In an era of prestige television—of slow burns, tragic antiheroes, and nine-hour seasons you have to watch with subtitles— Sharknado is the palate cleanser. It requires nothing of you. You don’t need to remember character arcs. You don’t need to worry about plot holes (there are more holes than in a shark’s digestive tract). You just need to watch a tornado made of fish and say, "Yes."
The secret sauce of Sharknado is sincerity. Director Anthony C. Ferrante and writer Thunder Levin weren't trying to make The Room or Birdemic —unintentional bad movies that become cult classics. They were making a deliberate B-movie, but with a crucial twist: they played it completely straight. When Fin Shepard (Ian Ziering, formerly of Beverly Hills, 90210 ) delivers the line, "We’re gonna need a bigger chopper," he says it with the gravitas of a Shakespearean actor. Sharknado
What made Sharknado the first true "social media movie" was its pacing. There is a ridiculous moment every 90 seconds. It’s like a slot machine for absurdity: shark bites helicopter, shark flies through a bus window, shark explodes after being hit by a propane tank. Each moment was a perfect, shareable meme before memes had fully metastasized. In an era of prestige television—of slow burns,
Now pass the cheese puffs.