Reviews of Netflix’s Home Run Derby telecast are one-sided
· Yahoo Sports
Netflix’s maiden Home Run Derby telecast came with plenty of hype. The field of participants included stars both familiar (Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber) and new (Junior Caminero, Munetaka Murakami), from the east (Ben Rice, Willson Contreras ) and midwest (Jac Caglianone, Jordan Walker).
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In the end, the July 13 exhibition at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia was remarkable not for who was or wasn’t on the field, but how the streaming giant mastered the details.
Judging by the early reviews of the event, mastery remains out of reach.
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Some online commentators criticized Netflix’s maximalist camera cuts, which seemed bound by law not to hold a single shot for more than 2 seconds at a time.
Despite the many angles available to the director, a number of viewers noted that the act of the bat hitting the ball was often ignored.
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“If a camera angle doesn’t show me the bat coming off the ball, I don’t want to see that angle,” Jason Foster of MLB.com wrote on Twitter/X.
“Netflix knows the worst part of the Derby is watching that moment of impact where the bat meets the ball,” Pirates beat writer Alex Stumpf wrote on Twitter/X. “The people yearn for close ups of faces and then cuts to balls mid-flight.”
Some criticized the new format, which eliminated the countdown timer for the first time in 11 years.
Others criticized the lack of numbers on the screen. Besides each player’s remaining number of swings and the distance (in feet) of each home run, the cameras and commentators were left to tell the story.
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Others criticized Netflix’s choice of entertainment personalities — Jimmy Tatro, Will Ferrell and Luke Wilson — who warmed up the broadcast.
“Oh my God, the three guys doing supposed comedic commentary on the Home Run Derby player intros are the least funny people to be given such a national stage, without question,” longtime Atlanta Braves beat writer David O’Brien wrote on Twitter/X. “They. Are. Brutal. Who wrote these godawful lines for them? Embarrassing, Netflix. Utterly embarrassing.”
Considering many fans of the Home Run Derby likely subscribed to Netflix just to watch the one event, it was an underwhelming debut.