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Entertainment

25th Feb 2023

Netflix is bringing back one of the best things about DVDs

Stephen Porzio

Good news for movie lovers

Originally introduced on Laserdiscs as part of an added incentive for people to buy movies to watch at home, audio commentaries later carried over onto the more compact DVD and Blu-Ray formats, becoming a much-loved feature.

Typically, the feature allows viewers to watch a film alongside a feature-length commentary with its director, some of its cast members or others involved with the film, in which they discuss how the picture got made.

Generally considered a great resource for cinephiles or people who want to work in the industry to learn more about the art of filmmaking, it does feel as though audio commentaries have become less popular in recent years with the emergence of streaming services. After all, very few movies released on streamers include the option of watching along with a commentary track.

That said, Netflix is bringing the feature back for one of its most popular titles, a movie that already rewards multiple watches anyway: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. And in keeping with the streamer’s way of doing business, it has put its own unique spin on the format.

Instead of being able to access the option on the Netflix platform, the streaming giant released a feature-length commentary with Glass Onion’s writer-director Rian Johnson on its podcast Watching With…

“Fire up that second screen and enjoy my jibber jabbing! My commentary track for Glass Onion is now available on fine podcasting platforms,” the filmmaker wrote on Twitter.

At the start of the podcast episode, Johnson does a countdown, giving people the opportunity to sync up his commentary to when they hit play on the Netflix movie. After this, they can watch Glass Onion, with the director discussing the film in their ear.

While Netflix has released episodes of Watching With… for some of its other movies (Dolemite is My Name, The King), Glass Onion is the first movie in nearly three years to get the audio commentary treatment and is also the most high-profile movie of the streamer’s to do so.

You can find a link to the Watching With… episode with the audio commentary below.

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