Past Peak — TV and Publishing

We’re doing something a little different today thanks to a video from Adam Conover, who discusses how in just a few short years, streaming services — fueled by hype and investors looking to exploit it — have been able to “disrupt” television.

Some customers bought into the hype, and cable cutting became stylish. Now, however, we spend more on subscriptions than we ever did on cable, while the selection, production values, and choices are far more limited — while the companies we’re paying are struggling.

By disrupting the carefully evolved world that brought us peak TV — Breaking Bad, The West Wing, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, and Westworld, just to name a few — streaming services have led a loss of real engagement and cultural centrality for television programming, the deaths of useful and powerful brands for both creators and customers, massive layoffs and career curtailments for writers, actors, and others, and the almost robotic embrace of unsustainable business models.

Conover’s note about 3 Body Problem really hits home for me.

Does any of this feel familiar?

If you’ve ever wondered why so many shows are canceled, truncated (six episodes), quickly forgotten, and homogenized, you’ll get a lot of answers from Conover’s spicy analysis.

And if you think laterally, it’s not hard to draw parallels between the disruption described here and the disruption that destroyed peak publishing.

The question this all begs is, “Why?” I think there are a few factors:

• We’re the first generation seeking to emulate our children, making it costly to defend any status quo or established approach
  • This insecurity about adulthood makes us more susceptible to hype cycles
• Technology companies have been awash in money and hubris, and have learned that creating buzz around even the most arcane and unproven things — augmented reality, driverless cars, the metaverse, blockchain — can empty investors’ pockets
• Initial high spirits about the potentially transformative effects of digital still have not completely abated, despite evidence that technology tends to create monopolies, is expensive to build and maintain, can be abused without governance and regulation, and allows actors of various stripes to manipulate us at a distance

The video is a reminder of how quickly “disruption” moved us beyond peak TV, after doing the same thing for publishing and technology, which are moving backwards at this point, and have been for years.

Worthwhile viewing throughout.