Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, Filmin, Apple TV, Rakuten, Movistar Plus… many names and more and more. Before, a single series could monopolize the seriéphile conversation for months, like that ‘Lost’ that did give the feeling that you were missing “something” if you were not up to date. But today, Things have changed… for the better, for the worse? Let’s say it has changed.
The mania of being up to date
If you have a subscription to one or more services streaming, you are aware of the emails that inform you of the news on the platform. In the same way, we will agree that there may be one or two names that catch your attention, another that you have heard about for a long time… and a handful of titles that only fans and the creatives behind them know about.
Sometimes choosing a series at night is a dilemma (Photo by JESHOOTS.com)
One of those series gains traction among the public, and suddenly, there are several articles about it. It’s okay, you can afford an hour a week. But then we recommend another series, and someone at work tells you another title, and on Twitter someone makes a thread about a series that inevitably attracts you.
When you want to realize, you have all the cool nights. And you get anxious: will I be able to see everything? The articles continue, the social pressure too… and suddenly, ‘The House of the Dragon’ premieres on HBO Max.
You sigh. How is it possible to follow the current conversation? Should I raise the pirate flag? (Short answer: no.)
From managing the hype to getting vaccinated from it
Back in 2004, when ‘Lost’ began, it was the series that had to be seen, whether or not it was being broadcast in Spain. Here, we are given to mistreat the good, you were more likely to catch the broadcast using a Ouija board and a plastic Coke bottle than turning on the televisionbut that did not prevent us from having the conversation bumped by her.
So much so that when the last chapter was broadcast, some brave ones stayed up all night to see it and other brave ones stayed up all night to write the subtitles, while others, who we will not call brave, dared to rave about the meaning of an ending that was far from that complicated. I suppose there are explanations that run faster than the people who try to catch them.
The fact is that, since then, the search for another ‘Lost’ began to vaccinate us against hype: a series was announced, we watched one or two episodes, We saw that it wasn’t such a big deal and in the end you could finish it or not, that nobody was going to care. Until the dragons and the boys came.
fever streaming
With the premiere of ‘Stranger Things’, Netflix was put on the target of audiovisual distribution. Oh, I had had success before with things like ‘Orange is the new black’ or ‘House of Cards’, and its release in Spain in 2015 was a success, but they didn’t have anything THAT perfect to feed the marketing and yes the hype. Only it’s not the same anymore, because the chapters are released suddenly, which quickly satisfies those who get carried away by the expectation. Even today we are debating whether weekly series or marathon is cool or not.
The fact is that with Netflix came HBO. Y Prime Video. Y Disney+. Each distributor wants their piece of the cake, they bring out their own platform and a subscription plan. The big ones do wellothers like lionsgate+which is already in retreat by 2023 when there are still posters announcing it with fanfare on bus shelters, not so much.
A strange phenomenon occurs: for some, the anxiety is still there, but for the vast majority, who have turned their backs on torrent and the pirate life to settle next to some subscription service, no.
Well, we have news for those who are still anxious: it is better to take it like the other group.
You don’t have years to see everything… nor do you need them
Because in the end, that is the best philosophy. We don’t have time to see everything and, perhaps, you have to choose between ‘Ted Lasso’ on Apple TV or, continuing with the same creator, ‘Scrubs’ on Disney +. One month you pay HBO to swallow all of ‘The House of the Dragon’, and while you watch some ‘Niquelao’ on silly nights or one of those Kdramas (Korean soap operas for laymen) with one-hour episodes on Netflix.
8 hours to sleep, 8 to work, 8 hours of leisure? No kidding, they are the only 8 hours where we have to spend the rest of our lives. (Photo by Kat Smith)
Fathers and mothers commune with Disney + and the mother digs a month of filming a year, or they have the Prime subscription to receive fifty annual packages and they look at FlixOlé in summer.
Face it: it’s fine like that. There are no documented cases of people who have died from not seeing ‘The House of the Dragon’ or ‘Stranger Things’, nor of serious neurological damage in those who have endured hundreds of hours of World War II documentaries on Disney+ or docurealities from serial killers on Netflix.
See everything at once everywhere
As for the conversation, I have a theory: in pirate times, around the turn of the century, the “platform” was the torrent and together with the most advertised series, the user downloaded hours and hours of series that he has not seen yet. Today, as there are so many platforms, the conversation and behavior does not turn so much to a series (although I repeat, there are exceptions, of course), but to the giant of streaming to the one who throws the bitches with assiduity. In Espinof, without going any further, we recommend a series of this or that platform.
There is another factor, which is that in those years, accustomed to a passive role as a consumer, We were excited about the possibility of being the ones to prepare the menu. Today, that excitement has turned into weariness, because the diversity of content and platforms once again pushes us into a passive role (“they have ‘Ozark’, I’ll find something else”) and the popularity of a certain series is once again pricking our veins. huntress, hence the power of the torrent is invoked again.
Be that as it may, one subscribes to a certain platform, has quality content to see in a thousand lives without leaving there and, from time to time, itches outside. That’s how things work.
What do we mean when we say “Peak TV”?
It is, however, a dangerous balance. Let’s just say there are quite a few platforms already. What the hell, am I honest? There are already too many. And there is a balance between what people want to see, what they are willing to pay for and whether they want to pounce on P2P networks again with a patch. If they keep pushing, the habit of wanting to watch everything at once will return, and of downloading 80 hours of series a week when you only have time to watch 10.
There is a theory, that of the Hubbert peak (Peak Oil), which assumes that there is a point at which the maximum oil that can be produced will be produced, and that from there production will decrease at the same speed that it rose , because the natural resource is finite.
It’s funny that they now call the point where more and better series are made Peak TV, without realizing that here, The natural resource in danger of running out is not the ability to create more series, but the patience of the viewer.