The Delightful Pretentiousness of <em>Irma Vep</em>

HBO’s , perhaps the most meta show currently on TV, has the kind of high-concept premise that would confuse even its own characters. They’re members of a TV production themselves, but they can’t agree on the nature of what they’re making. One character suggests that they’re creating a long movie broken up into parts—like the way novels used to be published. Another character argues that they’re doing a TV show that’s essentially just “content … industrial entertainment ruled by algorithms.” Someone else scoffs at the idea of defining their project at all. “Who cares,” he says, “if cinema is art?”