The disappointing cliffhanger of the 36th season of Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden, which attracted only 629,000 linear viewers, has reignited the debate about the soap's relevance, with media scholar Mark Deuze of the University of Amsterdam warning that comparisons with viewing extras from twenty years ago hold no water because the media landscape has fundamentally changed. According to Deuze, RTL faces the challenge of retaining loyal viewers while the soap simultaneously adapts to digital platforms and so-called clippable content, forcing creators to adopt a fundamentally different approach to storytelling that is difficult to reconcile with traditional scriptwriting.