We are living in the Golden Age of Something. Depending on who you ask, it is either the Golden Age of Television, the Golden Age of Franchise Filmmaking, or the Golden Age of the Attention Merchant.
The audience is starving for media that trusts them. They are starving for entertainment content that isn't optimized for a scroll, a laugh track, or a post-credits scene.
The audience has caught on. We feel a strange fatigue when we see a "Previously On..." recap for a movie we haven't even seen yet. We are not excited. We are doing homework. However, there is a counter-current. As mainstream entertainment becomes louder, faster, and dumber, a quiet rebellion is growing. Look at the success of Past Lives . Look at the phenomenon of The Bear (a show where "plot" is secondary to vibes). Look at the unexpected box office of Oppenheimer —a three-hour movie about men talking in rooms.
Because you can't fill a soul with product. You can only fill it with stories. And right now, the stories are getting lost in the feed.
The Great Content Bloat: Why You’re Exhausted Despite Having Everything to Watch