This piece of media can’t be truly appreciated with any kind of discussion beforehand. Just watch it first.
While my interests in media have been mostly relegated to material which exists in a long lasting and understood way, films that get preserved on reels and presented like they always have or books dedicated to text which contains all you need about the art and its message, there are fascinating and difficult to define alternative ways of telling and hosting stories that can be moving and complex in its own way, even offering an experience more or less unique to it. While it’s questionable if youhitmetal17times_everyday hopes to say anything, its nature of delivery as a series of videos you can choose to scroll through in a row, skip through, or read the comments of is unlike much before. I watched most of these multiple months in the project, with people hyping up the series and the experience of watching it in the comments. For just over a month, the same video was uploaded each day, which is a common thing to happen on Instagram, where the series is posted. Despite this repetition, the experience wasn’t nearly as boring due to how short the first video is and the comments. Instagram even sometimes makes a comment visible automatically. The comments that were at the top of the feed were the more amusing or insightful, reflecting the various thoughts a newbie will think. Is it just going to be one video forever? Is everyone else getting bored at the same point? I treat the comments as part of the experience due to their nature being predictable, probably with the creator of the series, Adrian Gray, aware ahead of time of what the comments would be like and how that would affect newcomers.
As you go through the same segment over and over, possibly without knowledge it will ever change, a numbing effect occurs, with it seeming increasingly ridiculous that one would keep watching these. You then overcome significant relief when the story finally changes. After the first change there’s typically a formula of the same video just a few times, then a new swap. While it makes sense to stay true to the concept of repetition, these lose the impact of the initial cycle due to not happening enough to be mind numbing or little enough to not just get annoying. A solution would be hard to find for this due to the nature of the story. To stay true to the origins of the series and themes of being trapped, It does make me hope that the tale ends with something open-ended enough to seem like there’s more coming, then it just repeats over and over again.
Everything we see is a bit off and surreal. As an example, we mostly just get protagonist Mikaeli’s perspective and are asked to relate to him by him having very relatable and typical goals, so any short without him is automatically especially off-putting. That off-putting world is seemingly the “real one”, with Mikaeli in a fake one. This reversal parallels modern life to some, those who relate more to the internet than the real world. Another element of strangeness is that the simplicity of the protagonist and his wants essentially tricks us into rooting for him despite him not having much character or personality. He’s often given little quips that make him memorable. This is not uncommon in media, with us relating to real game show contestants for similar reasons. The notable example is Mikaeli’s “Fair enough” comment. If one just sees the first video once, you might not think much of that, though that line becomes catchy and telling about the character simply by it being emphasized and repeated. Even on a base level, it’s funny that that line always seems to come up.
SPOILERS
Meta-textuallty, we are essentially being put in the time loop by watching all of these, feeling the struggle of Mikaeli to a degree. You can also laugh at the fact that unlike Mikaeli, we don’t have to. We probably do it out of some arbitrary sense of “completeness” or for the extremely minimal differences there sometimes are to two otherwise identical shorts. The sense of being part of an event and being supported by others creates enough fun and enjoyment to watch what is on paper boring and unmarketable. That in itself becomes part of the joy of it all, that it is so different and random. It would be difficult to replicate this experience on film.
Taking the narrative at face value, some of the segments are less interesting than others, basically being set up that has comparatively less humor. The main appeal story-wise is seeing what happens to Mikaeli. The Fair Enough song is the prime example of how potent the comedy can be, while also sticking to the themes. It seems that this series is about being trapped in a cheesy tv show, which would have things like musical numbers. Its music and comedy are both much more clever than you’d expect, with this sense that reality is bending to conform to weird television ideas. By comparison, it’s less realistic to have you from the future show up, though such a concept was still funny. Hopefully that’s resolved, as it hasn’t yet been addressed.
OVERVIEW
Due to the modern medium of a social media app, this may be a commentary on the cyclical nature of quick content, which often falls into numbing patterns. It is important to keep videos short for attention spans, and have a hook. The fact the footage is based on 1980s television draws comparison between both types of mass entertainment. Both game shows and social media videos are criticized as filler for the mind. This series at least seems to treat this particular show as especially formulaic and inane. Whether or not that is connected to Instagram or is given more of a point and payoff remains to be seen.
Watching these day after day might bring with it a vastly different experience to binging. The numbing effect is probably more apparent with the binging, being more invasive on the mind. Unlike with traditional movies, those viewing methods make for two separate feelings from youhitmetal17times_everyday. As such, it’s a wonderful gander into what it’s like to be the type of person that watches things like this with some possibly accidental meta-commentary to boot. It’s a decent watch, even if you end up skipping around, though trust that if you do you’re missing something.
The Filme Diary 