“Nothing remains the way it is while at the same time nothing essentially changes.”The idea of frenetic standstill, paraphrased above by Hartmut Rosa in Social Acceleration, might feel familiar. Think of scrolling by clips of Greta Thunberg last week while knowing full well that the next week the climate will not be front page news. Think of trudging through another seemingly democracy-shattering election meddling scandal while knowing things will inevitably end with the very same people still hanging around until the next crisis comes. And think of the line of younger millennials and zoomers waiting to get into an immersive experience and merch shop dedicated to the 25-year-old show Friends, a show they've come to not through the old broadcast television but through the new streaming television. Because entertainment, like all of our other forms and flavors of communication, feels like it's in a moment of rapid change while also feeling like it isn't really changing at all. Not even the shows. Last week, the Hollywood Reporter ran a story on the arms race between Disney, HBO and other major streamers to snap up TV series with huge libraries from the last 25 years.
After Friends, The Office, Seinfeld and The Big Bang Theory were all bought for north of $400 million each by various streaming services, THR's Lesley Goldberg explains the demand for popular old TV shows this way: "In a fragmented Peak TV era with more than 500 scripted originals vying for consumers' attention this year, few shows are expected to reach the 100-episode landmark that observers say is key to driving library value."One distribution executive tells Goldberg: "There are a handful of crown-jewel pieces of programming whose value continues to rise because they are a sure bet."In other words, by quickly exploding the cable bundle into a revolutionary new way to experience TV we've actually just moved ourselves backwards into a place where we mostly want the old stuff. Forget cookie-cutter prestige dramas. Just give us the reruns! This data-stuffed analysis from The Information posits that "the secret weapon" in the streaming wars is actually a massive back catalog of reruns. So the overturning of an entire TV industry into dozens of new streaming services has led to the literal place we started. We've stood still. It's like the change is so fast we'd rather watch static.
Do I even have to mention that nine out of the ten highest-grossing movies of 2019 are based on existing properties? Frenetic standstill, an idea first coined by French culturural theorist Paul Virilio, is "the widespread sense that the world around us is in constant flux and yet nothing essential is happening — nothing essential can happen."If this sounds familiar, you're not alone.
The shorter stuff
If you think you're an influencer you better step your game up. This woman is selling on 40 accounts at once! (Twitter)
So Facebook Horizon is Fortnite for moms? Makes sense, since Facebook is the internet for moms. (YouTube)
Only three original movies have reached number one at this year's box office and they're all from Universal. (Twitter)
I have a theory that everything is fake and I will be interviewing Ashley Feinberg when I finally write the book about it. (Slate)
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is a genius for holding out on an overall deal until after she cleaned up at the Emmys. Twenty million a year! Amazon didn't even wait 48 hours after the Emmy ended to wrap it up. (Variety)
I knew the release of those Navy UFO videos was tied in some way to Tom DeLonge's show on the History Channel. That's the real conspiracy! (NYT)
Eddie Murphy has never owned a computer. (NYT)
When you book the world's least controversial artist and it becomes controversial. (Ad Age)
Massive rumor: Caroline Calloway seemed devastated when someone from the audience claimed Natalie Beach sold her essay from The Cut to Ryan Murphy for $1 million while she was on stage at the Red Scare live show show last week. If that rumor is true, does the credit go to the agent at WME who recently signed New York magazine? (The Daily Dot) (THR)