Happy New Year!
Your 2020 Resolution: close some mental tabs.
Here’s Hasan Minhaj to explain:
There are so many things going on in the world, but having our attention pulled in every direction isn’t the best solution. Not only is it detrimental to our mental health, but it’s also not very effective at getting anything done; we all just become bystanders.
To focus on what matters, let some things go.
For more on wielding attention, check this Twitter thread:
My New Favorite Show: the Circle
On its face, The Circle has a familiar structure.
Eight people live in the same “house”
The contestants vote one another off the show, forming alliances and relationships along the way
There are challenges and activities that give contestants leverage, information, and prizes
Whoever wins gets $100,000 at the end
Here’s the kicker: the contestants interact exclusively through a digital portal, a voice-operated system called The Circle.
There are profiles, pictures, statuses, votes, and texts (group chats and direct messages). But nobody gets to see what the other contestants actually look or sound like. This also opens the door for players to pretend to be another person.
Dystopic?
On the surface, perhaps. The contestants are isolated in apartments that record their every move and utterance. But the insular nature of the show is arguably what makes it most human. In contrast to flashy reality canon like The Bachelor, The Circle is built on the uniquely modern juxtaposition of physical vulnerability and digital calculation. Contestants lay in their pajamas while stressing about how a crush will perceive them. They brush their teeth while probing for authenticity.
(Tell ‘em, Joey.)
Where The Bachelor is aspirational, The Circle is relatable. Instead of flying to exotic islands via helicopter, the contestants share a laugh over emojis. The entire show takes place in the contestants’ apartments, where they engage in extraordinary behaviors like reading and cooking. (The players don’t have internet access, which is fascinating enough on its own!)
The cast is fantastically diverse, and one of the heartwarming parts of watching the show is seeing how the individuals overcome their prejudices to connect with each other. We, the omniscient* viewers, also connect with those in The Circle. The experience of being misinterpreted is universal, and we feel for those who are accused of being inauthentic or manipulative.
(*Like any reality show, we are only as knowledgable as the producers allow. Here, the producers also act as software engineers, owning the “black box” that is The Circle – not even the participants would know if their votes, rankings, and messages were being manipulated.)
As someone who studies technology and culture, this show is a gift. I’ve probably said this before about other shows, but I could truly write a thesis on The Circle. (It wouldn’t be the first on a reality show: my friend wrote her thesis on the game theory behind Survivor.)
Here are some academic-sounding titles I made up and would gladly riff on:
The Limitations of Structured Data in Interpersonal Sense-making
Catfish? Expressions of Gender and Sexuality Across Digital Mediums
Social Decision-Making and the Variable of Authenticity
Netflix has dubbed The Circle a "three-week event”: the first four hourlong episodes were released Wednesday Jan 1, with four more scheduled to drop on each of the following Wednesdays.
If you’re interested in following along, holler my way.
I’ll leave y’all with the trailer.
Tangential Brainwaves
This week, I was asked for my thoughts on why Netflix releases content all at once, instead of spacing out episodes weekly. The question was inspired by this tweet, referencing the Disney+ hit The Mandalorian.
My thoughts, from a behavioral science perspective:
1. Customers like binging. Give customers what they want.
2. Habit formation. Netflix doesn’t want to be a once-per-week destination.
Water cooler buzz is strong, but it fades. I think there’s something powerful about viewers evangelizing shows to friends and family (“you gotta watch this show!”), which allows content to blow up. This happened in 2018 with Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette.
Shonda Rhimes recently likened this phenomenon of organic virality to sharing secrets. This reinforces the idea of Netflix being *the* place to go for video content.
Reality TV seems like a great opportunity for brand sponsorship.
It often feels forced when scripted shows write brands into the plot –anyone remember the New Coke bit in Stranger Things?– but I think it’d be easier with reality shows.
For example, each contestant in The Circle has a uniquely decorated apartment. What if they had booked them with Airbnb? What if The Circle was hooked up to a Sonos speaker system or Phillips Hue smart lights? (The show might as well be a meta-advertisement for Amazon’s Alexa.)
I love the idea of viewer participation.
(Definition of shippers)
Viewer participation already happens in some competition shows. (See: American Idol). I don’t think it would work for The Circle, given the nature of the show, but I’m eager to see if more plot-based shows adopt this idea.
There are already passionate fandoms around shows. It makes sense to tap into them! Perhaps Game of Thrones wouldn’t have disappointed so many people if the community had been able to vote on who took the Iron Throne.
Overall, content is becoming more interactive, and I expect that we’ll see plenty of innovation in the entertainment space this decade.