A part of me feels like we've been spoiled by the appearance of YouTube Rewind. The first couple years Rewind had made its yearly appearance viewers everywhere were consistently enchanted by the sheer spectacle of seeing their favorite content creators gather almost annually to pay tribute to the great trends of the year. For a long time, many felt that Rewind was a special gift from the platform to its audience. One that we found hilarious, dazzling, and somewhat exhilarating to watch. As we relished in the memes of the past year, the sheer display of choreography, various set pieces, celebrity and beyond made us excited for the coming year. Unfortunately, these rewinds can only get so big, and like many big things that reach there zenith too soon, the moment they've done all that they could do with the concept of Rewind what you're left with in the impending future is a platform now grasping at straws for a "bigger" extravaganza than the last "bigger" extravaganza. It's no doubt that YouTube can still salvage a great video out of the Rewind formula in 2019, but if it's anything like this video we've got a definite problem on our hands. Let's break this down into chunks shall we instead of trying to attack this thing all once, because doing otherwise will just boggle my mind further.
The Premise
So the premise of YouTube Rewind 2018 seems to be that "everyone controls Rewind" which already confuses me at the out. I'm not sure what this video is getting at when it says everyone controls Rewind this year? Is that to say in the past the YouTubers has no control of rewind? I've never really thought of it like that until right this moment, but the way it's executed is really sloppy. If everyone controls Rewind then why is it that celebrities and a handful of YouTubers are the ones making all the choices. The herald of this video centers around a campfire of YouTubers realizing that the following Rewind video is up to them, so now they get to decide what's in the video. They then begin suggesting trends and "celebrities" that should appear in the Rewind, half of which were only popular this year by the way, before they get sidetracked in a contrived segment about the important things that happened last year, even though it comes off more as a rambling afterthought than a solemn tribute. Ultimately after the whole angle of giving the viewers what they want comes about, some more trends show up and the video ends without any real payoff or climax. I find that the problem with this year's Rewind is that there's no real build and payoff like the other Rewinds. The majesty of the other Rewinds was that they took a concept, got their trendy mileage out of it, had their little show, gradually built up the excitement and had a steady resolution. As bad as last year's Rewind was it still had good buildup and a steady payoff, this year the concept is so banal and the trends are so saturated and out of touch that there's a distinct absence in spectacle and no real resolution. The concept is endearing enough and could lead to some good content, but the people in charge of this video clearly didn't have any passion for the end product.
The Memes/Celebrities
Will Smith, Ninja, Trevor Noah, Jon Oliver... my favorite YouTubers. I have never seen so many personalities in one room look so lifeless. It's not enough to have a group of celebrities in one place to make your video great, because if they don't have a great premise to work with then chances are they're not gonna make your video better. It's saying something when such charismatic YouTubers like Liza Koshy, The Try Guys and Swoozie don't leave a lasting impact on your video. For all the YouTubers that we're able to come together, they strangely have very little to do except stand around and talk nonsense from a shoddy script. Seeing them in the same place doing half baked things such as reference K-Pop and spout out vignettes of Mason Ramsey ice skating, mukbang, and something about a metal ball and ASMR just goes to show how out of touch YouTube is with its creators and its audience. Rewind should reflect the zeitgeist and standout creators of the year, they should pay tribute to the great YouTube videos and YouTubers of the year- and it should be those YouTubers that pay tribute to the trends of the year. Instead we've spoon-fed things that YouTube glanced at once on a trending page and decided that that was enough to make for a entertaining video. I understand that Fortnite was a popular game and everything but it shouldn't have to take up half of your entire video. What should be an exciting retrospective on internet entertainment is reduced to a slideshow of lifelessness that masquerades as a celebration of life and diversity... speaking of which.
The Preach
Much like last year, Rewind 2018 tries to earn merit for addressing serious issues, from mental health to Asian representation to working moms. This in theory would be fine but the way its executed teeters between pandering and complete pointlessness. All the potentially important topics they reference are only discussed through drive by interviews with horribly vague writing. There are some potentially heartwarming topics to really delve into (Markiplier & Make A Wish) but instead its tacked on and given considerably less screen time compared to dialogue of "the empowering art of drag." Whereas last year's dramatic real-talk segment was pandering to the extreme, this particular segment has a similar aftertaste but is just as half-baked as the rest of this video.
I guess what my problem is that this year's Rewind lacks the spirit and imagination of previous Rewinds. The lack of passion or thought really shines in this vapid and disinteresting torrent of cockamamie fads and the new-aged indulgence of diversity which in no way feels earned. Because all in all you know something's wrong with your video when you're mission statement is to celebrate a year of diverse entertainment and original content and baby shark gets put in the spotlight near the end.
At least the animators got more attention this time around.
