> Big city Europe is in the process of being conformed, changed, and ultimately smoothed into a generic boring singular entity. A soulless Americanization that’s accelerated dramatically over the last few decades.
It goes beyond "Americanization". Cynics, or conspiracy theorists, would argue that there is a plan at play to erode all traces of uniqueness and specificity in Europe, and in "Europeans" as different people, in order to turn everywhere into a bland, 'standard' part of the EU.
You can catch glimpses of that generic Europe in recent American movies filmed in Budapest, Vienna, Paris, or other capitals. In Netflix "local" productions, also, and local TV shows meant for international distribution, where a lot of effort is made to make the setting as universal as possible.
The real life of real people is still very different across the continent (the gradient from Oslo to Athens is striking), but how that reality is presented is important. And it is currently presented in a very polished, generic way.
It goes beyond "Americanization". Cynics, or conspiracy theorists, would argue that there is a plan at play to erode all traces of uniqueness and specificity in Europe, and in "Europeans" as different people, in order to turn everywhere into a bland, 'standard' part of the EU.