In case you were wondering what the world is binging, Vox published a piece based on information from Jumpshot, which does digital analytics as a way of getting some idea of the numbers which Netflix absolutely will not release, and found that the most popular TV show – by a massive margin – was the US version of The Office.
Just pause that for a second: at a time when there is more new TV than any human being could possibly absorb, at a moment hailed as the golden age of serialised television, we’re watching a show from 2005 which ended six years ago, almost like we’re cocooning ourselves in a safe blanket of nostalgia.
And in case you think this is a coincidence: the second most popular show is Friends.
And you have to go a fair way down before you find a show created for the streaming era: past Parks & Recreation, Grey’s Anatomy, New Girl, Supernatural, That 70s Show, Criminal Minds, NCIS, Arrested Development, the US version of Shameless, Gilmore Girls and Frasier until you get to Orange is the New Black.
Now, these are American data but anecdotally this sounds about right. People are comfort watching, not searching for compelling entertainment, and this means the familiar wins over the interesting.
Stranger Things might get the headlines, but companies that pay through the nose for Seinfeld know they’re getting the eyeballs.
And there are many speculative reasons as to why this is, mainly based around people attempting to escape the grim reality we face in favour of a better, simpler time. And that doesn’t feel like a problem that we’re just about to sort out, so… um, get ready to live a life of nostalgia, folks!
So, to paraphrase George Orwell, “If you want a vision of the future, imagine an episode of The Big Bang Theory stamping on a human face – forever.”