Netflix is taking a step away from its well-known drop series format and turning to the traditional weekly television format for its new docuseries.
Vox and Netflix broke the news in March that they came together to create a topic-driven documentary series exploring different values, social concepts and facts of our daily lives. The first season currently has 12 episodes that have discussed topics such as diets, K-pop, extraterrestrial life and marijuana acceptance.
In an article about the show Vox said, “‘Explained’ is a project we’ve been working toward for a long time. When we launched Vox a bit over four years ago, we did so with a few beliefs. One was that important, slow-changing topics were often neglected in favor of fast-breaking stories. As the old journalism adage goes, the first three letters of ‘news’ spell ‘new.’ But we believed there was a need for more deep reporting on the questions, forces and ideas that rarely find themselves in the bright light of the daily news cycle.”
What makes the show so appealing compared to other docuseries is the short delivery. Most shows with a similar format run close to an hour in runtime, but each episode of “Explained” is no longer than 20 minutes.
The shorter format of the show allows viewers to stay engaged and follow along with facts and stories without getting lost in extraneous details. Executives at Vox said the timing and pacing of the show are very deliberate and planned.
Executives said online that they only wanted to take as much time as the viewer would need and not any more. They posted on the Vox website that the focus was to help make sense of the big topics that keep appearing faster and in larger quantities.
On May 23, the first three episodes of the series premiered online and investigated the racial wealth gap, genetics and designer DNA and the idea of monogamy in relationships.
“Explained” discusses the topic of racial disparities and brings to light how racial inequality is still a huge issue in America. While there have been movements to try to correct stereotypes and create equality, recent news events such as unfair arrests and wrongful shootings have shown that the treatment and reception of people of color is still not on the level of their counterparts.
When it comes to economic levels and wealth, the gap is even more abundant. In the episode titled “The Racial Wealth Gap,” the creators attempt to answer the question: Why?
In the episode “Monogamy,” the show displays various images and video clips from pop culture that represent the accepted social construct of romance and the perfect relationship. The rest of the episode delves into the history of relationships and human connections as well as the historical context of monogamy. Throughout the episode couples and relationship experts give their advice on relationships and love.
Each episode of the show delivers information in a compelling and poignant way that keeps you engaged no matter the topic.
The most recent episode premiered July 18 and covered the topic of increased use and prevalence of marijuana.
Netflix has plans with BuzzFeed to create another weekly uploaded docuseries called “Follow This,” which will explore the behind the scenes of BuzzFeed News before and after they report.
A new episode of “Explained” is uploaded to Netflix every Wednesday.
