Why Ronaldo vs Messi is now less a debate and more a tragicomedy
This opinion piece draws a parallel between the decline of popular television shows and the late-career trajectories of football stars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The author argues that both sports and media are suffering from a loss of narrative quality.
Why it matters
It reflects on the cultural phenomenon of 'late-stage' decline in both entertainment and professional sports, offering a critique of modern celebrity culture.
Hello and welcome to another edition of Offside.The most sublime TV shows often spiral into mediocrity. Game of Thrones was very hard to care about after Season 5, when they ran out of George RR Martin’s books and had to come up with something on their own, which was AI slop even before generative AI had hit our lives. House MD went downhill the moment they started focussing more on the Doc’s drug issues than the actual medicine. The same goes for Mad Men, where Don Draper’s personal issues became an albatross around a great show’s neck.
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