So, with those criteria in place, let’s talk about where my tastes in YouTube lie at the moment. I think if you were to look at my full list of Subscriptions, the first and perhaps most dominant category after VHS Archive Channels are Video Essayists. A Video Essay, for me, is a usually long-form (20 Minutes+) presentation on a single or multitude of related topics delivered either formally, colloquially or both. In addition, quotes and research are cited (or at least should be) both on-screen and in one place, like a Pastebin, Google Doc or an equivalent, so that us viewers can trace exactly where the foundation for the arguments presented come from. To win my view in this category, a video essay needs to have a title that hooks me into tapping, an introduction that makes me want to watch it in full, arguments that I could reference in my own essays where relevant and a design and presentation that leaves me satisfied as a viewer.
So, who fulfils those criteria and more? On the formal presentation side, I say Sarah Z, whose essays I would summarise as going under the hood of Tumblr Fandoms and emerging threats from social media. Rowan Ellis is a lesbian public speaker and author whose essays focus on media issues, with a particular lens cast by her on media featuring Queer people, both real and fictional. And finally, Unpoetic Justice who applies political theories to trending internet drama in order to look past the spectacle and Twitter / X hyperbole and ask what those events say about society at large in the moment. On the colloquial side, I recommend Jordan Theresa who makes video essays on Reality TV shows (including Love Island) and trending internet talking points, like the so-called Instagram Face and 2024’s Brat Summer, for example. And wavywebsurf tells the stories behind the most crazy, shocking and outrageous moments and personalities the internet has either shined a spotlight upon or developed with a collective effort I wish they didn’t!
There are also other Channels, besides wavy, that specialise in specific interests or one specific topic and do it pretty well. NationSquid does videos on tech software from the past, the most noteworthy computer viruses that have wreaked havoc on the real world, key moments in the history of the internet’s development, and stuff related to The Beatles. LegaleEagle needs no introduction if you’ve seen either his spat with the Pyramid against Pyramid Schemes that laid the groundwork for her downfall, or any of his videos related to the most culturally significant legal cases and internet obsessions of recent years. And President Trump. And Izzzyzzz is a Kiwi who covers more niche internet concepts and stories, from Creepy Pastas to lost media to parts of the internet you probably haven’t heard of unless you happened to be hanging out in the right spaces at the time.
Moving onto another genre altogether, let’s talk about Commentary Channels. Jimmy Robbins, who classes himself as one of those, but I think he’s a hybrid of Video Essay and Commentary, identified two types in this video of his. The first is Critical Commentary, whose purpose, according to him, is:
“…to inform the viewer of something while presenting an argument they hopefully agree with. However, because of the creator’s best attempts to prioritise truth, the viewer can find themselves fully informed of a situation, disagree with the creator but ultimately understand how they arrived at that conclusion.”
And I do happen to follow Channels who engage in that besides Mr. Robbins. Cynical Reviews articulately tears apart movies and TV Shows I’ve mostly never heard of limb from limb because of failures in every department: From plot, to writing, to casting, to production, to the message trying to be made either falling flat or being contradicted within the work itself. Smokey Glow employs a similar style on crazy internet series or TV shows featuring Influencers (her breakdown of The Hype House Show being my favourite example of this), as well as when it comes to giving her two cents on issues that confront Influencers which have moral grey areas, such as dealing with irrelevance and going ‘viral’. And Mickey Atkins is a registered Therapist who regularly applies her knowledge and experience to a variety of reality TV shows and social media trends that usually raise eyebrows and big red flags with her.
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