Tiktok hype house series#

The people of “Hype House” understand, to a fundamental dollars-and-cents level, the power of the internet’s collective will. It’s a force with a will Chase can harness but not quite control.īut the internet itself doesn’t have a mind of its own: It is controlled by the millions of users who work together to elevate some voices and drown out others. The internet is the engine of all the good in his life, as well as all the bad. Noting that he’s grown bitter and closed-off after rumors flew around his breakup, he mirthlessly tells the camera, “Thanks for that, internet,” with a long pause between the last two words as he seeks a word for the thing that’s done him wrong. We see little of what he does, but we are given to understand that it’s working for some millions.Ĭhase’s relationship with his reputation is complicated: He’s spent much of a young life chasing (as it were) his dream, but acknowledges that this pursuit has also ruined him. His interests seem, in the telling of “Hype House,” to be limited to fame. (The breakup happened before the action of the series, and fuels what tension exists.) Chase is a self-styled James Dean for the digital age, with aggressively floppy hair and a mien of muted rebellion. Though Petrou introduces us to the world of “Hype House,” its star is Chase Hudson, a brooding would-be recording artist whose breakup with prominent TikToker Charli D’Amelio, and whose subsequent striking out on his own outside the house, gives this show its first taste of conflict. The cast members’ work is their lives, and vice versa, but they lack the ability to perform for a screen that isn’t on a smartphone, for a length of time greater than sixty seconds. It also makes clear how hard it is to convert one sort of fame to another. The series, with no small effort, establishes that the niche it depicts consists of very well-known people. This makes “Hype House” very likely an introduction to a class of celebrities for some segment of the audience, though it’s hard to imagine who among the uninitiated will keep going once certain unhappy central facts of “Hype House” become clear. Certainly, unlike A-listers whose star quality has an ineffable effect, this crowd can catalyze action from a quantifiable fan base with every move.īut, unlike Lawrence, Hanks, and their peers, TikTok stars would seem to lack that in-between level of awareness: Many people who have not seen “Don’t Look Up” literally know who Lawrence is, whereas to not follow Petrou is quite possibly to be unaware he exists, or that he is working daily to please his massive viewership.

Viewed in a strict mathematical sense, he and his peers could be argued to be as famous as Jennifer Lawrence or Tom Hanks or take-your-pick. (To wit: Petrou is introduced with us with a chyron next to his name indicating that he has 8.1 million followers.) And, while Petrou’s work strikes this viewer as a dog whistle only those deeply attuned to the world of TikTok can hear, it’s fair to note its impact.

They use the house to create content - video clips measured by the attention they elicit. Whereas in the old “Real World” mansion, simply living in an extravagantly emotional way was the job, this reality show features people in an endless work-from-home cycle. The house in question is one shared by TikTok stars, whose work and whose interpersonal conflicts make up the storyline of “Hype House.” These young people reside in a Los Angeles-area mansion that become notorious via New York Times reporting by Taylor Lorenz.

“My whole goal with this house in the first place,” states Thomas Petrou, “was, why can’t people who hit millions of other people be as famous as A-list celebrities?”

Tiktok hype house series#

“ Hype House,” a new reality soap series on Netflix, opens with a very fair question.