And it has never been more powerful.
This has led to the rise of —shows like The Great British Bake Off or Schitt’s Creek , designed not to challenge us, but to regulate our nervous systems. Simultaneously, it has produced the "rage-bait" documentary (think Tiger King ), optimized for shock value and social media fragmentation.
Welcome to the age of the . The Death of "Low-Brow" and the Rise of the Niche Blockbuster For decades, critics and scholars separated "high art" from "popular entertainment." Today, that distinction feels archaic. We are witnessing the prestige-ification of genre content.