#SetTheVCR: TV Double-Dipping

George Costanza // Carl Lentz // Matthew Broderick

Yo…

Remember this signature Seinfeld moment?

Timmy: “You double-dipped the chip!”

George Costanza: “So?”

Timmy: “That’s like putting your whole mouth in the dip! Look, when you take a chip, just take one dip and END IT!”

Seinfeld is clearly right; though sadly double-dipping doesn’t just apply to chips at a funeral.

Double-dipping is an odd and silly TV trend.

On Valentine’s Day 2017 (good marketing!) Netflix streamed Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies, and Cyber Attacks. “The shocking story of the Ashley Madison hacking scandal.”

Ashley Madison is a Canadian online dating service and social networking service…for individuals who wish to have an affair. Tinder for married people.

In 2015 it was hacked and the personal information of millions of users was released to the public. Sounds like a fascinating backdrop for a documentary. Currently Netflix’s doc sits at 5.5/10 on IMDB. Not good if you hold ratings like that in high regard.

Then on July 7, 2023 Hulu offered a three-part docuseries The Ashley Madison Affair. This one “follows the hack of an infidelity dating website for married people that shocked the public with a scandalous data breach.” So…same concept? It’s batting 5.8/10 on IMDB. Not good if you hold ratings like that in high regard.

Sure…it’s longer than the Netflix doc. And the data breach was 2015; perhaps the 2023 docuseries had more time to review and catalog the fallout. Sure.

But…really? We Did This Already.

Why do we "need" two documentaries on horny married people?

Why are we Double-Dipping?

Here’s another TV Double-Dip.

Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz helped to lead Hillsong’s first church in the United States, in New York City, starting in 2010.

Hillsong, is a charismatic Christian megachurch based in Australia. Lentz’s (Instagram) popularity and friendships with famous folks like Justin Bieber and Kevin Durant began to slide the church away from authenticity towards a superficial platform focused on fashion rather than faith.

Eventually, criticisms of the church flourished: Hillsong’s finances were questioned, the church’s outdated position towards LGBT people snowballed into What Abouts for other groups, while church enemies were silenced or outright ignored.

And Carl Lentz became the latest disgraced pastor when the news broke of his affairs and moral failures. It’s a story as old as the Bible: Hillsong Church flew too close to the Sun. Though that means there’s a lot to unpack for a documentary.

So: a four-part docuseries Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed premiered on Discovery+ on March 24. Cool, thanks.

Then The Secrets of Hillsong, a four-part FX documentary series started streaming on Hulu on May 19. What? Again?

We Did This Already.

There’s that much compelling footage and story for 8 hours of TV?

As a viewer how do you know which one is better?

As they’re both documentaries: which one practises sound journalism and manages to avoid cheap tabloid sensationalism? (Do you want the facts or the dirt? Gossip no matter how true is not journalism.)

Do you watch both of them?

Do you watch the one you have access to? Maybe you have Hulu (well Disney+ Canada) but don’t have Discovery+.

The Secrets of Hillsong has an interview with Carl Lentz. Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed does not.

But! Hillsong: A Megachurch has an interview with Ranin Karim, the woman whose five-month affair with celebrity senior pastor Carl Lentz led to his downfall. The Secrets of Hillsong does not.

So then do you watch both to get the complete picture?

Is this downfall that captivating for 8 hours?

You don’t find any of this frustrating?

One more TV Double-Dip? This is what sparked this annoyed rant.

Dopesick dropped on October 13, 2021 on Hulu; it’s 8 episodes.

The series takes “viewers to the epicenter of America’s struggle with opioid addiction, from the boardrooms of Big Pharma, to a distressed Virginia mining community, to the hallways of the DEA.” Sounds…dope. (Eh, it’s Friday.)

The Hulu limited series is based on Beth Macy’s book of the same name. Got it.

Yet here we are with Painkiller a new limited series from Netflix that (wait for it!) “explores some of the origins and aftermath of the opioid crisis in America.”

Though for 6 episodes. Huh? We Did This Already.

The Netflix limited series is based on the book Pain Killer by Barry Meier and the New Yorker Magazine article The Family That Built the Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe. So how exactly is this different than Dopesick?

For Hulu Michael Stuhlbarg played Richard Sackler.
For Netflix Matthew Broderick played Richard Sackler.

Do you choose by actor? Chances are you know Matthew Broderick.

What about the chicken and the egg? Dopesick streamed on October 13, 2021. Netflix’s Painkiller is almost 2 years later. Wouldn’t you have watched Dopesick in the meantime?

Maybe this is all silly.

We’re simply doomed to endure Double-Dips.

Thing is: I don’t understand the value of the Double-Dip. There’s no new stories to tell? Don’t you as a viewer want to hear and see new stories?

Aren’t you tired of eating leftovers? What are you hungry for?

I don’t appreciate this double-dipping trend. We’re reheating the same stories, over and over again. It slides into cheap sensationalism, not that there is any other kind.

I agree with Timmy on Seinfeld who yelled at George Costanza for double dipping: “Look, when you take a chip, just take one dip and END IT!” Exactly.

Any chance we can mercifully End It? That’s the hope. That Seinfeld episode was from 1993. How are we getting worse in all that time?

When you know better you can be better.

Speaking of Double-Dipping...good luck with this:

Swarm (No The) is a Prime Video TV series co-created by Donald Glover. It premiered on March 17.

It’s about “an obsessed fan of the world’s biggest pop star who sets off on an unexpected cross-country journey.”

I did not watch it. Any good?

Then yesterday CW confirmed:

THE Swarm based on Frank Schätzing’s bestselling novel will air on The CW on September 12.

It’s a German TV show coming to America: THE Swarm is based on attack from an intelligent life force within the Arctic Ocean. This looks like Must Sea TV. (Heh, I like that one…)

It’s a Swarm of stupidity and laziness with these TV show names.

We’re still in the golden era of TV?!

I Miss George Costanza…
Sammy Younan
-28-

Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair podcast: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.