Let’s face it, Sharknado 2 is the future of television

Is Sharknado 2: The Second One any good? No, by any critical measure it is not.

Is it entertaining? Yes, and wildly so. Much like Lucy, a laughably bad blockbuster that is currently stinking up cineplexes across the world, the schlocktacular sequal to the social media phenomenon has an utter pop culture craziness that has fans snickering all the way to heaven with non-stop action and a plot that only makes a whiff of sense.

The difference between Sharknado 2, which aired on Wednesday night, and Lucy is that we can talk about Sharknado with our friends on Twitter (and to a lesser extent Facebook) – whereas with Lucy we are confined by that social contract that only allows us a handful of whispered comments before getting shushed by those around us in the dark. And that is why Sharknado is both a blast and the future of television.

If you don’t remember, the original Sharknado was just the latest in a string of intentionally cheesy Syfy grindhouse movies that had ridiculous monsters, nostalgic 90s stars and a budget akin to an annual salary of a middling lawyer at a mediocre firm. For reasons as inexplicable as a tornado that scatters flesh-eating sharks on Los Angeles, this one caught on with the social media crowd and became a bit of a success both in re-airings and when it streamed on Netflix. People had to check it out just to see what the hell everyone was talking about.

Syfy immediately greenlit a sequel and this time they were prepared, with a full-court marketing press, co-operation from NBC (which owns Syfy) and all the hashtags they could muster. Based on my Twitter feed alone it worked. In fact six of the top 10 trending topics across the country on Twitter on Wednesday night were related to Sharknado 2, with the movie’s official hashtag, #Sharknado2TheSecondOne, in the top spot.

This movie is the future – not because it’s any good or anyone really likes it, but because people will watch it live, along with all the commercials, to have the privilege of snarking about it in real time on their handheld device or laptop. This iteration was constructed less like a movie and more like an awards show, one of the few things that networks can get viewers to watch live these days. There isn’t a plot so much as a series of loosely connected events, jokes and stunts to get viewers reacting. It is packed with stars (in this case C-list celebrities from Perez Hilton and Billy Ray Cyrus to Downtown Julie Brown and Taxi’s Judd Hirsch driving a cab) to get the audience shouting. If you’re wondering why Judd Hirsch is trending, this is why.

Then, when it’s done, you forgot everything except the few good cracks you made and the number of followers you gained. (Howdy, 16 new people who follow me on Twitter.)

If you really want to know, in this sequel the hero, Fin (Ian Ziering looking damn fine for 50), and his wife, the perpetually wooden Tara Reid, take a plane to New York to promote the book they wrote about the first Sharknado – when, of course, the turbulence they experience is really more weather events filled with aquatic terror fish.

Before the opening credits Tara Reid loses her arm while hanging out of the plane shooting at sharks, and Kelly Osbourne (playing a flight attendant) quite literally loses her head. Later on Fin saves the Big Apple with the help of his brother (former rocker and professional microphone holder Mark McGrath), a chainsaw and Vivica A Fox.

That’s it, basically. The whole thing is made to be ridiculed and to be simultaneously dreadfully sincere and in on its own joke. This sequel, naturally, was more self aware with all of the cameos and some groan-inducing “jumping the shark” jokes.

Because camp cannot be self-aware, it’s not that exactly, but more of a parody of campy action movies where, inevitably, some stranger has to land a crashing plane and the climactic scene always just happens to be at the Empire State Building. Sharknado is both intrinsically awful and poking fun at the awfulness of movies that try a lot harder and spend a lot more money.

Either that or it’s so incredibly stupid it doesn’t care. Who knows? But being bad is so much easier to get a social media rise out of people. If you want “engagement”, every marketing major’s favourite buzzword, you need people to keep them reacting, and it’s a lot easier to make a snide remark in 140 characters than the deep ruminations that something like Mad Men requires. Just look at Scandal. It’s ridden people OMG-ing about presidential assassination attempts all the way to being one of TV’s biggest dramas.

I’ll be curious to see the ratings for this event (I can’t keep calling it a movie) but I have a feeling that Syfy might have captured lightning in a bottle twice. We all better get used to it because this is what the future looks like. On the same day as Sharknado 2 came out, the other big television news was that Allison Williams will be playing Peter Pan in NBC’s live musical version later this year, another made-for-Twitter spectacle. And what is that except another Sharknado with less blood on its hands?