I ran across this list of the top 15 streamed programs last year. I have no reason to doubt it.
Stranger Things
NCIS
Cocomelon
Ozark
Encanto
Grey’s Anatomy
Criminal Minds
Bluey Disney+
Gilmore Girls
Seinfeld
Supernatural
Wednesday
Heartland
Cobra Kai
The Simpsons
And I can't let it slide without commentary. First, I'm glad to see Stranger Things on top. It is a high quality, well written show that young people can enjoy and dodges so many of the culture war pitfalls that causes so much TV to be really bad. Seen it.
I would have suspected the only reason to watch NCIS or Criminal Minds was because you were stuck with old school cable. Formulaic, expository, arch -- the continued existence and popularity of shows like this is baffling to me. Still, can't argue with success.
I gather Cocolemon, Bluey, and Encanto are the hot kids shows of late. Unsurprisingly, I haven't seen any, but maybe when I see the (de jure) grandkids on Thanksgiving.
Ozark is intriguing, but it also sounds like a minefield for potential crime adjacent TV clichés. Still I like Jason Bateman so I should probably check it out.
I wonder who will die first, Grey's Anatomy or me.
When I saw Gilmore Girls I thought it must be a reboot of the old series. Nope. Not as far as I can tell. Pushing a quarter century and people are still watching it? I never watched it; what am I missing?
Now, Seinfeld I can understand. Thirty-something and still in the top ten. That is correct. It's the GOAT sitcom and nothing before or after can touch it. It is still fresh in the current TV landscape. Seen it.
I confess I had never heard of Supernatural until now. A show about monster hunting. My first thought is to hope Darin Morgan is one of the writers (IYKYK). It has had 15 seasons on Netflix, so maybe they are doing something right. May try.
Wednesday was a big hit. It was all over social media for a while and it looks like fun. I might give it a shot.
Heartland is another one I never heard of. A Canadian family drama, presumably more Waltons than Succession. Unless Shoresy shows up and starts chirping, I'll pass (IYKYK). Still, a "Canadian family drama" up that high is impressive.
I occasionally stream Cobra Kai -- I think I'm on season 3 -- and it's really good fun. Tightly written, doesn't take itself too seriously, and Macchio and Zabka are great together. Seen some.
The presence of The Simpsons makes me wonder how many people are just rewatching the early classics or is there a big audience actually trying to stay current on all 35 seasons. Seen some.
One knee-jerk conclusion I could draw is that generational variance isn't that great anymore. I mean, look at the #1, it's new, but set in the 80s with a classic Spielberg flavor to it. All this assumes that the popularity of the shows listed above runs across generations, but that wouldn't surprise me, it's kind of always been like that. I was a fan of Cheers in the '80s, but I also loved the Twilight Zone from the '60s. In the '60s I loved The Monkees, but I also watched The Three Stooges from the '30s. Now folks like Wednesday, but maybe they also like Seinfeld. I see YouTube videos of teens and twenty somethings covering Classic rock. I grew up in a time of the "Generation Gap". Seems that gap has closed.
