RAYMOND BURR IS THE SUN AROUND WHICH NETFLIX REVOLVES—BUT NO ONE AT NETFLIX SEEMS TO KNOW WHY
Courtesy of Dangerous Minds, by Martin Schneider
If you haven’t seen Alexis Madrigal’s excellent piece at the Atlantic parsing the inner workings of Netflix, you should definitely do it right away, it’s that good. You’ll learn that Netflix has 76,897 “micro-genres”—you know, “genres” like “Mistaken-Identity Feel-Good Suburban-Dysfunction Slashers Based on Books Set in Australia/NZ From the 1940s For Ages 0 to 2” and the like—so many of them, in fact, that their eventual scheme can only be nefarious. Madrigal and his Atlantic colleagues even generated a “Netflix-Genre Generator” so you can whip up your own (it generated the one I just mentioned). It’s all a lot of fun.
Madrigal also discovered the unusual centrality of the long-deceased actor Raymond Burr, who is known primarily for three roles: Perry Mason, Ironside, and the malevolent neighbor in Rear Window.
Here’s a list of Netflix’s top actors—it won’t quite be the list you expect.
Raymond Burr
Bruce Willis
George Carlin
Jackie Chan
Andy Lau
Robert De Niro
Barbara Hale
Clint Eastwood
Gene Autry
Note that Barbara Hale is mainly known for her work as Della Street on Perry Mason. Hm.
Of those 76,897 micro-genres, Netflix includes the following:
Mysteries starring Raymond Burr
Movies starring Raymond Burr
Dramas starring Raymond Burr
Thrillers starring Raymond Burr
Suspenseful Movies starring Raymond Burr
Suspenseful Dramas starring Raymond Burr
Cerebral Thrillers starring Raymond Burr
Cerebral Dramas starring Raymond Burr
Cerebral Suspenseful Dramas starring Raymond Burr
Cerebral Mysteries starring Raymond Burr
Cerebral Suspenseful Movies starring Raymond Burr
Cerebral Movies starring Raymond Burr
Murder Mysteries starring Raymond Burr
Understated Movies starring Raymond Burr
Understated Suspenseful Dramas starring Raymond Burr
Understated Suspenseful Movies starring Raymond Burr
Understated Mysteries starring Raymond Burr
Understated Thrillers starring Raymond Burr
Understated Dramas starring Raymond Burr
It’s enough Raymond Burr to last you a lifetime—or at least one snowy weekend.
Madrigal asked Todd Yellin, identified as “Netflix’s VP of Product and the man responsible for the creation of Netflix’s system,” why Raymond Burr is such a central concept in the Netflix universe. As Madrigal writes, “On the other hand, no one — not even Yellin — is quite sure why there are so many altgenres that feature Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale. It’s inexplicable with human logic. It’s just something that happened.”
My theory? It’s kind of obvious when you put all the pieces together: Skynet is addicted to Perry Mason!
Here’s Raymond Burr’s screen test for Perry Mason with another actress playing the part of Della:
