Do you think you prefer to watch ‘highbrow’ TV? Look again at pop culture

Cultural enlightenment is in the eye of the TV viewer, and it’s my job to respect that

As a culture writer, a large part of my time outside the office is spent trying to absorb as much arts content as possible. Keeping up with the cultural output these days is an uphill battle, and I’m pretty certain I could quit sleeping entirely and still struggle to watch everything Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and HBO release (and this still doesn’t account for other streaming platforms nor films, music, films or books).

I’m not complaining, mind you – I’m very aware how lucky I am to be able to log on to Netflix because I have to, for work, rather than as a tool of procrastination from my real job.

If anything, I love being exposed to content I wouldn’t have chosen on my own. Casting a wide net is an essential part of culture coverage – and yes, that means watching, reading and listening to the more straightforwardly “highbrow” as well as the part that gets too easily dismissed as “pop culture”.

Here is a snapshot of the things I have read and watched over the past few weeks:

Two seasons of Fleabag

A romance novel called The Bride Test

Old episodes of ER (in my humble opinion, the best TV show of all time)

Ava Duvernay’s new Netflix series When They See Us, about the Central Park Five case

Eat, Pray, Love

Author Elizabeth Gilbert’s new novel City of Girls

The first episode of The Society

Netflix’s modern take on Lord of the Flies

The second season of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Nina LaCour’s young adult novel We Are Okay

The much-discussed (and oft-maligned) popular TV show Love Island

People like to think that the world is divided in two categories: the people who watch easily consumable reality TV such as Love Island, and the people who watch edgy feminist series such as Fleabag. But that’s not how it works. We live in a world in which both Love Island and Fleabag exist, often consumed alongside one another, and where they have both achieved immense success by their own metrics. In fact, I would go as far as to say both experiences feed off each other.

Watching a deeply heteronormative, not particularly feminist show such as Love Island reminds me why shows such as Fleabag are needed. And my viewing experience of Fleabag is made all the more intense by the fact that I grew up watching shows just like Love Island (I’m from France, but my home country has its fair share of reality TV made in just the same way). Indeed, some of the issues thrown up by Love Island – relationships, friendships, gender identity, femininity, masculinity, class snobbery and even mental health – are extremely socially important, and make excellent fodder for long-read features, no doubt labelled by many as “highbrow”, which use the programme as their peg.

Fleabag fans, likewise, enjoy a “listicle” compiling the best quotable moments from the series every once in a while. Not every piece of cultural output – pop or otherwise – stays neatly in its own box.

Much as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, cultural enlightenment is in the eye of the TV viewer. And a good culture writer’s job is to respect that.

Yours,

Clémence Michallon

US culture writer