Channel 4 have always been one for their interesting documentary subjects (who can forget THE MAN WITH TEN STONE TESTICLES eh?) but now we’re entering a whole new scary territory – FANDOM.
We all know about just how enthusiastic some directioners can be, you only have to be on Twitter to see one of them trending. But CRAZY ABOUT ONE DIRECTION also looks at the dark side of fandom, the ones that send death threats when someone disses the boys, or say things like “I’ll kill myself if you don’t tweet me” directed at the members. But interestingly enough, it also looks at the ones that are convinced that two of the band members are secretly dating…better known as ‘shipping’.
We’re not going to shy away and pretend like this is something new, because we’re pretty sure that the idea of shipping was all down to those wonderful STAR TREK fans with Kirk and Spock. But that was fictional characters, instead these fans believe that members of the band (who are, believe or not, just teenage boys) are romantically together, even to a point where they are sending death threats to band member’s girlfriends because they believe they are “destroying the ship”.
It takes a look at how the Internet has given fans the free reign to take normal teenage obsession into the dark side. But in some weird there are justifications for it. Can waiting hours on end outside their hotel warrant a meet because the fans have bought the records? Well no clearly, but the fans will give some interesting justifications.
CRAZY ABOUT ONE DIRECTION airs tonight on Channel 4 at 10pm
