The Chaotic World of Shane Dawson

And his newest series

In July 2019, I wrote an article titled “How Did Shane Dawson Become the King of YouTube?” where I dove into Shane Dawson’s background and history leading up to his massive success and fervent following on the platform.

I made this point when discussing the backlash he received on his Jake Paul series:

“Real-time editing was a huge part of this series, with backlash against the horror-style editing in the first part becoming a roar on Youtube and social media. Dawson reacted by apologizing and toning it down in the rest of the episodes, each about 45 minutes long. Critiques, feedback, and direct messages between episodes became added to and implanted into the next. Unlike regular TV, Youtube episodic content allows this to be a possibility.”

Now, a year later, Dawson has just released the final episode in his 7-part series “The Beautiful World of Jeffree Star,” which documents the process of conceiving, producing, and selling a collection of cosmetics, mainly focusing on two eyeshadow palettes, the Conspiracy and the Mini Controversy.

The first episode was released on October 1, 2019, and currently has 25 million views with each subsequent episode getting slightly fewer views. The seventh and final episode was released on the evening of Friday, November 22nd, is 80 minutes long, and has 12 million views at the time of this writing.

Controversy, Backlash, & Chaos

The main thing viewers have complained about throughout the launch of this series has been the feeling of being “clickbaited” by the trailer. The trailer for the series heavily featured the Tati/James Charles drama that started in April 2019 and became known as “Dramageddon 2.” It was further fueled by youtubers Gabriel Zamora and Jeffree Star, both of whom seemed to insert themselves into it.

I’m not going to go in-depth into that drama, but here is a couple of articles from Teen Vogue and The Cut if you have no idea what I’m talking about (or live under a rock?). It was a big thing and landed in mainstream media — even CNN covered it.

Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star are no strangers to controversies and drama themselves, and again, they’ve been covered elsewhere and I’m not jumping into that black hole here, either.

The point is that the trailer for his newest series (find it here) featured the Dramageddon 2 and their reactions to it. And then the series didn’t.

Instead, it went in-depth on the conception and production of the eyeshadow palettes and the process. Many fans found it interesting and responded well to the series, with most assuming the drama would be coming in a later episode.

When the series launched, it somehow became known it would be 9 episodes long, but when the sixth episode felt like a finale, fans got upset. Many expressed disappointment or feeling frustrated that they didn’t get the drama they expected.

That’s where real-time editing and changing things came back in.

In mid-November 2019, Dawson did a 40-minute Instagram livestream talking about the series and his personal frustration about continuing the series and whether or not to show the drama. He didn’t want to let down viewers, but he also wanted to let the drama go and let those who were part of it move on with their lives. The reveal of the collection felt like a finale to him, and he acknowledged that he knew no matter what he chose, he couldn’t please everyone. In his rambling, he revealed that before the series dropped, he and his editor Andrew had already edited and packaged 10 episodes and was completely happy with it and had it fully planned out.

However, he said once the first episode aired, viewers reacted so positively to the process of making the makeup and seeing behind the scenes that he scrapped the previous plan and they re-edited the footage to create new episodes focusing on that.

Unfortunately, likely due to the last-minute changes, the end result felt chaotic with multiple timeline jumps in every episode and a whoooooooole lot of “oh my gods.” The episodes were not coming out on a schedule and it often felt messy.

Shane, who has long been open about his body image and self-esteem issues, continued to question whether people would even buy the makeup and had a breakdown at every turn. While I appreciate the honesty and rawness of it, one thing that stood out to me was the way Jeffree Star’s team was so professional and really knew what they were doing, and Dawson often looked disheveled and acted somewhat unprofessionally — and often seemed shocked and confused by things.

Nonetheless, the series was gripping and interesting and their palette launch on November 1, 2019 was an unparalleled success, breaking tons of industry records, selling 1.1 million units on launch day.

The Good

Despite the chaotic release schedule and somewhat confusing editing, the series has been praised for its true inside look at the beauty industry and makeup production.

Star went into the details about the business of makeup: the markup, the money available in the industry, and took us through the production process. Dawson captured it all. Both Dawson and Star got personal, and their friendship and love for each other showed through clearly.

Andrew Siwicki, Dawson’s editor and friend, was highly involved in the series, and not just in the filming and editing. He had a hand in naming shades, testing products, he designed the packaging of the Conspiracy palette, and Dawson specifically said that Siwicki would share in the money for the collection and the merchandise he launched under Star’s company Killer Merch with no fanfare on October 15, 2019. The merch sold out immediately and Siwicki was featured in some product photos as well as getting his own hoodie which says “ediTEAing.”

Dawson’s makeup collection was so popular that all of Shopify crashed minutes before the launch of it on November 1st. There were over 2.5 million people on the site at one time and it crashed for hours, and Dawson’s series captured the stress of it all.

Dawson was also very honest throughout the series about making poor business decisions in the past and not getting what he should have in deals he’s been part of. Star put an end to that, going over contract details and money specifics with him, which Dawson was very clearly shocked to hear.

While many Youtube viewers have complained about Dawson crying poor yet actually being “rich,” i.e., his success and owning a home in LA, I think it’s important to note the context. Dawson has been screwed over by contracts, does not do many sponsored videos/posts, and has been clear about money being left on the table — sometimes just realizing how much in the middle of one of the episodes.

One smaller detail I really liked was that the first episode of the series, called “The Beautiful World of Jeffree Star,” featured a video thumbnail with Star at the forefront and Dawson behind him, while the final episode was titled “The Beautiful World of Shane Dawson” and has him up front with Star behind him. I really liked the symmetry in that!

One note: About 3 dozen people found fibers embedded in their Conspiracy eyeshadow palettes, and Star responded with a full investigation and specific steps his company was taking to ensure it wouldn’t ever happen again, and replaced those customer’s palettes. It was a swift and great response by Jeffree Star Cosmetics and nowhere near the level of the Jaclyn Hill Cosmetics launch earlier this year.

My Thoughts

I liked the series overall and I like watching Shane Dawson videos in general. Do I wish he posted more often? Yes. Do I wish the series felt a little more clear and straightforward? Sure. Will I watch whatever he puts out next? Yep.

I also know that Dawson (and Star and every other youtuber) does not OWE me, the viewer, anything. He can post or not; it’s his channel and his job. As a viewer, I’d love a video every single day, but I don’t expect one.

I am watching a video for free by someone who cared enough to create it. They don’t owe me any more than whatever they want to offer.

We have to remember that youtubers are not TV executives. What they put out is at their discretion and is colored by their experiences and wants and needs. You can never please everyone, but you CAN please yourself and be proud of what you’re doing.

What did you think of the series?

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