The Enticing Lure of Brain Rot Television

I fell down a Below Deck hole last week. It was real deep. Now I’m questioning how much of our TV viewing is brain rot…

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I kept seeing it wink at me every time I went onto my Netflix account. ‘New series of Below Deck COMING SOON’. It was like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey. I was gagging for a nibble.

I happened to have a weekend free. There wasn’t even a hangover. I settled into my couch after running my errands (pie from the butchers, dry cleaning picked up, kettlebell session done) and immediately fell deep. I literally couldn’t get enough of it. Captain Lee and all his horny little crew members debating their new guests arriving, the inevitable horrific nights out after a charter ends, the chef with a clear drink problem who will be full of regret the next day, the stud who can’t keep it in his pants, the useless deckhand who won’t last long – the cast is written in the stars before they step onboard.

Hell, I lay there for so long watching Below Deck that I got a genuine crook in my neck and was uncomfortable for close to a week. What the actual…

It's not that dissimilar to a Christmas panto, is it? Everybody has a role to play, everybody knows what they’re there to do and the result is pretty much always the same. Just with different people in the lead roles.

This show is the ultimate Brain Rot television. I think my posh new telly and Netflix asked me twice during my mega binge session if I wanted to “continue watching”. YES. A big fat yes. But am I gross for wanting this? YES. My name’s Dean and I’ve thought long and hard about my television watching of late and, to be frank, I need to hold my hands up and admit I’m thoroughly into brain rot telly.

Housewives, The Kardashian’s and Murder documentaries. I’m watching it all. Pure shite. But what makes us keep going for more? I can’t get enough.

Well, it’s got me thinking that just like our social media accounts there’s a clever little algorithm that’s forcing us to allow our brain to rot. Specifically, the streamers. They seem to just want to produce a large slice of shite to ensure we watch and watch and watch. We know it’s shite. We know it’s killing our brain cells. But we can’t stop.

Like so much of our daily lives in 2025 we are just coping with a world that wants to make us addicts on every level. All the big companies want to fuck us up. As much as possible. With zero responsibility for what they’ve started. Smoking, Instagram, drinking, phones, iPads, drugs, TikTok, vapes, junk food...the list goes on and on. Everything that’s made millions in our society has caused huge disruption to us as human beings.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it feels like television has gone down that murky road to entice and lure people into a new type of addiction. Everything is being signed up for seven seasons (just to make money and build a brand), TV dramas are getting seriously brain rotty (Ted Lasso and Emily in Paris have been awful but addictive after great first seasons) and we are all watching streamer shows that really wouldn’t make it on terrestrial television.

Then you have shows like Adolescence coming out on Netflix that are exploring our children, screen time, online bullying and that entire genre. Pot kettle, much? (BTW – I fucking loved it…obviously)

One of the biggest issues I have with streamers is the fact the quality control of productions is being led on the algorithms. The shows that are getting green lit aren’t necessarily being given the dollar because they’re great shows. If anything, they’re being made because they’re just the right proportion of shite addictive television.

What’s the other issue? People like me can’t get fucking enough. Jeez. I wish I was a person with morals. But I’m not when it comes to telly. I love me some steamy shit.

The bosses of the streamers are purely thinking about what will perform well and what people will watch from start to finish or binge – to keep them on the platform. It does feels like they’ve forgotten about the quality control element on a human level.

I guess you have to ask this question – do the viewers just want rubbish easy-going not particularly well written crap on their televisions these days. Because that’s actually what they have got. From reality shows to dramas – there’s a lot of ‘middle ground’ shows. You know, easy to binge your way through, not setting the world alight but easy to devour all the same.

It’s clear to see. How many shows on Netflix do you think would work on a terrestrial television channel? And how many are purely for the streamer audience. There are several issues. The next generation of viewers don’t necessarily want high quality productions. They generation after will likely watch most of their TV on their smartphones or tablets. They desire YouTube content over a full-blown expensive drama. Hell, my nephew must have shown me the trailer to Sonic 3 approximately 876 times. We watched it last week and the second he finished it on my laptop he started watching it again. If I tried to get him to go for a walk, he screamed. He later told me he “hated walking” and wouldn’t be leaving the house again. He’s lucky he’s cute ;-)

The streamers just want tonnes of shows and delivered at the speed of light. They want shows to magically appear within weeks or months from filming. It’s impossible to keep quality control going at the current speed.

We are also now in an era of huge named stars doing truly dire films for streaming services only. These are literally films that would tank at the box office but on a streamer, they are so terrible they’re considered ‘good’.

There’s the awful new Amy Schumer, the new Reese Witherspoon ‘comedy’ with Will Ferrell, all those weird Lindsay Lohan Netflix Christmas movies (great for a hangover) and you can’t forget Brad Pitt and George Clooney’s universally panned film Wolfs on Apple. It’s like the big names just want to keep working but even they have decided to take the cash and go through the motions on terrible streamer films.

They’re marketed well, are watched by millions despite being terrible and I guess you could deem these dreadful films as good profile raisers for the “real” wide-released cinema movies or TV channel productions.

If you want quality control right now, you need to look at the terrestrial channels and their high-end dramas. That’s what television should be. But they’re screwed too – with not enough cash in their budget to make enough shows to keep up with public demand for content. It’s a vicious circle and to be honest until the streamers start to learn to say no, we are going to wading through treacle to find any sort of gem.

Or, like me, we are going to basking in tonnes of dreadful brain rot shite television.

P.S. God the Kardashians was good last week.

P.P.S. I hate myself.

And finally, thanks Rave for serving me another brilliant phrase. Brain rot is officially all yours.