“A direct result of viewership is comparison”.
As viewers, audience members, watchers, however you choose to define it, we are constantly measuring what we see. We compare characters, recognize tropes, and trace storylines in an attempt to find something relatable with the characters or the show, film or series itself. And so often we find ourselves in a number of characters after hours of watching, linking events and random “that's so me!” outbursts.
I personally watch a lot of shows both foreign and local (Nigerian) and a lot of times I find myself disliking most of the characters. And there's usually only one character that keeps my interest throughout the story progression. These characters I enjoy are mostly linked to a character trait that mirrors mine usually with one quirk I'll wish I could fix.
Other times I get exhausted by the experience and stop midway with no chance of continuing or picking it up again.
Most of the stories feel washed, rinsed and recycled. Take many mainstream Nigerian films, for example: the wealthy but unfulfilled character searching for meaning, who then finds love in someone from a completely different, often poorer background. That relationship becomes their solution to everything.
To be fair, it's not always the same, there are some really good stories in Nollywood but it doesn’t change the fact that majority of the mainstream movies lack depth and meaning and at the very least serve as means of revenue generation; basically churning out anything and making loads of money off the same mechanism.
The dominant pattern becomes hard to ignore.
In a recent discussion with friends, the exact issue came up and ended with a divided consensus. A couple of them blamed the financiers of the industry for the increase in weak feel good movies as opposed to African stories with depth. Simply put, film is expensive, predictability is safe.
Others argued the opposite saying the industry was simply responding to the audience which I found insulting as it suggested that we as viewers were immune to good storytelling and preferred just about anything.
Realistically, they weren’t speaking far from the truth, cinemas being filled, record breaking numbers and insane views suggest just that to the makers of this movies and serve as a form of encouragement. Numbers don't lie.
Take for example, “Love In Every Word”, a YouTube movie released last year had about 33million views despite facing a bit of critique for being a product placement haven with yet another recycled story line, to no one’s surprise a second part was released gaining 22 millions and more in views. This sends a clear message and the cycle continues.
This makes it difficult to blame one party over the other because whatever deterioration we think is happening is not the fault of one party alone, it’s more of a collaborative problem that needs to be addressed from bottom up. From the writers, producers, directors, actors down to the financiers, a better focus on story impact should be prioritized rather than views that don’t mean much.
That said, the existence of standout films proves that depth and originality are still possible. This shows that the problem is not capability but consistency.
If anything is to change, it's obvious solutions; writers should be given room to take risks. Producers need to have the confidence to back them. Audiences, perhaps most importantly, need to support stories that challenge them, not just the ones that comfort them.
Because as long as familiarity is favored more than originality, the stories will continue to feel the same and viewers will continue to recognize the pattern long before the credits roll.