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Furthermore, the rise of “second screen” viewing (watching while scrolling on a phone) has actually benefited dialogue-heavy dramas. Why? Because if you look down for ten seconds during Oppenheimer , you miss the Trinity Test. If you look down during The Diplomat , you only miss a glare. You can drift in and out, but the emotional through-line remains sticky.
In an era of $200 million superhero epics, the most talked-about shows on Netflix and Max aren’t saving the universe—they’re saving a marriage.
Studios are now greenlighting “theatrical events” (IP, IMAX, spectacle) while simultaneously funding “streaming intimacy” (original, character-driven, lower stakes). The smart money is on the hybrid: the action movie that pauses for a ten-minute scene where two estranged siblings actually talk about their dead mother ( The Last of Us perfected this). Blacked.18.09.27.Lana.Rhoades.XXX.1080p.HEVC.x2...
This is harder to write and harder to act, but it creates a parasocial bond that CGI cannot replicate. When audiences stream a show like Succession or The White Lotus , they aren’t just watching a plot; they are conducting a psychological autopsy.
In a Marvel movie, the tension is external: Will Thor catch the hammer before the villain fires the laser? In the new wave of prestige entertainment, the tension is internal: Will the character admit they were wrong? Will they apologize? Will they ask for the divorce? If you look down during The Diplomat , you only miss a glare
We have entered the age of the —and it is saving popular media from itself.
Why? Because the spectacle arms race has exhausted us. We have seen Chicago get destroyed by aliens seven times. We cannot, however, get enough of watching Jeremy Allen White have a panic attack in a walk-in freezer. they aren’t just watching a plot
This doesn’t mean the superhero is dead. Popular media is not a zero-sum game. We will still have our Dune: Part Twos and our Deadpool & Wolverines . But the ecosystem is rebalancing.