What was the last ‘Water Cooler’ moment you can remember? If you’re like me it was the double-header of Marvel’s Endgame and the finale to Game of Thrones in April & May 2019.

Those two examples had a decade of momentum, word of mouth, and expectations behind them. They had two global fanbases, with a lot of crossover, eager to see how loose threads would be resolved and to debate the outcome.

Mass viewership of the MCU has drifted away like Thanos’ dust in the almost six years since that moment. Game of Thrones, while different from sitcoms, hit the massive mainstream buzz of shows like Seinfeld, Friends, and The Office in being must-see TV every time it was on before it fizzled out into a damp squib at the end. While House of the Dragon has regained some of GoT’s buzz, it is far from the all-conquering show its predecessor was.

Meanwhile nothing has stepped into the void left by these twin pillars of mass media. Why?

The COVID-19 pandemic paints a stark line between 2019 and today. It changed so much about how we live, work, and consume. But it is not to blame for the lack of mainstream entertainment. At least not primarily.

The truest culprit is streaming and the massive stratification of audiences that has taken place over the last decade or so.

When there were fewer options we all watched the same thing. Those who may have missed it immediately felt the social impact of that error and didn’t make it again. Even as more and more channels were added, people still had very few quality options for what to watch in the evening.

While the addition of home video and then DVDs added some variety and helped to create cult classics like Donny Darko and Fight Club, the latest in entertainment media was still restricted to a handful of TV channels and the movie theatre.

Then high-speed internet and Netflix came in. Slowly, inexorably, entertainment shifted from live can’t-miss TV and cinema to binging shows in a weekend. Streaming, with its lack of ad breaks and on-demand viewing changed how people consumed shows. Netflix’s boom just kept on going and pushed production companies and publishers to grab for a slice of the profits. Prime Video, Disney+, Paramount Plus, HBO Max… the list goes on.

When COVID hit and closed cinemas, it changed how people consumed movies too. Suddenly Disney and Warner Bros had to drop their movies onto ‘Premium Video On Demand’ services where a family of four could watch in the comfort of their own home for less than a trip to the cinema ever was.

Movie theatres haven’t really recovered, and the time between a cinematic release and an at-home debut has gone from months to weeks. A huge number of households have good TVs and sound systems, only further incentivising patience over FOMO when it comes to the latest cinematic releases.

And all of a sudden we reach today. Movies come and go without making much of a “can’t miss” buzz. Only a meme and childhood nostalgia created a blockbuster season in 2023. It was a similar story in 2024, with Hugh Jackman’s return to play Wolverine creating the biggest swell in cinema. But Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Deadpool all came and went in a flash.

It’s a similar story for shows, where nothing creates a wave anymore. While Amazon throws billions at Rings of Power it can’t by mainstream success. The gaps between seasons in shows like Stranger Things and Euphoria prevent them picking up enough momentum to matter.

Meanwhile the alogrithms have put us all in box while big data dictates what gets made now. Netflix knows our tastes so well it only recommend the same things, cutting the knees out from under one of the founding ideas of streaming – discovery of new things. Shows are commissioned and created with the idea of people not paying attention to them. In six short years TV and movies have become background noise while we doom scroll.

And yet there is hope. Oddly this hope lies with the younger generations who are barely interacting with TV shows and movies, opting for YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok instead.

As audiences dwindle with time, the quality of TV shows and movies will have to increase and the options will shink. We will all once again start watching the same thing, and when that day comes the pub debates and water cooler discussions will start again.

Until then though, I guess I’ll just watch The Office again.