This week on The Deep Dive: Death Cab for Cutie and The OC effect, the quick rise and fall of Las Vegas’s watchful eye, Fortnite could have been a fad but then it learned how not to take itself too seriously, a rare modern-day teen movie that actually respects its audience, and you know that meme with the dog drinking coffee in a burning room? That’s today’s artists.

Also, there won’t be a newsletter next week, so take this time to catch up on your video essay backlog and The Deep Dive will be back on October 9!

MUSIC

How The OC saved indie rock 🎸 by Little White Lies (14:56)

All it took was one showrunner who cared about the music in their show’s scenes to launch careers, single-handedly alter the course of the industry, and solidify that show’s place in indie music history – don’t you just miss the 2000s? Starting in 2003, a little show you may have heard of called The OC introduced young audiences to Death Cab for Cutie, Rooney, and a dramatized version of what lies behind the Orange Curtain. In this video, Little White Lies uncovers the genius of Josh Schwartz and music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas’s partnership to create an iconic show with an equally iconic soundtrack. By the time viewers caught on to the fact that the show was dictating their music tastes, it had already built a new set and in-story location literally designed to platform the artists it was discovering. But is Death Cab thankful for the exposure The OC gave them? Yes, but also no.

BUSINESS

The Death Of The Vegas Sphere by Pinely (18:40)

After a few viral social media posts that showcased both the best (incredible concert visuals) and worst (huge light-up billboard in the middle of Las Vegas) of the Sphere, Sin City’s orb is starting to lose steam just one year after debuting as an eyeball. The reason? As it turns out, a 16K resolution spherical screen is pretty hard to maintain, use, and sometimes even enjoy, depending on where you’re seated. In this video, Pinely looks back at the past year to tell the story of the rise and potential fall of the Las Vegas Sphere and the tens of millions of dollars it’s now lost over the course of a couple of months. Will the Sphere survive? It’s hard to say. But it definitely isn’t going to be expanding anytime soon now that London has pulled the plug on what could’ve been its second eye-themed landmark.

GAMING

The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Fortnite by gabi belle (21:14)

Long ago, in 2017 BCE (before COVID era), a game loved by 12-year-old boys and blue-haired streamers with weird attitudes about playing with female gamers alike exploded onto the scene. Its overnight success seemed only to spell out one possible outcome – Fortnite was destined to disappear from our cultural consciousness as quickly as it became a household name. But then, something weird happened. It didn’t go away. It stayed around, and for a much longer time than anyone could have anticipated. In this video, gabi belle explains why, which has a lot to do with listening to its fans, leaning into gimmicks, and sometimes even permanently incorporating those gimmicks into the game when it seemed like people liked them. In a space where it should be all fun and games, why does Fortnite feel like the only video game that doesn’t take itself too seriously?

FILM

To All the Boys: how to actually make a teen movie by art at midnight (21:18)

We’re in the midst of a teen movie crisis. The coming-of-age film that once spoke to the angst and experiences of young people now talks down to them, doesn’t respect them, can’t even get their clothing trends right, and definitely won’t bother with visuals and colors that tell a story in and of themselves. If you watched Mean Girls the movie the musical the movie, or any other disaster of a teen flick in recent years, you know this is true. But in this video, art at midnight reminds us of a time when we had one glimmering sign of hope, a reason to be optimistic before the film industry got so much worse before it could get better: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. Not only does it defy the shy-girl trope by introducing a protagonist with cute style and a backbone, but it also has a color story and set design that transports you to the world it creates – you know, how movies are supposed to make you feel?

ART

Why Art No Longer Reflects Reality by Dasia Sade (55:50)

Remember when mainstream artists took it upon themselves to make political and anti-war statements in their work? I was born in the 90s so I barely do, but it seems like something that used to happen kind of a lot. Today, even the handful of artists and creators who are willing to take a stand are swiftly pushed to the margins of their industries thanks to corporate interests and way too few people in charge of making way too big of decisions that impact way too many people’s real lives. And what happened to The Chicks was only the beginning. In this video, Dasia Sade takes a break from roller skating content to highlight how, despite more individual voices being heard than ever thanks to social media and independent art, algorithms and audience fragmentation have made political statements targeted at mainstream audiences virtually impossible to amplify. So what kind of art are we then left with?

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