Variety reports this week that a viral series of TikToks, originally posted by creator Tarease “Reesa Teesa” Johnson, is being adapted for television. Johnson herself will produce the series along with “White Lotus” vet Natahsa Rothwell, who’s also planning to star. Johnson’s TikToks – a compilation of over 50 individual videos – concern her ex-husband, identified only as “Legion,” and the various lies and exaggerations he told her throughout their relationship. (Legion’s alleged fabrications include identity fraud, a feigned football career at San Diego State, funeral expenses for a step-daughter who remains alive, numerous infidelities, and much more!)
To date, we’ve had many social media-inspired reality show true-crime docs. Who could forget Netflix’s “Hype House”? And the “online sleuths caught the killer!” sub-genre is so wildly popular, after just a few years, it already has its own recognizable tropes. (It feels like every other documentary on Netflix has at least one montage featuring typing fingers and eyeballs watching screens, while we hear a cyber-sleuth run down their investigative process in VO.) Nonetheless, this may be the first scripted drama to emerge based entirely on TikToks. It almost certainly will not be the last.
Hollywood and Madison Avenue have had their eyes on TikTok, Twitch, and other white-hot digital media apps and streamers for many years. YouTube has more viewers than Disney or Netflix at this point, and online platforms are the only places to find a large chunk of the tween and teenage audience (aka “Generation Alpha”) who have little time for conventional TV shows. When a brand like McDonald’s needs to get the word out about Grimace’s birthday celebration, and its accompanying berry-flavored milkshake, they can’t fall back on network TV ads and billboards. Any campaign aimed at under-25s needs a viral, easily shareable component for social media. It’s been this way for a generation now at least.
Still, the flow of this content has largely gone in one direction. A company or a brand has some vital marketing message to share with young people. (“You know that video game, ‘Minecraft,’ you kids like so much? We made a movie about it! Come see it!”) So the studio pays influencers and livestreamers to talk about their content on the platforms where young viewers spend the most time, and figure out other “viral” ways to customize the messaging, rendering everything as authentic and organic but also as obsessively clickable as possible.
But Generation Alpha continues aging up, and their tastes and preferences become increasingly central to not just advertisers but studios and platforms themselves. Which means we’re going to see more professional, mainstream entertainment and media content that mirrors the specific sorts of original content produced for TikTok, Twitch, and YouTube-style platforms. We’re already in an era when some of the most popular movies and TV shows are based on video game properties like “Five Nights at Freddy’s” or “League of Legends,” which found and grew their devoted fanbases on livestreaming platforms and YouTube playalongs. During this next phase, more and varied kinds of digital-style content are likely to seep into the mainstream.
Hulu’s “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” – premiering this Friday on the Disney-owned platform – essentially merges the classic TV reality series and the social media true-crime doc into a single seamless package. It’s Bravo’s “Real Housewives” franchise meets Netflix’s “Tinder Swindler” or “Don’t F**k with Cats.”
It centers on #MomTok, a group of Mormon mom influencers who gained viral fame via fun and occasionally flirtatious videos in which they challenged conventional notions about women in the LDS church. In 2022, the group became tabloid fodder after breakout star Taylor Frankie Paul announced she and her husband Tate were divorcing, and gave insight into the group’s so-called “soft swinging” lifestyle. The series catches up with Paul and her fellow MomTokkers to take in the aftermath of the scandal and check in with their lives. It’s a case of Hollywood using content creators not as a way to reach an intended audience, or to give their latest product a sheen of authenticity and relevance. The content creators are the show. (It’s worth noting, Hulu’s prior stab at a similar concept – a reality series about the family life of TikTok stars Charli and Dixie D’Amelio – was canceled last year after three seasons.)
As ever, this represents something of a double-edged sword for creators and aspiring creators. On the one hand, no matter which platform you start out upon, and what kind of content you make there, more diverse kinds of opportunities are now available in the entertainment and media spaces than ever before. TikTok stars are getting invited to cover politics at the White House, and the suggestion that VP and presidential candidate Kamala Harris should promote her campaign on YouTube’s “Hot Ones” has gained real traction. Silicon Valley consultant Barry Enderwick of Instagram’s “Sandwiches of History” account is now a published cookbook author. Digital creators going mainstream were previously expected to rework their style and approach to fit conventional Hollywood expectations and formats, as with Grace Helbig and Lilly Singh being brought on to make “talk shows.” Today, everything is starting to look more like internet content, and all of these lines are being blurred.
At the Venice Film Festival this week, filmmaker Harmony Korine (“Gummo,” “Aggro Dr1ft”) suggested that young creative minds are losing interest in pursuing careers in conventional formats like TV and film, and are instead attracted to more contemporary pursuits like livestreaming. He raised eyebrows by comparing popular and divisive streamer IShowSpeed to iconic Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky (“Solaris,” “Stalker”), but he’s the guy who wrote “Kids.” He loves attention.
In general, Korine’s not wrong. It’s inevitable that young and creative minds would be drawn to the most popular and lively platforms of the day, and that hasn’t been mainstream Hollywood filmmaker for some time. It’s clearly Twitch. And finally, the mainstream entertainment industry is paying closer attention, not just looking at Twitch as a farm for new talent or a place to put ads, but as an incubator for the next generation of media and celebrities.
Sadly, double-edged swords have two sides. Blurring all of these lines makes it far easier for individual creators – without the vast resources of a major Hollywood studio or media company behind them – to stand out and get attention. For every Hawk Tuah Girl who cuts through all the noise and comes out with her own podcast, there are thousands of talented creators making and sharing awesome videos that simply get lost in the shuffle.
In 2024, celebrities are competing for the same eyeballs on the same platforms as everyday people. Arguably the world’s most famous soccer player, Cristiano Ronaldo, has set a public goal of surpassing Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson in total YouTube subscribers. Think about that. MrBeast is just some guy who built up an audience organically by making popular videos. Cristiano Ronaldo is very likely professional football’s top goal scorer OF ALL TIME. We’re in an era where those two guys are genuinely locked in a real competition, and it’s unclear who’s going to win. It’s unprecedented.
