The Gradient Podcast

“If you want to make it on YouTube or something, when you're starting to build a following, you have to go with what people want before you can really go with what your passion is, because you need to be able to grow a following and make money, because at the end of the day, if you're not making money, the creative stuff you do doesn't really matter because it's not influential.”

“I had to watch that because of an ex once. It was terrible. So Riverdale, you know, the first couple seasons, there's no one I really like, and, you know, all it does is just rake in the money, and it's target audience is teenage girls, and it makes them happy. They like the show. They watch it. The show gets money. It keeps going.”

“So what happened with Arrested Development, from my understanding, is the first three seasons happened. But that show was amazing, but it just didn't make enough money. At the time. And another show replaced it on the live TV, and it was forgotten about until Netflix came around, and Netflix rebooted it. And that's when the last two seasons came out, which as an avid fan of Arrested Development, I still thought they were good, but they weren't to the level of what they were. So that shows where it got cut, it was a great show, but it just wasn't making enough money, and then all of a sudden, it came back simply for the money, and the quality wasn't there.”

“And a part of the theory is basically talking about how capitalist politics and economics exert themselves on media audiences. So when Netflix picked up Arrested Development, they did so not... I mean, I'm sure they did like it, like the people that made that decision, but also because they saw the potential of how much money it could make them if they brought it back and started doing it again.”

“He's the guy that he would do those videos like if a celebrity died or something. He'd do those videos basically like capitalizing on their death. Like this celebrity's spirit or something just called me at 3 a.m. It was tailored towards kids, but it was really like dark. And all the kids kept watching. Like it was bringing the guy money, and it was the other YouTubers on the platform that were like, hey, get this guy out of here. Like he's a horrible person for this. And I think even like faked his girlfriend's death for YouTube.”

“It brings in money, right, which affects the creativity. You know, if that's the type of creativity that's making money, that's the type of creativity that gets put out there. If the good type isn't getting the money, you know, that's how those are intertwined. You know, if you get money, it's positive reinforcement to the creativity.”