The Social Television Phenomenon
And, I'm not talking about streaming Netflix from your phone.
In the social media era of GRWMs and creating giant E.L.F. lip glosses, everyone is seeking the “it” factor to make them stand out from the masses on social media. Scrolling through my timeline, I find other appealing watches aside from the makeup, skincare, and vlogging content I know and love.
I would now like to introduce and coin the term, Social Television. I define this term as the independent TV shows I have seen emerge right on my algorithms outside of the major streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu.
Different from skits, these short-form video storylines lead into a bigger story, much like a television show with episodes and multiple seasons, introducing new characters and developing original ones, introducing new plotlines while referring to previous ones — the list is endless.
Here are Social TV shows you should be watching if you haven’t seen them yet:
For Slice of Life
Eavesdropping
I haven’t managed to watch all of Eavesdropping, but I have been intrigued by the tidbits I have seen as the romance unfolds between the two main characters the series follows. Eavesdropping is a social-first web series with one to three-minute episodes released twice a week, according to Eavesdropping’s Patreon page.
The series follows the story of two high school classmates who reconnect after 10 years and navigate their new friendship as adults under the slogan, “Two friends try staying friends.” It has what you would expect out of a slice of life, including drama, romance, real-life scenarios, etc. There are up to 78 episodes live on their TikTok page at this time, so let’s watch them together here!
For Dramedy
The Group Chat
Sydney Jo and The Group Chat creation is ingenious, to say the least, as it depicts every girl’s group chat at a point in their lives — or even now, depending on your life.
The series follows a group of girlfriends dealing with the highs and lows in their friendship, all in a group chat with each of their responses in real time. Recent debacles in the group chat include one of the friends seeing a third party’s fiancé and the chaos that ensued on one of the friends’ bachelorette trips.
It not only shows girlhood and womanhood like how girl group chats normally function, but also how girl friendship dynamics can potentially play out when there are differing personalities in the group. There are up to 23 episodes live on Sydney’s account, split into seasons and episodes. Catch up here before the start of the fourth mini-season.
For Comedy
The Spud Hut
I love it when a short bit from a YouTube video turns into a whole new mini-series. The Spud Hut is a fully improvised series from Smosh that follows the misadventures of Jerry Spruce, the manager of the Spud Hut, and his employees in their attempts to keep the business up and running, from the declining mall population to facing off against other businesses.
This undoubtedly has made me laugh and has been one of my favorite series to come out of a tidbit of a Smosh Games video, “Court Is In Session.” Check out the complete series here for three hours of laughs and improvisation.
From Social Media to Screen
The Kouncil
Katie Florence started her Kouncil skits in the pandemic era, which follows the adventures of a woman’s heart, brain, lady parts, logic, anxiety and more as she journeys through her 20s.
The skits have scored Florence with her own show on Peacock called The Kouncil, where these adventures continue to a wider scale audience on streaming services. In the first season, the show focuses on how these inner thoughts help Katie navigate a messy breakup.
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As a lover of the skit on TikTok, I am excited to sit down and binge this short series next. The first season of The Kouncil has a total of six episodes, completing its first season, and is available to be streamed on Peacock.