The attractiveness of the cast of a TV show sort of underwrites it. If it fails at storytelling, you know some people will watch it just for the attractive actors.
Inference: the show targets whoever might find the most attractive cast member attractive.
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This principle used to be much more obvious and explicit in the days of Jiggle TV which ended with Baywatch I think. It operates much more subtly now with prestige TV.
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I probably wouldn’t be watching the premium mediocre Marvelous Mrs. Maisel if the lead wasn’t so attractive (not just looks, the personality)
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it's gotten subtler recently but it was not subtle at all with prestige TV 10-15 years ago (see: True Blood, Spartacus, Shameless, Californication, first few seasons of Game of Thrones. . .)
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with streaming shows the trend seems to be to front load sexy stuff into the first episode (or even first 5 minutes!) and then mostly drop it afterwards, at which point hopefully you've kept watching long enough to get hooked.
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