Streaming Video Services Usher In a Golden Age of Trash TV

I have a sin to confess: I’m not a huge WandaVision fan. There’s plenty to like about the first Marvel Cinematic Universe show streaming on Disney+. It has cool ideas, performances, and aesthetics. However, between the awkward initial pacing, a plot that’s a little too thin to sustain a whole season, and a weird lack of emotional investment in side characters you’re supposed to already care about from the larger MCU, I don’t love it. I’m still watching it, though. Not just because I’m a geek; what else can you do during lockdown except watching video streaming shows?

I have another sin to confess. As the pandemic drags on, and I watch an increasing number of streaming shows, I’ve realized that flashy, expensive, “prestige” shows like WandaVision are not where these services’ true strengths lie. I’ve gotten far more entertainment by streaming bad sitcoms, mind-numbing reality shows, and other examples of pure garbage.

Home Box Office

Video streaming services did not set out to become trash TV treasure troves. The earliest streaming shows felt like an extension of the peak “Golden Age of TV” phenomenon that began in the early 2000s. Did you love The Sopranos on HBO or Mad Men on AMC? Check out House of Cards on Netflix. 

We got more shows as streaming services claimed more of the TV market. Honestly, many are excellent. Here’s just a sample: Black Mirror, Castlevania, Doom Patrol, The Get Down, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Orange Is the New Black, and Star Trek Discovery. Countless quality shows now find their origins from a streaming service, not a cable subscription.

Unfortunately, with so many streaming channels and shows, we were bound to get some duds. Remember how House of Cards ended? What about Iron Fist? WandaVision has more Olsen sisters than the Full House revival. These failures become especially disappointing once you realize they wanted to be better. They flew high and fell hard. Even worse, some shows are mediocre content passed off as quality when they’re really just uppity. The pretending is pretentious and dishonest.

“Great” Expectations

Trash is honest. It proudly flaunts its lack of higher ambition. That’s the appeal. That makes the filler so fun. As a result, the slurry of irresistible garbage that is horribly unfunny network comedies, awkward dating competitions, cringe-inducing reality shows, and freak carnivals masquerading as “documentaries” has a volume and consistency that can’t be beat.   

Trash sings as addictive, endless, empty, background radiation. You turn on this cultural detritus so your TV can spout comfortable, familiar, noises while you do other things during the day. Occasionally, you’ll catch a glimpse of something truly outrageous and get glued to the couch for hours. But if you only devote a fraction of your attention to trash, you can rest easy knowing that you aren’t missing much. Sure, this visual waste frequently tips over into harmful exploitation, but then again, so does the entire entertainment industry.

Streaming services offer unfettered access to massive garbage archives, and give you an appreciated, extra agency for choosing how exactly you’ll make your way through the infinite pile. It’s one thing to watch BET on some random day and hope something crazy comes on. It’s another thing to subscribe to BET+ and immediately hook the latest Tyler Perry shenanigans directly into your veins. 

Happily Ever After

To their credit, streaming services are beginning to realize trashy shows inspire lucrative ongoing audience loyalty just as well as prestige shows. They diversify demographics. Netflix can produce Oscar-Winning Martin Scorsese movies, as well as the early quarantine dumpster disaster Tiger King. After watching Judas and the Black Messiah on HBO Max, I rewatched 12 Dates of Christmas, a bonkers, gimmicky dating show where one contestant emerged from a hidden snowman. These shows usually have a hazy, Instagram-like aesthetic that makes them look fancy, but don’t get it twisted. They’re weaponized trash through and through. Instead of deciding between “good” and “so bad, it’s good,” why not enjoy both?

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If you don’t want to compromise, though, the undisputed king of streaming trash is Discovery+. The service culls an impressive variety of brands from the company’s catalog, including The Food Network, OWN, and TLC. Reality TV shows are low-cost productions, so Discovery+ has thousands upon thousands of hours of new and vintage material. I’ve watched more shows on this service than on any other these past few weeks, and I’ve barely scratched the surface.

Discovery+ also has 90 Day Fiancé, a cinematic universe far denser, weirder, and impressive than what Marvel puts out. I could write an entire book about this show. By following the lives of couples who live in different countries, 90 Day Fiancé touches on immigration politics, relationship psychology, gender power dynamics, and other topics. Are these real, loving partners? Are they mail-order brides? Worse? It’s the world’s grossest, yet most fascinating, ongoing sociology course, and years after first getting hooked, my own fianceé and I still can’t get enough. On Discovery+ you can watch a staggering number of 90 Day Fiancé shows and spin-offs. You won’t regret it.   

Video Streaming Services: What You Should Know

Another Person’s Treasure

Streaming video services give us unprecedented easy access to more cinematic art than ever before. You should take advantage of their offerings, and dive into challenging, enriching, undiscovered art you never would have seen before. Expand your horizons with The Criterion Channel or KweliTV. 

Still, the world is hard, especially these days. As everything falls apart, you must do what you can to cope, relax, or just find that moment of isolated, uncomplicated fun. So don’t feel shame the next time you sit down and fire up some hot, radioactive garbage, some straight trash, some extremely guilty pleasure on your favorite video streaming service. This is how TV is supposed to work.