Netflix show Byron Bae: More influencers than you can poke a selfie-stick at
Netflix’s Byron takeover Byron Baes is set to shine a spotlight on the once sleepy town’s notorious social media celebrities, and the local community is far from impressed.
Few stereotypes loom larger in modern Australian folklore than the Byron Bay social media influencer.
In recent years especially, images of their taut and tanned bodies, beautiful children with unruly hair and lavish long lunches at local institutions like The Farm or Rae’s have captured the imaginations of everyday Aussies, whose morning routines do not involve a sunrise surf at The Pass. Even non-Australians are familiar with the trope; the number of international celebrities that have immigrated to the Byron area in the last year has helped to promote and perpetuate the allure.
On Instagram, watching these people pull pilates poses and decorate their homes with rattan furniture has become a regular source of entertainment for many regular Australians (this writer among them).
So it was only a matter of time, really, before a savvy production company thought to extrapolate on this content by turning it into TV.
Earlier today, Netflix announced it had commissioned its first Australian reality TV series, Byron Bae. (For the uninitiated, ‘bae’ is an Internet acronym for ‘before anyone else’. People use it when referring to their significant others, though according to Google Trends, its usage is waning).
“Announcing Byron Bae, a docu-soap series following a ‘feed’ of hot Instagrammers living their best lives, being their best selves, creating the best content. #nofilter guaranteed,” reads a statement from the streaming giant. “This is our love letter to Byron Bay. It’s not just Chris [Hemsworth] and Zac [Efron]’s backyard, it’s the playground of more celebrity adjacent-adjacent influencers than you can poke a selfie-stick at.”
The announcement has not gone down well with locals, many of whom have been vocal about the recent influx of celebrities now settling into the once quiet surf town.
“If you're going to do something about Byron Bay, talk about real Byron Bay people not people who have come in the last few years wearing their beautiful linen with their gorgeous children and amazing mum bodies,” local resident Karen Justice told the ABC online.
“Us true locals can soldier on, but I wish these others would bugger off.”
The amount of Instagram slang Netflix has packed into its announcement suggests Byron Bae will be a bit of a laugh, potentially at the expense of the influencers it features.
But Netflix has promised it’s not the type of series viewers will hate-watch, as is the way with unapologetically trashy series like Married At First Sight Australia and Love Island. Making the series “self-aware” will be the biggest challenge for the streamer, mostly because turning it into a binge-worthy satire would’ve been the easy option, and self-awareness isn’t a trait we readily associate with those who post pictures of themselves for a living.
“Don’t write these Baes off too quickly,” continues the statement from Netflix. “Beneath every perfect post is a very real desire not just for ‘likes’, but to be liked.
“We can’t wait for you to meet our Baes!”
This brings us to the most important question of the whole production: What Byron Bay influencers will star in the show?
Netflix hasn’t yet revealed who will feature, but it’s rumoured model Elyse Knowles is set to be involved. Knowles is no stranger to reality TV, having won The Block in 2017 with her partner Josh Barker.
And while many speculated that Ruby Tuesday Matthews, the Byron influencer who made national headlines earlier this year for holding up a Jetstar flight so that she could finish eating a plate of oysters, might get a role, it doesn’t appear so.
“For everyone asking if I‘ll be on this show, I declined the offer,” wrote the influencer on Instagram stories this morning. “Goodbye Byron, you are officially cooked. How embarrassing.”
Matthews’ response makes us wonder how Byron Bay’s elite will cope without the ability to manufacture their own images, and shape their own narratives. Where Instagram allows us to tweak an image all we want, reality TV places all control in the hands of the producers. You only need to watch one season of The Bachelor to understand there’s extreme dissonance between those in front of the camera, and those behind it.
Netflix hasn’t announced the series premiere date yet. It is being produced by Eureka Productions, with Julian Morgans, Rachel Tuffery and Emma Lamb (who’s involved in Married At First Sight Australia and The Real Housewives of Sydney) signed on to executive produce.