TikTok at Nite
This is a reprint of the TV essay from Issue #87 of Exploits, our collaborative cultural diary in magazine form. If you like what you see, buy it now for $2, or subscribe to never miss an issue (note: Exploits is always free for subscribers of Unwinnable Monthly).
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“Shh, my show is on!” Often found as the top comment in viral TikTok videos, the phrase is usually a cheeky wink referring to whatever the drama of the day (or week, or election cycle) is, but more and more you’ll find it meant sincerely below the latest episode of an ongoing series presented in short form. In the ever-expanding landscape of TikTok storytelling, creators are redefining what television can be.
Drew Talbert and Andrea Kelley’s Bistro Huddy is a standout, set in a chaotic restaurant where Talbert shifts between roles and wigs like a one-man repertory cast. Both veterans of the restaurant world, Talbert and Kelley’s workplace comedy has some of the sharpest writing you’ll find on any screen, large or small, and Talbert’s precise character work makes you forget immediately that everyone from the beleaguered GM, annoyed customers, salty chefs and waiters sassy and sweet is played by the same person (a truth applicable to every series mentioned here and most TikTok “shows” in general).
Mackenzie Barmen’s Sixty-Somethings is a tender series that explores romance, regret and reinvention later in life. Through a cast of lovingly crafted retirees – all played by Barmen wearing various digital filters to change her face – the show tracks the halting steps of a group of lifelong friends navigating dating, friendship and forgiveness. Beneath the sometimes-comical filters – one makes Barmen look so much like William H. Macy that commenters often suggest submitting the actor himself for award consideration – lies a poignant meditation on love’s enduring power even after decades of heartache. It’s funny but also quietly devastating – prestige TV in miniature.
Shawna Lander’s interconnected series of videos, dubbed “The Shawnaverse,” weaves generational trauma, sibling rivalry and parental manipulation into darkly comic plotlines. Imbuing all her characters with impressively naturalistic behavior, Lander invites viewers to both laugh and wince in recognition. Meanwhile Casey Dressler’s Hot Looks Salon offers something lighter – a joyful throwback to the female-led sitcoms of the 1980s. Set primarily in a beauty salon, the series centers on the friendships between big-hearted, big-haired women who support, roast and rescue one another through personal crises and cosmetic disasters. Dressler’s physicality is unparalleled – I could watch salon owner Donna pump up her customers’ chairs or pop the top off a can of Aqua Net for hours (and I do).
And then there’s Paloma Diamond (played with quiet seriousness by Julian Sewell). With her vintage Hollywood poise, Diamond has become such a TikTok legend that references to her pop up in other, unrelated TikTok series, with commenters making up stories on the fly about her long career in amazing displays of collaborative storytelling. This is easy with Diamond’s backstory being so rich – despite several award nominations across decades, she has never won – an injustice her fans rally against with fervor, especially after the recently unearthed footage of a young Paloma Diamond’s 1984 appearance in a forgotten nighttime soap.
Through genre experimentation and rich character work – where every hero, villain and romantic possibility is performed by a singular person acting alongside themselves – TikTok is the new must-see TV, premiering not at eight o’clock but every time you open the app for your nightly scroll.
