At least your two examples try to tell a story. They have some artistic integrity.

Mr. Beast has one goal: Eyes on content. For a long as possible. There is no artistic vision - every decision is made in the name of profit, attention, and addiction.

I barely know who Mr. Beast is but isn't his whole channel about, like, the joy of doing nice things for people? Like yes, it's for profit, and yes, it's schlocky and distasteful to us wise adults or whatever, but there's seriously nothing you find redeeming about kids enjoying seeing people getting their vision restored?

That’s some of his channel. Other bits of his channel are about putting people through extreme conditions to try and win money.

The Rolling Stone profile has a good breakdown of his content cerca 2022: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/mrbeas...

I'm not sure I agree. I don't watch his content but from reading the document it's quite clear his goal is to make stuff that's "fucken funny" - he's not creating any content for the sake of it, he wants to entertain himself.

that's a ridiculous take and blinded by your own preferences... It's all content... and it's all trying to get "Eyes on content. For a long as possible."

By his own admission in this onboarding document he admits his only goal is to make viral youtube video by any means necessary. It's all about "hacking" the algorithm and peoples' attention faculties.

Contrast that with very traditional Hollywood media - yes, of course they want to get people to watch their shows, but for the most part they try do that via a story and art. Not hacking peoples brains.

His content is like "Reality TV" on steroids. I don't watch or believe in traditional "Reality TV" either. Both are trash content - amongst the lowest forms of "entertainment" available.

> but for the most part they try do that via a story and art.

No they don't. When you are young and everything is new it seems that way, when you get older you realize it's all just nonsense for entertainment.

That's also why film critics seem to hate all films, except for the boring ones. They are looking for art, but it's not there.

Indeed. At least when it comes to your regular type of broadcast tv we must not have any romantic illusions. One of the most glaring tricks is having multiple items within a program and round-robining them in short chunks. And even the supposedly higher art of netflix shows uses inane stuff like cliffhangers and needless sex scenes.

yeah i thought that was interesting, as if to say, if we made a pet torture video that has the most views ever, that's what's important. Also how wedded it is to youtube. understanding how youtube works is more important that making funny or engaging content. it's a reverse of 'if you build it they will come' when it comes to excellence.

never saw GoT, but I wouldn't think so. you put an episode on and all of a sudden half an hour has passed.

all these things are just convenient timeskip tools.