Illustration by William Joel
In the height of the DVD era, director’s commentary was a staple of movie watching. But if you look at any of the streaming services today, almost all fail to include these treasured bonus features.
Audio commentaries have been included in physical media since 1984, starting with the Criterion Collection’s release of 1933’s King Kong on laserdisc, with commentary by film historian Ronald Haver detailing anecdotes on the production of the American classic. Commentaries from directors, actors, and production crew were subsequently included in physical packages of thousands of movies, television shows, and even video games for decades since. However, once the industry shifted to streaming, most of those bonus features were left on the…
