If you’ve ever spent time on TikTok, you’ve heard of the Hype House, especially its former members. Regardless of if they’ve ever appeared on your “For You” page —highly unlikely—, the current Hype House can be watched through TikTok and Netflix on season one of their reality TV show, “Hype House.” 

Honestly, I did not expect to be writing this article, let alone watching the show. However, I was cleaning my room one day, and I wanted to watch something that would entertain me but wouldn’t require my full attention, so when I saw “Hype House” was on Netflix, my curiosity was piqued. 

It’s safe to say I was accurate in believing the show did not need my full attention to understand. You can sum up the whole plot of the show into one sentence: popular TikTokers living in a mansion together while feeling defeated due to the weight of social media. 

While the show gave the audience insight into the personal lives and difficulties of the more popular Hype House members, it was executed poorly. The constant focus of every episode was their problems. There was no balance. It was an overflow of depressive plots that had little to no depth. 

On top of that, a constant issue discussed throughout the eight-episode season was Thomas Petrou’s (co-founder of Hype House) problem with the lack of gratefulness from the current and past Hype House members. 

Addison Rae, Charli and Dixie D’Amelio are mentioned numerous times as individuals who rarely visit or communicate with Petrou after leaving the Hype House, even after the Hype House helped launch their careers, as he mentions. 

While I don’t doubt that surrounding themselves with other known TikTokers increases their audience and therefore their popularity, I do question the effectiveness of the Hype House, at least to the extent which Petrou claims it has. 

While the Hype House was once a well-known and viral group, its five minutes of fame have ended. With the departure of TikTokers such as Rae and the D’Amelios, all that’s left are the lesser-known. 

What made the Hype House exciting for the audience initially was the countless already popular TikTokers coming together with their unique audiences. But, especially after watching the show, it’s clear “the good days” are long gone and what’s left is a shadow of what once was. 

As Petrou put it in Episode 4, during an argument between Vinne Hacker and Michael Sanzone, “The whole reason this brand exists and succeeded is cause it was built on individual creators that came together as a group. Vinne was already established, which is why bringing him in helps him, cause he gets our audience, but he also brings in his audience where you (Sanzone) came from Hype House.” 

While new members such as Hacker and most recently, Renata Ri, freshen the Hype House, it seems like a last (failing) effort to revive an already dead enterprise. The majority of the creators currently in the Hype House are in the same boat as Sanzone—they need the Hype House to remain relevant. Unlike the departed Hype House members, the current ones failed to use their fame to build something other than content for their socials. Therefore, if you want to waste your time, you can watch them struggle with the reality that, unfortunately, without content, they’re back to square one. 

If your interest is piqued as mine was, watch it, but don’t plan to put the show on your “rewatch list” — it’s not worth it. I would rate this show a 3/10.