In the golden age of television, studios took risks ( The Sopranos , The Wire ). Today, "popular" means "pre-sold." And until audiences stop rewarding the familiar, studios will keep feeding us the past, repackaged as the future.
The deep tragedy is not that these productions are bad . It is that they are good enough to prevent you from seeking out the strange, the difficult, the slow, the human. BrazzersExxtra 21 12 23 Victoria Cakes Ebony My...
A Netflix "popular production" is designed to be background noise . Dialogue is repeated twice (for viewers looking at their phones). Plot twists are telegraphed. Color grading is teal-and-orange. These shows are not meant to be beloved; they are meant to be finished so the algorithm can suggest the next one. In the golden age of television, studios took