Netflix has revolutionized how we consume our favorite shows. It has provided us with high-quality, original content for nearly three years running. Thankfully, in crafting ambitious series, the streaming service has proven it values one of the longest-standing traditions of television production: the opening credits.
Title sequences in television have long functioned as mini-advertisements for the shows themselves, reminding you of the sitcom’s plot (The Brady Bunch: “Here’s the story / Of a lovely lady”), the cable drama’s mood (The Sopranos: glimpses of a mob boss’s commute via the Lincoln Tunnel) and the genre show’s ever-changing mythology (Battlestar Galactica: “The Cylons were created by man …”). A show’s iconicity can be boosted by main title design. Where would The Simpsons be without couch gags and infinitely malleable, Springfield-touring titles?
Netflix‘s original programming understands the branding potential of a strong set of opening credits. Look no further than Orange is the New Black‘s instantly classic (if immediately polarizing) credit sequence, which features faces of female inmates as Regina Spektor’s “You’ve Got Time” plays near-interminably for a full minute and a half.
Yet it was in the past year that Netflix proved once and for all it has not only some of the best shows on the air, but also the most arresting set of main titles in the online video on demand business.
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