If everybody hates how washed out, dark and low contrast most shows are nowadays then why havent they changed it?

They have no incentive to change it

Watch Plurbuis. It’s the total opposite. All bright colours

Because people will still watch it in the millions. Their “complaining” means nothing.

Because people still watch it.

It's not as prevalent as you may think, most high level productions still look great (look at the best picture noms this year). The issue is when you get into streaming productions, and I think it's mostly because of vfx sets/backgrounds. It takes a lot of planning to match and composite real lighting with virtual lighting and you have to make decisions while shooting, which means less options to tweak the cgi background, so they keep it flat. As depth maps and relighting become more advanced this will usher in a new era of contrast

One Piece has fun bright colors

Voting with your wallet is the only way to enact actual change. This applies to everything, not just television.

Because most people don’t care and a lot of the times, it does actually look good on a high end tv.

Listnook complaining =/= "everyone hates". Listnook is a very insular community and it's been proven time and time again that popular opinion on Listnook is often not aligned with general sentiment.

because it is cheaper on multiple levels

The comments you read online make up an insignificant fraction of the world and should never be used as scale for reference. The internet is an echo chamber inside an echo chamber.

Because the average person will watch it anyway

Because not everyone does. You are arguing from a false premise 

It isn’t always shows, part of it is the devices and distribution methods. You are watching compressed content that gains additional losses in transmit based on network issues, device issues, etc. The way the content is mastered it looks and sounds fine, but since streaming it has become much MUCH harder to master a film for distribution. HDR also allows creators to film content that looks so much better, but when compressed back to SDR can crush huge portions of the image detail. There isn’t an easy answer short of government standard regulations that will solve the issue in a way most folks would consider actually “fixed”. Everything else is a workaround to try to make it as good as possible.

It’s not a constant complaint, you’re just in spaces that complain about it a lot.

I mean... I'm currently watching One Piece, Invincible, and Monarch. First two are very vibrant and bright, and Monarch despite its subject matter, uses colour and contrast well. Can't really think of anything new I've watched recently that was dark and colourless. What's making you think they haven't listened?

Saving money, it always comes down to saving companies money.

>people are always complaining There you go. People who complain are always the loudest but that doesn't make them the majority. I personally like this look.

***it's NOT "everybody"*** it's only a tiny fraction of viewers on social media who gripe about these things nonstop you're asking a business to change practices due to some YouTube influencers whose marketing gimmick is to insult everything as much as possible

One problem is the vast array of setups people have at home. A lot of you need to adjust your settings and find what works for you I do agree some shows are too dark but a lot of you are also watching on settings that aren’t optimized Don’t get started on volume. I never ride levels, I adjusted mine and it’s been fine for several years. But everyone’s convinced themselves that it’s the mixing that’s the problem but, I hate to sound arrogant, they don’t know how the mixing process even works

lol I’ve heard the opposite about high saturation etc. usually people complaining about this will say something along the lines of “every show and movie is like this” when in fact it’s not every show and movie. The same people that complain there’s nothing good or original but never branch out and give new things a try or even go back and watch things from the last 5 decades. It’s nonsense.

If everyone hates AI, why do companies keep shoving AI down our gullets?

It’s not that the shows look bad, it’s that you have a budget tv. They’re calibrated for OLED and other high end panels. They look great on more expensive TVs.

It’s crazy.

i think a major issue is compression, streaming and shit has compressed Good audio/video into a mushy mess

The real answer isn't that it's cheaper or that people will watch it anyways. It's that everybody doesn't hate it. The vast majority of people aren't complaining and either don't care or think it looks good. There's always going to be people on both sides, thinking it looks good or looks bad. The showrunners are going to do whatever they think looks good.

“Everytime?” Really? Every time?

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Dark shots are more forgiving with CGI. Which saves them money. I've never watched Game of Thrones but was reading that they did that huge battle at the end of the show in the dark because it obviously saves them money. People where really pissed at the time, because they couldnt see jack shit.

Watching 4k HDR on 2000s HD Ready TV: why is this so dark?

i hate when i cant see what is happening in a show

Because “people complaining about it on Listnook” is not “everybody”

I am not complaining. So i dispute your premise.

More people should learn how to calibrate their screens. Television shows are also best viewed on a calibrated television, rather than an iPad, laptop or phone screen. Not saying those can't be good quality screens, but it's not exactly the intended format.

people still watch those movies and they saved money and time during production

Because most people don't care.

I switched to OLED and now everything is beautiful. Also, most media will be overly compressed over the internet. There isn't anything they or you can do.

I’ve never heard anyone say that outside of niche tv/cinema forums/subs

I just started Mike and nick and nick and Alice on Hulu. Looked dark and terrible, as you said. Switched to Disney plus about 10 minutes in and it looked MUCH better. I've heard of streamers having different settings or whatever, but it was the first time I actually witnessed it.

Fallout looks amazing. I also liked how Young Sherlock was shot. Just two recent examples.

Sorry do you need a new tv?

Because for some reason the entertainment industry does what they want now and they don’t listen to feedback. It’s ego on some level…acting like they can’t fail.

There are some movies that are so dark I can barely see the faces.

My info from watching Corridor Crew: It's a cost decision, not quality. The lighting allows more options in post-production, so effects planning can be eliminated and decided after filming, making a shorter schedule for the more expensive people.

The people in charge are running financial scams, not tv or movie making companies.

TV shows mostly look great on my setups, I haven't heard of all these people complaining about it either. Try calibrating your displays properly and the shows will look the way they're intended.

Because everyone does it so there's no alternative.

Streamed content over a questionable network on a $200 Black Friday special looks like junk, yes

it is honestly infuriating how they keep chasing this fake gritty realism by nuking the color palette. producers think we all have five thousand dollar oled setups in pitch black rooms when most of us are just trying to watch something on a normal screen with a bit of sunlight. they are so obsessed with looking like a prestige drama that they forget movies used to actually have a visual identity. now everything just looks like it was dragged through a gray filter and forgotten in the basement. it is lazy and makes the art look completely indistinguishable.

are you guys bitching about a hue? f*** off.

I always thought that the current trend of dark movies/episodes was too help hide cgi flaws/cut down on effect budget.

I'm more upset over c*** audio balance, but both things suck.

The comments are far in arrears.

The pipe is built and laid we are kinda stuck with it for a bit till there is a reason to change it

Because most people are idiots

I think posts like this should be required to cite actual examples.

Lots of filming is in digital and it does suffer with dark scenes and shadows. As good as a lot of smart tv's are(full UHD+4K)the dark scenes are annoying. Have you noticed how well a film from the 50s and 60s looks good on today's tv's (filmed in technocolour) like Cleopatra and other biblical films because dark scenes where filmed with overhead dimmed lights that gave the impression of darkness but you had just enough light to see what was going on. People like yourself have been complaining for years about this subject but film makers are not listening.

The attitude of the people who make TV is more or less one of "People are stupid and don't know what they really want; they'll like whatever we tell them to."

Started watching something on Peacock the other night and I legit thought my TV was broken. Had to crank the brightness up just to see peoples faces. Everything looks like it was filmed through a dirty window now and I dont get why they think thats a good look

Because we aren’t artists.

Generally, I don’t think it looks that bad…? When something has ultra bright colors it feels dated to me like it’s from the 90s or an auteur deliberately doing something different.

The same reason everything is going to shit. No one will stop paying for it so why change it? It's infuriating. And this applies to so much that is shit right now.

My understanding is it's a cost-cutting measure. And we live in a capitalist society, so profitable and c**** will always be better than good. Essentially things are shot to look very dull and generic with muted colors so that it's easy to color correct and match scenes in post-production. It also makes VFX cheaper because they don't have to account for unusual or dynamic lighting and colors. Also, to save money a lot of the whole process has been turned into "gig economy" bullshit, so usually when shooting the director won't even know what the VFX will actually be because that team isn't hired yet and will be whatever overseas company gives the cheapest bid. Meanwhile production has to continue anyway because they're only going to be shooting for a few weeks so they don't have to keep cast and crew under long term contracts. The end is stale garbage, but it's c**** to make and people watch it anyway.

For a lot of shows, it hides shitty/c**** cgi. Tons of shows that that you would never expect have quite a bit of it. Companies wont spend to build sets any more, but they also don’t want to pay for competent vfx.

Money

The people behind it don't value your opinion, the people who make financial decisions don't want to spend money to fix it.

I hope at some point the directors, editors, and cinematographers will get the message. You have to also understand that with modern digital production, they feel they have such a wide dynamic range in terms of being able to color grade the footage after the fact, that everything is fine to just shoot in low light, "natural" light, and that directors no long have to flood a scene with tons of light because of older digital sensors and film before that which had troubles with low light scenes. And also, the editors that finalize the shots, they typically work on really expensive refrence monitors that also have high dynamic range, and so the final results that they see isn't anything like what the majority of home viewers see on our TVs. Keep making noise, they're bound to listen some day! Just yesterday I saw a guy post a reel where he re-color graded the new Moana live action trailer to be more bright and vibrant, and how everyone in the comments were like "send this to Disney NOW! They need to know that we prefer THIS compared to the dull trailer they put out!"

Same reason tv shows and movies use so much shaky cam that everyone hates. Film school hacks are desperately chasing artistry by formula because they lack actual creativity. Viewers don't get a vote on it

Because people don't actually hate it.

It takes more effort and imagination to make shit look good.

It's cheaper

It’s the streaming effect , they don’t change it because it keeps costs down

They need better tvs, it looks fine