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If you’re struggling to remember, you aren’t alone. Welcome to the Great Plateau of Popular Media. We aren’t in a golden age or a dark age; we are in a .
We are drowning in content, yet dying of thirst for originality. I was scrolling through my streaming queue last night—past the third Knives Out sequel, the live-action remake of a cartoon I watched in 2002, and the prequel series to a movie that came out ten years ago—when it hit me: We aren't making art anymore. We are making inventory. IHaveAWife.24.06.16.Ava.Addams.REMASTERED.XXX.1...
So, give yourself permission to be bored. Turn off the "mid" show that you don't really care about. Watch that weird foreign film. Listen to that experimental podcast. Play that indie game with the janky graphics. If you’re struggling to remember, you aren’t alone
Having access to 10,000 movies means you watch none of them. Pick two streamers. If you run out of stuff to watch, turn the TV off. Go read a book. The scarcity will force you to choose better. We are drowning in content, yet dying of
Stop watching things because the algorithm says, "Because you watched The Rock , try The Rock 2: Electric Boogaloo ." Watch things because a specific human made it. See a name like Ari Aster , Greta Gerwig , or Hideo Kojima attached? Watch it. Follow the creators, not the franchises.
The entertainment industry has become a bank. Studios don't ask, "Is this story beautiful?" They ask, "Does this IP have a pre-existing fan base?" It’s safer to reboot Daredevil for the third time than to take a chance on a new superhero. It’s less risky to stretch a 90-minute movie into an 8-hour slog of a limited series than to let a director cook up a fresh idea. Here is the dangerous part: The content isn't bad .
