Wednesday, July 30, 2014
A tornado full of sharks.
You heard me correctly. That's the central plot point of both "Sharknado" and "Sharknado 2: The Second One," which premiered on SyFy last night.
If it sounds like a ridiculously horrible, straight-to-television disaster movie, that's because it is. But for some odd reason, Sharknado, in all of its absurdity, became undeniably popular. So popular, that it warranted a sequel, being aired tonight on Syfy.
The first movie spread like wildfire via social media, snowballing into something of unpredictable size. Twitter made Sharknado a craze, averaging 5,000 tweets per minute and creating a sense of camaraderie that came with watching the film.
So is the franchise jumping the proverbial shark?
"Not yet," Quartz reporter Jason Lynch says, "though it may be getting close."
Lynch says many of the endearing and addictive qualities of the first movie are present in the sequel. However, the social media craze was missing. He looks forward to seeing it how the debut of the sequel fares on social media.
Listen to the interview for more.