“I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve been thinking recently that maybe allowing giant digital media corporations to exploit the neurochemical drama of our children for profit was a bad call by us.” — Bo Burnham, Inside
The most appealing aspect about streaming services like Netflix and Hulu is how shows can be rediscovered years after they’ve come and gone from television schedules. Bo Burnham and Dan Lagana’s Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous first aired on MTV May 2nd, 2013, was canceled on June 26th, and played its last episodes June 29th. The show’s mockumentary display of a high school graduate who sees fame as his life’s fix-all intrigued critics but failed to sustain viewership above 650,000 watchers, wiping it from the airwaves in all of two months. Here today, gone in a blink — until the series landed on Netflix late last December.
I never caught the show during its initial airtime, nor do I think my college self would have fully appreciated its commentary in his earlier days of social media usage. Why? Because Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous has matured over time to satirize not only reality show worship of the rich and famous like in Keeping Up With The Kardashians, but “influencer” statuses and the deception of realism that internet personalities create.
Streaming services allow themes and messages from misunderstood or initially forgotten titles to age like fine wine, deserving another reassessment with newfound social context. Titles that were ahead of their time or never widely marketed are given another chance years later. Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous earns that second chance since I'm here writing about how Burnham nails the dangers of chasing surreal popularity and personas built on brands — a timeless and evergreen topic.
“Entertainers are lying. They are manipulating you, and it's not in a good way. It's like advertising. You deserve better.” — Bo Burnham, Make Happy
Burnham and co-creator Lagana (showrunner on Netflix's…