Alles Liebe, Annette

People film themselves endlessly and post it online. Got a free perfume in the mail. Went to see a movie. Had drama with some friend. Nobody cares. But they keep filming anyway.

That’s why scripted television is better. Netflix knows it. HBO knows it. German public TV figured it out too. They grabbed actress Barbara Prakopenka and some colleagues and made ’Alles Liebe, Annette’—a soap opera about vlogging. No clue why.

The story: Annette is eighteen, wanted to be a writer, applied to her dream university and got rejected. So she started a vlog out of spite.

It’s not the most gripping premise on paper. But maybe that’s the point. A scripted show about the reality of vlogging is probably more honest than the actual thing. At least there’s intention behind it.