I loved Free Solo. I remember watching it, my palms sweating, my stomach flipping, as Alex Honnold inched his way up El Capitan with nothing but his fingertips and impossible calm.
It was art. His mastery of climbing seems beyond human capabilities. But Free Solo was also safely in the past by the time I watched it.
He survived, the documentary captured it, and I could appreciate the feat without the gnawing fear of seeing someone die in real time.
I even had the chance to see Honnold up close at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards. He’s every bit as impressive as you’d imagine.
But this latest Netflix stunt — Skyscraper Live, a 2026 event where Honnold will attempt to free solo the 1,667-foot Taipei 101 skyscraper — is a hard no.
Why? Because this isn’t art captured after the fact.
This is rolling the dice with a man’s life, live on air. No editing, no hindsight, no buffer. If he slips, we all become unwilling witnesses to a televised death.
And here’s what’s really chilling: I’m not even sure Netflix sees that as a bug. It’s more of a feature.
Death, after all, has become the most reliable form of content. Just this week, a woman plunged to her death during a high-wire act, and the footage was everywhere within hours.
Recent murders caught on camera have spread across the internet with little hesitation.
Jimmy Kimmel gets suspended not because the culture is shocked by death itself, but because he made a joke about it. We’re not squeamish about the violence anymore — only about how people frame it.
Scripted television has been laying the groundwork for this desensitization for years.
First responder shows like 9-1-1 sell themselves on trauma-of-the-week, piling up car crashes, shootings, and fiery disasters like clockwork.
True crime has turned real-world violence into serialized cliffhangers.
Even prestige dramas often measure their worth in brutality — the more graphic the autopsy, the more shocking the twist, the more “serious” it seems.
Game of Thrones had an off night if there weren’t bodies strewn across a battlefield, and Yellowjackets leaned hard into cannibalism and survival violence to keep audiences hooked.
It’s not enough to kill a character anymore; writers must kill them in the most elaborate or devastating way possible.
We’ve trained ourselves to sit on the couch, popcorn in hand, and consume violence as casually as a sitcom punchline.
No wonder Hallmark is thriving. They’ve built an empire on the absence of death and darkness.
In a culture starved for light, their formulaic coziness feels almost radical.
The same viewers who binge on firehouse collapses and serial killer podcasts also sneak over to Hallmark for relief — because it’s the one place they know nothing truly bad will happen.
So when Netflix pitches Honnold’s skyscraper climb as a “can’t look away” global event, I can’t help but hear the echo of the Roman Coliseum.
Have we really evolved past gladiators, or have we just found sleeker ways to dress them up for primetime?
I’ll always respect Alex Honnold’s skill. Free Solo deserved every award it won. But this new chapter isn’t about artistry, or even adventure.
It’s about spectacle.
And if we’ve reached the point where the potential for death is part of the marketing plan, then maybe it’s time to admit we haven’t grown out of our appetite for blood sport at all.
So what do you think? Is Netflix pushing boundaries in the name of art, or are we crossing into a blood sport disguised as primetime entertainment?
Do you see this as a daring human achievement worth celebrating, or just another sign we’ve grown too comfortable watching other people’s lives hang in the balance?
Share your thoughts below.
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The post Death as Spectacle: Netflix’s Skyscraper Stunt Crosses a Line appeared first on TV Fanatic.