Are TV series and films really getting dumber?

Recent interviews with Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Gus Van Sant, and Italian producer Carlo Degli Esposti suggest a trend toward simplifying narratives in streaming, Hollywood blockbusters, and Italian TV. Damon revealed Netflix requested action scenes upfront and multiple recap dialogues for their film The Rip. Van Sant told Le Monde that Hollywood no longer supports dramas, only lighter fare. Degli Esposti blamed later prime-time slots for dumbing down series scripts. However, these complaints are not new and apply only to certain productions. Affleck noted Netflix also streams complex series like Adolescence. The platform uses a "casual viewing" tag for content watched with divided attention, a practice predating streaming—exemplified by the 1982 series Police Squad!, which failed because audiences listened rather than watched. Quality series like The Pitt and Pluribus still succeed. Italian TV has long catered to a broad audience, as Silvio Berlusconi stated in 2004. Van Sant acknowledged that even Stanley Kubrick decades ago lamented audiences demanding easier content, yet exceptions like Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, Christopher Nolan's films, and intellectual horror prove complex works still thrive.