Why it is a boring time to be a cultural journalist in some ways: it’s because culture is migrating to the whims of the internet, which is its own set of desires. No more are you advocating for truly excellent works of art, human stories of triumph and perseverance — rather, it’s the crowd’s urges taking you down a slipstream of thoughts, and it’s very difficult to get anything beyond those ideas. It basically turns everything into niches, but you have to be sitting at the cool kids’ table, or your niche of choice simply doesn’t exist. Especially if it caters towards adults (oh god, I’m A.O. Scott, but it’s true).

Imagine how many articles you’d read about UnREAL, which is great, if it was on HBO. Seriously. It is a show that’s sort of discombobulating to watch because it’s on Lifetime.