Lady Gaga, Stranger Things, Squid Game Make for Exhausting Experience
With less than 10 minutes to go before Netflix’s fan extravaganza Tudum began streaming live from the Kia Forum on Saturday, the crowd inside the Inglewood arena was noticeably sparse and listless. More than half the seats remained empty, and those who were there weren’t buzzing with anticipation so much as they were politely hanging out. To boost everyone’s energy, a pre-show emcee turned up the music, commanded everyone to get out of their seats, and began shouting out some Netflix luminaries who were about to take the stage.
“The cast of ‘Outer Banks’ is here!” he said, to tepid applause. “The cast of ‘Stranger Things’ is here!” he continued, to moderate cheers. “Lady Gaga is here!” he concluded, and the audience, finally, began to roar.
Once Tudum got underway, the Forum did fill up (though not to capacity), and the audience did respond with genuine enthusiasm for the parade of A-listers (Ben Affleck! Matt Damon! Daniel Craig! Adam Sandler! Jenna Ortega!) and blockbuster shows (“Squid Game”! “One Piece”! “Wednesday”!) that unfurled over the next two hours. Nothing else, however, kindled anywhere close to the raw exuberance that Lady Gaga — who’s playing a guest role in Season 2 of “Wednesday” — commanded for her two-song performance that closed the show.
Since its launch as a virtual fan event in 2020, Tudum has remained one of the most bewildering marketing gambits of the streaming era. Although several of Netflix’s properties have developed robust fan bases, the overt conceit driving Tudum is that there is, somehow, a massive cohort of Netflix super fans with a rabid appetite for news about all of its programming. How else to explain the cognitive whiplash of ping-ponging from the casts of “Outer Banks,” “Ginny & Georgia,” “Forever” and “My Life With the Walter Boys” answering preselected fan questions, to pro wrestlers from “Monday Night Raw” talking up the reality series “WWE Unreal,” to the cast of “One Piece” appearing accompanied by character descriptions that any fan of the series would never need.
It’s fair to acknowledge that there are people in the world whose Netflix diet could include YA dramas, pro wrestling and live-action anime. It’s much more of a stretch to conclude that those same people are part of a core Netflix fandom that are also eagerly awaiting trailers for the next “Knives Out” movie “Wake Up Dead Man” and Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” with Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi, and dig the sight of Affleck and Damon as Miami police officers in the new original crime thriller “The Rip,” and are excited for the return of Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald) in “Happy Gilmore 2.”
On their own, some of the segments showcasing these titles had their charms. Most of the “Wake Up Dead Man” cast — including Kerry Washington, Jeremy Renner, Mila Kunis and Josh Brolin — joined writer-director Rian Johnson for an extended bit about melodramatic twists in murder mysteries. “Happy Gilmore 2” stars Sandler, McDonald and Julie Bowen fielded audience questions (really, from their costars) with sportscaster Rich Eisen. Affleck and “The Rip” costar Teyana Taylor teased each other about needing glasses to read the teleprompter.
But smashing all of these disparate titles together into one omnibus event had a numbing effect, stifling the impact any single project could make. “Stranger Things” stars Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin and Finn Wolfhard appeared for one of the most affecting presentations, sharing behind-the-scenes footage of their favorite early memories from the show when they were still adorable pre-pubescent moppets, before introducing an intense, all-too-brief preview of their fifth and final season.
Immediately after the “Stranger Things” teaser, the live presentation resumed with Vanessa Lachey presenting the crowd with kiss-cam shots of couples from “Love Is Blind” and “Love on the Spectrum,” who were in the audience.
Netflix’s position atop the industry is built on a business model of universality — they provide an unending buffet of entertainment for everyone — and Tudum certainly aligns with that messaging. Disney has adopted a similar approach with its D23 Expo, which last year offered a three-hour marathon presentation in the Honda Center in Anaheim that covered just about every corner of the company’s output. It’s a shock-and-awe strategy, a way to overwhelm consumers into seeing one’s content as inescapable.
But it’s also antithetical to the genuine fan experience, which is built on a foundation of personal connection and authentic community — something, for instance, that Lady Gaga has expertly cultivated for nearly two decades. It’s no wonder that she was Tudum’s biggest draw.
