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If you heard about Game of Thrones or Westworld or Stranger Things, or most recently, Tiger King, you'd realize this is very much still a thing for a large popu

If you heard about Game of Thrones or Westworld or Stranger Things, or most recently, Tiger King, you'd realize this is very much still a thing for a large population. Weekly shows of certain types have massive speculation and plot discussion crowds with podcasts and analysis channels. Then there's a second viewership wave created by all the memes. Netflix's just drop the whole season model has cost them a lot in public discussion and hence hype, some of their shows are now released in a weekly format to better capture the hype cycle.

ygjb 7y ago
I that because of the hype cycle, or is that because they have distribution and creative partnerships with other distributors?
bovermyer 7y ago
Yeah, but I no longer care. Twenty years ago, or ten years ago even, I would be adamant about keeping up with the latest series. Now, though? I don't care about "tha memes." I don't care if I'm current in my analogies. I want to take care of the people I care about, and experience things that enrich my life. Other people can care about memes and such, and I don't think any less of them for it. Not that they need my validation. But my own world revolves around different suns now.
- ocdtrekkie 7y ago
  You don't care, but "the TV zeitgeist is gone" wouldn't really be a true statement, in a general sense. The hype of popular TV shows in our culture is very much active today, and it's actively influencing the ways TV shows are distributed and released.
AnthonyMouse 7y ago
> If you heard about Game of Thrones or Westworld or Stranger Things, or most recently, Tiger King, you'd realize this is very much still a thing for a large population. This isn't the same thing. In the 1990s, everybody watched The Simpsons. Even the people who hated it still watched it so they could complain about it. It was on broadcast TV so everybody had access to it. And Friends, and Cheers, and so on. Game of Thrones is on HBO. If you have Netflix and not HBO, it's not there. Stranger Things is on Netflix. If you have HBO and not Netflix, it's not there. A lot more people watched Friends than Game of Thrones, because Game of Thrones was less available and had much more competition. You can find a website full of fandom about Game of Thrones, but you can find a website full of fandom about Battlestar Galactica. Passion and popularity are not the same. Popularity is what matters to the zeitgeist. It's not a matter of being able to find a place where all the Game of Thrones fans hang out and whinge about the last season, it's about being able to go into a room full of normies and make a reference to last night's episode and expect nearly everybody to get it. Which isn't really a thing anymore.
- jarjoura 7y ago
  People had watch parties the moment episodes dropped for GoT. Bars would even air episodes in later years. Most of the world watched it together, both legally and illegally. It was definitely the same thing.
  - kortilla 7y ago
    GoT was in 10-20 million in final season worldwide. Seinfeld finale was 70-80 million in US alone. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-may-16-ca-50143-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-may-16-ca-50143... The numbers don’t even compare. With Seinfeld that’s literally 1 in 5 people in the US. GoT is what, maybe 1 in 100?
    - silveroriole 7y ago
      And Friends, Simpsons, Seinfeld etc were things whole families watched together (depending on the kids’ ages of course). Families are not watching GoT and Westworld together en masse. TV shows filled with violence and boobs just aren’t going to be ‘everyone’s seen it’ shows like tamer ones, even if it feels to 20-year-olds like ‘everyone’ has seen them.
    - woobar 7y ago
      Overall, when accounting for all platforms and delayed viewing throughout the week, the final season of Game of Thrones averaged more than 44 million viewers per episode [1] Game of Thrones’ season 8 premiere was pirated almost 55 million times in the first 24 hours [2]. And this is when people have 100 times more choices every day. [1] https://observer.com/2019/05/game-of-thrones-finale-ratings-hbo-viewership/ https://observer.com/2019/05/game-of-thrones-finale-ratings-... [2] https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/17/18412159/game-of-thrones-got-season-8-premiere-pirated-55-million-times-first-24-hours-hbo https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/17/18412159/game-of-thrones-...
      - gruez 7y ago
        Are these American figures or worldwide figures?
finnthehuman 7y ago
>this is very much still a thing for a large population No, it's so radically different that while there is still zeitgeist related to TV, it's not wrong to say the "tv zeitgeist" is dead. Following a TV show used to be even more in the moment than following sports are today. Either someone saw last night's game, or they didn't and you can't have a meaningful conversation with them. They might catch up watching the highlight reel but conversations will be shallower, and talking about one game becomes near-irrelevant by the time the next game airs. These days TV shows have the zeitgeist pattern of a recent video game release. Everyone works through the release at different paces, conversations are bounded by seeing how caught-up everyone is before getting into details, and the material has long enough shelf life that conversations can happen with months - or years - between different conversation participants seeing it.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- msla 7y ago
  After a certain point, the more well-off could own a VCR and record off TV; that is, time shifting, which is something Universal made a Federal case out of. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_shifting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_shifting Incidentally, the practice of time shifting is a reason VHS caught on and other home video formats didn't: LaserDisc didn't offer time shifting at all, so it wasn't even in the running here; as a result, its pitch wasn't as compelling. Betamax did, but its tapes only held one hour to begin with, which isn't enough for a sports game or a TV movie. It was only arguably of higher quality on the TVs of the era, and the fact its time shifting capability was half of what VHS could offer in the same time period made it a less attractive option. (Both Betamax and VHS increased recording times as the format war wore on. However, after a certain point, merely being the entrenched winner has an impact on how the competition goes.)
jarjoura 7y ago
Arguably Game of Thrones could be the last series to ever capture the attention of the entire world at the same time. Everyone I know watched it, all ages, and all different genre fans. Bars used to play the episodes to a packed crowd. It was truly epic. I don’t think these other series you listed are anywhere close to the level GoT captured. They win awards and have big budgets and fans spread the word, but still nowhere near.
- slfnflctd 7y ago
  > all ages A lot of parents I know would not be at all comfortable allowing children under the age of 14 to watch this show (and for older kids only on a case-by-case basis) due to its incredibly violent & sexual content, horrific rapes depicted in detail, and extremely graphic sadism across the board. Many adults wouldn't begin to consider watching it for these reasons. Sometimes I wish I hadn't.
- lotsofpulp 7y ago
  If anything, I think GoT turned people away from getting invested into TV shows especially over long seasons due to its nonsensical ending.
BurningFrog 7y ago
TV is still important, and the shows you mention are big. But it's very far from how things were, say 20 years ago. An interesting question is what the zeitgeist is now? I have two potential answers: 1. Nothing. The worlds has diversified on the net, and most people focus on their own smaller interests. 2. In terms of what everyone is talking and thinking about, my best answer is, unfortunately, Donald J Trump.

ygjb 7y ago

I that because of the hype cycle, or is that because they have distribution and creative partnerships with other distributors?

bovermyer 7y ago

Yeah, but I no longer care. Twenty years ago, or ten years ago even, I would be adamant about keeping up with the latest series. Now, though? I don't care about "tha memes." I don't care if I'm current in my analogies. I want to take care of the people I care about, and experience things that enrich my life. Other people can care about memes and such, and I don't think any less of them for it. Not that they need my validation. But my own world revolves around different suns now.

ocdtrekkie 7y ago
You don't care, but "the TV zeitgeist is gone" wouldn't really be a true statement, in a general sense. The hype of popular TV shows in our culture is very much active today, and it's actively influencing the ways TV shows are distributed and released.

AnthonyMouse 7y ago

> If you heard about Game of Thrones or Westworld or Stranger Things, or most recently, Tiger King, you'd realize this is very much still a thing for a large population. This isn't the same thing. In the 1990s, everybody watched The Simpsons. Even the people who hated it still watched it so they could complain about it. It was on broadcast TV so everybody had access to it. And Friends, and Cheers, and so on. Game of Thrones is on HBO. If you have Netflix and not HBO, it's not there. Stranger Things is on Netflix. If you have HBO and not Netflix, it's not there. A lot more people watched Friends than Game of Thrones, because Game of Thrones was less available and had much more competition. You can find a website full of fandom about Game of Thrones, but you can find a website full of fandom about Battlestar Galactica. Passion and popularity are not the same. Popularity is what matters to the zeitgeist. It's not a matter of being able to find a place where all the Game of Thrones fans hang out and whinge about the last season, it's about being able to go into a room full of normies and make a reference to last night's episode and expect nearly everybody to get it. Which isn't really a thing anymore.

jarjoura 7y ago
People had watch parties the moment episodes dropped for GoT. Bars would even air episodes in later years. Most of the world watched it together, both legally and illegally. It was definitely the same thing.
- kortilla 7y ago
  GoT was in 10-20 million in final season worldwide. Seinfeld finale was 70-80 million in US alone. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-may-16-ca-50143-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-may-16-ca-50143... The numbers don’t even compare. With Seinfeld that’s literally 1 in 5 people in the US. GoT is what, maybe 1 in 100?
  - silveroriole 7y ago
    And Friends, Simpsons, Seinfeld etc were things whole families watched together (depending on the kids’ ages of course). Families are not watching GoT and Westworld together en masse. TV shows filled with violence and boobs just aren’t going to be ‘everyone’s seen it’ shows like tamer ones, even if it feels to 20-year-olds like ‘everyone’ has seen them.
  - woobar 7y ago
    Overall, when accounting for all platforms and delayed viewing throughout the week, the final season of Game of Thrones averaged more than 44 million viewers per episode [1] Game of Thrones’ season 8 premiere was pirated almost 55 million times in the first 24 hours [2]. And this is when people have 100 times more choices every day. [1] https://observer.com/2019/05/game-of-thrones-finale-ratings-hbo-viewership/ https://observer.com/2019/05/game-of-thrones-finale-ratings-... [2] https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/17/18412159/game-of-thrones-got-season-8-premiere-pirated-55-million-times-first-24-hours-hbo https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/17/18412159/game-of-thrones-...
    - gruez 7y ago
      Are these American figures or worldwide figures?

finnthehuman 7y ago

>this is very much still a thing for a large population No, it's so radically different that while there is still zeitgeist related to TV, it's not wrong to say the "tv zeitgeist" is dead. Following a TV show used to be even more in the moment than following sports are today. Either someone saw last night's game, or they didn't and you can't have a meaningful conversation with them. They might catch up watching the highlight reel but conversations will be shallower, and talking about one game becomes near-irrelevant by the time the next game airs. These days TV shows have the zeitgeist pattern of a recent video game release. Everyone works through the release at different paces, conversations are bounded by seeing how caught-up everyone is before getting into details, and the material has long enough shelf life that conversations can happen with months - or years - between different conversation participants seeing it.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
msla 7y ago
After a certain point, the more well-off could own a VCR and record off TV; that is, time shifting, which is something Universal made a Federal case out of. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_shifting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_shifting Incidentally, the practice of time shifting is a reason VHS caught on and other home video formats didn't: LaserDisc didn't offer time shifting at all, so it wasn't even in the running here; as a result, its pitch wasn't as compelling. Betamax did, but its tapes only held one hour to begin with, which isn't enough for a sports game or a TV movie. It was only arguably of higher quality on the TVs of the era, and the fact its time shifting capability was half of what VHS could offer in the same time period made it a less attractive option. (Both Betamax and VHS increased recording times as the format war wore on. However, after a certain point, merely being the entrenched winner has an impact on how the competition goes.)

jarjoura 7y ago

Arguably Game of Thrones could be the last series to ever capture the attention of the entire world at the same time. Everyone I know watched it, all ages, and all different genre fans. Bars used to play the episodes to a packed crowd. It was truly epic. I don’t think these other series you listed are anywhere close to the level GoT captured. They win awards and have big budgets and fans spread the word, but still nowhere near.

slfnflctd 7y ago
> all ages A lot of parents I know would not be at all comfortable allowing children under the age of 14 to watch this show (and for older kids only on a case-by-case basis) due to its incredibly violent & sexual content, horrific rapes depicted in detail, and extremely graphic sadism across the board. Many adults wouldn't begin to consider watching it for these reasons. Sometimes I wish I hadn't.
lotsofpulp 7y ago
If anything, I think GoT turned people away from getting invested into TV shows especially over long seasons due to its nonsensical ending.

BurningFrog 7y ago

TV is still important, and the shows you mention are big. But it's very far from how things were, say 20 years ago. An interesting question is what the zeitgeist is now? I have two potential answers: 1. Nothing. The worlds has diversified on the net, and most people focus on their own smaller interests. 2. In terms of what everyone is talking and thinking about, my best answer is, unfortunately, Donald J Trump.