sisters
Netflix's acquisition of Step Sisters, a topical exploration of race on college campuses from
Dear White People writer Chuck Hayward and Master of None's Lena Waithe, seemed like
a no-brainer.
But the movie's central premise, in which a black college senior is tasked with teaching
a bunch of disgraced white sorority sisters to step, sparked controversy before it even
debuted.
The film's creators have taken issue with Step Sisters being pigeonholed as a "cultural
appropriation comedy."
Waithe has pointed out that it has a high degree of self-awareness and that
"Culture is meant to be appreciated and explored by everyone."
Many critics have also panned the film for the more conventional crimes of awkward plotting,
recycled tropes, and dull dialogue.
At a time when race relations is a hot topic in the United States, it seems unlikely that
anyone involved in the production could have failed to foresee the flap that it would cause.
White Girl
Writer/director Elizabeth Wood leaned on a couple of very specific influences for her
2016 indie film White Girl: writer Harmony Korine and director Larry Clark's 1995 provocative
Kids, and her own past as a hard-partying girl from the Midwest attending college in
New York.
White Girl is concerned with matters of power and control, as fresh-faced protagonist Leah
loses both as she delves deeper into a lifestyle of illicit drugs and casual relationships.
After the film's debut at the Sundance Film Festival, Wood was accused of playing to the
exploitation crowd in order to shoulder her way into Hollywood.
In an interview with Vogue, she responded by saying,
"It's interesting to me that sexuality upsets people more than talking about race, or privilege,
or gender."