A deserted cliff. Lightning appearing out of nowhere. A mysterious lady all dressed in white. Netflix’s latest original program, “Meridian,” is spooky, confusing, and only 12 minutes long. That’s because although “Meridian” is available on the streaming service worldwide, it was made not for Netflix’s 83 million subscribers, but for algorithms and their programmers. Director Curtis Clark likely had artistic reasons for adding the film’s strange effects. But those elements are primarily there because they tend to trip up video codecs, or software that compresses and decompresses digital video, and other elements of the streaming pipeline.

Meridian

A surreal adaptation of Moby Dick. Lake, obsessed with finding the ultimate truth, is led down a path into the horrifying depths of his own subconscious.

I Shall Never Return

After learning of her terminal diagnoses, a young man goes through the five stages of grief with his still-alive girlfriend. Rather than spending their last moments together, his focus shifts to the cancer, which he has personified into a menacing monster. His love for her must overcome his ultimate fear of loss.