'It's killing me': Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen slammed for 'ridiculous' problem as viewers are forced to turn off
"At one point I gave up"
Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen is the number one series on Netflix – but not everyone has made it to the end, with one “ridiculous” problem causing some viewers to switch it off.
The new horror series, created by Haley Z. Boston (Brand New Cherry Flavour) and executive produced by Stranger Things’ Duffer Brothers, has quickly topped the streamer’s chart.
It follows Rachel (Camila Morrone), who can’t shake the feeling of dread after arriving at her fiancé’s parents’ house for their wedding.
It’s a creepy, gruesome story that goes in some unexpected directions – unfortunately, despite its success, viewers have a big criticism.
Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen is ‘too dark’
Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen mostly has a desaturated, shadowy look, not unlike Ozark and The Haunting of Hill House.
That isn’t necessarily a problem in itself, but it’s an issue when a series is so dark that people can’t see what’s happening without messing about with their TV settings.
“I watched the first 2 episodes today and the dark lighting is killing me,” one user wrote on Reddit.
“Tired of having to strain to watch shows. There’s moody and there’s too dark to make out what’s happening,” another complained. “Why the hell do they have to make some scenes as dark as they did… it’s ridiculous. Literally can’t see what’s happening,” a third commented.
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“Absolutely annoyed by how literally dark it is. I can barely make out faces, much less background. At one point I gave up, the screen was so dark all I could see was the reflection of pictures on the wall behind my sofa in the black TV screen,” a fourth shared.
“I had my computer on full brightness. It’s just made to be super dark and I hate when shows do that. I don’t mind ambient filters, but it was too much, you can barely see anything at times to make out what is happening,” a fifth added.
Why are TV shows so dark now?
Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen may be the most recent example, but plenty of other TV shows have been caused frustration with their lighting.
Take Game of Thrones; specifically, its much-anticipated ‘The Long Night’ episode, which caused worldwide complaints about the action being too hard to see.
The Wheel of Time, Silo, The Bad Batch, and even movies like Dune and The Batman have been criticised for the same thing.
Some Redditors suspect it’s a ploy to cover up shoddy visual effects. “My personal conspiracy theory is it’s cheaper on the CGI budget since you don’t need as much detail. You can get away with a lot more,” one wrote.
Others have speculated that modern shows aren’t being tailored to lesser technology. In short, if you don’t have a high-spec OLED TV, you’re fighting a losing battle.
In an interview with Vulture, cinematographer Shasta Spahn was asked why TV generally looks darker now.
“I don’t know why there’s this trend now to shoot extremely dark, but I think — I’m not going to name names — there are two sides to it,” she explained.
“There’s a version where people know what their exposure and balance is and they know how to make a scene look a certain way that has darkness technically. And then there’s the other side of it where people don’t know what they’re doing.
“They’re making it look really dark. They have no light in the actor’s eyes. They have no separation between the foreground and the background, and it’s unskilled and looks horrible.”
