TikTok harbors over one billion users, and if you’re one of them, chances are you’ve seen the minute-long clips of TV shows popping up in your feed, usually complete with an anti-copyright edit at the end, or a clip of badly played Subway Surfers at the bottom.
But even if you’re not on TikTok, you’ve probably seen the same clips circulating throughout Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts or any other app that’s sure to kill your attention span.
Most of the shows featured on these apps are actually half-hour comedies with little to no repercussions for their characters, which makes it easy to jump into the middle of an episode and not feel like you missed anything. These short clips are also easier to watch because you don’t need to devote time to turning on a TV show and paying attention to it.
But what shows are actually worth watching?
“YOUNG SHELDON”
“Young Sheldon,” a thirty-minute CBS sitcom, is one of the most popular shows on BingeTok, gracing viewers’ screens so often that they can’t help but become invested in the lives of the Cooper family, no matter how annoying Sheldon can be.
“Young Sheldon” carries a lot of heart in just half an hour. The show’s plots are honestly pretty intriguing and easily digestible, although the latter part allows a lot of room for it to be used as background noise.
The show takes a different approach to comedy than its predecessor, “The Big Bang Theory” by delving into a multi-camera format, having an absence of a laugh track and being actually funny. In fact, one of the only things they have in common is that Sheldon is the worst character.
Despite “Young Sheldon’s” cancellation, viewers are sure to find reruns of their favorite episodes on TikTok, and should be on the lookout for yet another spinoff, “Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage” which is sure to make its appearance soon.
“GREY’S ANATOMY”
“Grey’s Anatomy” serves as one of the more intense shows featured across social media, and sucks people in every time. The show has 21 seasons and counting, which most people won’t sit through unless it is in one-minute intervals.
Each episode spans about forty minutes and is full of drama, both medical and romance. One of the most famous episodes involves a shooting at the hospital, which pulls at the heartstrings of viewers and adds a layer of depth to each of its characters.
This depth however, is squandered thanks to the writers decision to kill their characters off rather than wrap up their storylines nicely. The show’s premise allows for many new characters to join the ensemble, but with the possibility of death looming around every corner, fans are unable to form a lasting connection with them like the original cast.
While the writing itself is still good, the plotlines have gone significantly downhill, with a decrease in ratings proving this. Many viewers watch simply because they have been watching for so long already.
Rather than a medical degree, the takeaway from “Grey’s Anatomy” is that quality is always better than quantity, and that this show is better left in the vertical format.
“AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE”
While this show is more prominent on Reels than TikTok, you might recognize it as the one with the really annoying mom who does nothing but meddle in her kids’ lives. To no one’s surprise, that plot line carries over from the minute-long clips to the actual thirty-minute show.
Many of the characters are reduced to a sitcom stereotype, and are exaggerated from the very beginning, which makes viewing the show frustrating. Watching this show requires a huge suspension of disbelief, as well as a tolerance for bad acting.
Most of the plot lines are also stock and do not bring anything new to the table, making the show boring to watch and extremely hard to pay attention to.
The show was also met with a ton of criticism for the decisions of its main character, who is often used as “rage bait” online.
Despite the unfiltered content that Reels displays, the app still carries many better things to watch.
“DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES”
Even though “Desperate Housewives” is labeled as a drama, TikTok’s algorithm emphasizes the comedic scenes, which in one minute, provide more laughs than the previous “Housewife” show does in a season.
Watching this show definitely takes more time thanks to the fact that it originally aired in an hour-long time slot. Additionally, this is one of the shows that you need to pay attention to if you don’t want to be totally lost.
Fans of dramas, mysteries and anything early 2000s may be interested in this show. The plotlines are original and very well developed, but like “Grey’s Anatomy,” they get too “soap-opera-y” as the show goes on, which is around the time Juanita shows up, a character that many TikTok users have watched the show for.
Many TikTok creators often steal this content for their own personal gain, harming the show in the long run thanks to a lack of viewership.
Even though the majority of these shows are off the air, they all have more than enough seasons and episodes for a binge.
The only question is what is more pathetic? Knowing everything about a show without watching a single episode? Or watching hours of a show until Netflix asks you a question of their own.
