It is difficult to determine since when the innocence on YouTube (and actually every other moving image portal) is over. A lot of things that should look light and relaxed there had long been strictly timed. Every gag, every move, every laugh, every tear. And because the hustle and bustle there can be arranged so nicely according to performance principles, followers, views and so on, it will soon be over with garage, cellar and children's room productions for good. That's not to say it won't look like it anymore, only professional managers and web video producers are in charge now. Even seasoned television comedians are now doing their kebabs on Twitch and have to adapt to followers who speak their own language and communicate in live chat via symbols and links that refer to further links,at the end of which there is only one thing: thumbs up or thumbs down.

Axel Weidemann

Editor in the features section.

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Influencer and breakdancer Julien Bam, made famous by snappy dance videos and parodies, once had a YouTube channel with more than five million subscribers, a lot of stress and two burnouts. Now he has his own Netflix series: "Life's a Glitch". Behind this is a thought that has long been going through the heads of those in charge of many companies: Get the influencers on board, then come the "community", the young and Be-Influenctes. Even better, you build the influencers yourself. But that's not easy. Network stars need a believable past full of blood, sweat and tears. It just can't be too dirty. Videos that are no longer opportune are quietly removed, interviews are only granted if sins of youth that endanger the new brand are left out.New medium, old fame game.

The self-doubts of the mainstream entertainment industry

To ironically break this game, which has long since ceased to exist, the new Netflix series has big plans.

Because you are, of course, a little proud of the wealth you have made yourself.

The seductive shells of power and money - suits, girls, carts - are part of the visual vocabulary.

That Julien Bam and his buddy Joon Kim try it under the direction of Bam's brother Shawn Bu is honorable, but also has to do with the self-doubts of the established entertainment industry and the general trend towards ambiguity disguised as humor.

Don't hurt anyone, don't frighten anyone, except for the enemy images of the respective target group.

Play it - but safe!

We see Julien Bam and his buddy Joon Kim (both playing themselves) at the celebration of Julien's Personality of the Year award. On the way back they crash into a radio mast with the white electric car and land through a kind of matrix error (glitch) in a parallel dimension in which the sidekick Joon is the celebrated gangster rapper J $$ N, while Bam drives a taxi. Clara (Vivien König) announced for a date is suddenly a tough MMA fighter. The whole how-do-we-come-back-home-scenario is with nice effects, an attempted cut, but above all linguistically trimmed to 2021, but exudes a touch of GZSZ in the dialogues with all niceness.

That's no reason to switch off: Because the series doesn't know which note to play, it tries wildly.

Successful scenes succeed because Bam focuses on his core business, as in the gangster rap video parody in which Madieu Ulbrich shines as Bam's worst competitor Diego: “All models love me as if I were on the catwalk. “Certainly, formal aesthetic points of view could still be called up, but at some point, as a critical viewer, you will also come to the conclusion that you may simply be too old for this stuff.

Life's a Glitch with Julien Bam

, on Netflix.