When Netflix switched from mailing DVDs to streaming on your television, phone, or tablet, people were thrilled. Talks of cutting the cord with cable grew when apps started streaming television shows. It was an easy decision to make, but as time went on and apps took over, people noticed discrepancies.
Wasn’t this episode longer? What happened to the second half of the scene? Was that the original line? People were asking these questions and more when they streamed their favorite comfort shows. Suddenly, watching Season 5, Episode 3 of Friends wasn’t so comforting because your brain picked up on minor differences found on the streaming version.
Missing scenes
Photo Credit: Canva
These changes were so baffling that people took to any social media platform they could to find out if they were losing their minds. Some even recorded evidence to show the difference between the DVD and the streamed version. Quickly, it became evident that avid television watchers were not misremembering. Things had been changed, or, in many cases, completely cut out. It’s one of the factors driving some people to buy DVDs instead of relying on streaming.
But streaming services aren’t necessarily out to make you feel like you’re losing your grip on reality. Most of the time, there are logical reasons for the cuts and small changes. A content creator who goes by the name @aqua.fantasea on TikTok reveals his hypotheses for the changes.
You’re not crazy
“Personally, it makes me feel like I’m going crazy, but we’re not going crazy,” he says. “I’m going to give you a rundown of three main reasons this might be happening, and first up is the syndication squeeze. Back in the day, the episodes used to be like 22 minutes long, but when these shows got sold to local channels for reruns, those channels wanted more ad money. So literally they would shave off like two minutes of the episodes, acting like we will not notice. Sometimes these streaming sites get the chopped-up versions, so literally we’re missing like 10 percent of the show.”
Photo Credit: Canva
Later in the clip, he shares that music licensing for older shows only covered broadcast television. This means that when streaming services get the licensing for the show, it may not include licensing for the music, so it gets replaced with generic background music. His last speculation was that “the creators are just deleting scenes or episodes out of their show, because they simply just don’t want to face backlash.”
Streaming and tax breaks
In 2019, Disney launched Disney+ and media outlets immediately picked up on the warning Disney placed on older movies. The Independent wrote, “The newly launched Disney+ includes warning about ‘outdated cultural depictions’ for some of the studio’s films. Such warnings appear when users go to watch films such as Dumbo, Fantasia, Lady and the Tramp and The Jungle Book, all of which have been criticised for including racist imagery.”
HBO Max removed Gone with the Wind entirely for a short time, worried about sensitivities around the period piece. While some fans notice just a few minutes shaved off, some are noticing up to 20 minutes removed from movies, and entire episodes missing from series. Some of it could be to account for a reduced timeframe, like previously mentioned, but TikTok creator @moviegoodormoviebad points out that sometimes it’s to appeal to more advertisers.
According to Looper in 2023, the choice to remove some original shows from streaming services is due to tax breaks. The outlet writes, “In August 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery was hell-bent on cutting $3 billion in costs, a move that included layoffs, canning near-complete productions like ‘Scoob! Holiday Haunt’ and ‘Batgirl’ to rake in on tax writeoffs, and removing original content.”
So, it’s not that people are imagining missing episodes, scenes, or different lines. It’s a combination of the streaming industry, new cultural norms, and new understandings. Owning DVDs can help eliminate the frustration while also avoiding the inevitable license renewal snafu that pulls shows from streaming services.
