The permission to honor something you love by unpacking it, and the idea that affection itself is reason itself for unpacking, is a difficult dam to unburst.
This metaphor suggests that the ability to analyze and discuss beloved shows is a powerful and enduring impulse. The phrase "difficult dam to unburst implies that once people start engaging with their passions in this way, it becomes a significant and unstoppable force in culture.
“The culture of this extreme dissection of TV that recaps started has grown. There are just so many different formats where you can be doing that,” Emami says. At Vulture, recaps are “still a very big part of what we do, but I also think it’s now just one part of what we do. It’s one part of a coverage plan, and that can include explainers, think pieces, what are the biggest questions asked after this episode of Westworld.” Recaps were just one expression of an idea that still holds sway over the internet, and how audiences talk about TV in general: essentially, that it’s worth talking about — publicly, rigorously, and joyfully. As long as that philosophy remains intact, its execution is both flexible and secondary. Netflix shows may not make for good recaps, but they can still spawn a meme like Barb, a perfect fusion of internet weirdos and the unwitting object of their passion that followed the spirit of recaps, if not their letter. The permission to honor something you love by unpacking it, and the idea that affection itself is reason itself for unpacking, is a difficult dam to unburst.
The passage reflects on the evolution of television criticism and audience engagement, highlighting the importance of discussion and analysis in a variety of formats while emphasizing the joy and affection that drive these conversations.
It’s an intuitive idea — deceptively so, given the recap’s enormous impact on how we watch, discuss, and think about television. Before the recap, TV criticism was wedded to the limitations of print: one-sided, wed to production deadlines, with finite real estate.
Overall, the passage emphasizes the significant shift in television criticism and viewer engagement brought about by the introduction of recaps, moving away from the constraints of print media to a more dynamic and multifaceted approach to discussing television.