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As the quality of entertainment in the Western world continues to decline (mainly because of cultural collapse and corporatist consolidation), people consuming said entertainment are starting to react in odd ways.
I’ve already talked about, in great detail, how bad movies have become over the last ten years. You don’t need me to repeat that all again. Last year was a travesty for movies just like prior years. That fucking Star Wars movie… that horrible Terminator movie…
So, yeah. Movies suck now. We all know that.
But then people say, “Well, yeah, movies suck now, but TV is way better! All the quality has gone over there!”
Has it? Really?
Did you watch the final season of Game of Thrones? Did you watch season three of Stranger Things? Did you try watching that new Watchmen show? Have you seen… gulp… Dr Who lately? <cold shudder> Have you seen that new Star Trek: Picard show?
Shall I go on?
I admit that overall TV shows aren’t quite as dreadful as movies yet. But I’ve watched TV going in a downhill direction, particularly in the last 3-5 years. How many politically correct unfunny comedies do you need? How many sci-fi shows that only take place on modern-day Earth do you want to see?
TV, movies, it all more or less sucks. But that’s not interesting anymore. What’s interesting to me now is how people are reacting to the massive amount of suckage they’re seeing.
So much sucks that when people come across something that doesn’t suck, they think it’s good. But it’s not good. It doesn’t suck, but it’s not good. But it seems good because so much sucks right now. I’ll give you a few examples.
The last few Star Wars movies have been dreadful, as I’ve already discussed. Each movie gets worse and worse, almost as if Disney is trying to make bad Star Wars movies. I predicted well over a year ago that Rise of Skywalker would A) be really terrible; B) make a billion dollars anyway since people are no longer rational. I was correct on both counts. It was dreadful beyond belief and it went over a billion dollars a few weeks ago.
Terrible, awful, horrible Star Wars movies, one after the next. People puke and are disgusted. But then The Mandalorian comes along…
…and everyone has an orgasm.
A great show, everyone says. Back to what Star Wars was meant to be, everyone says. Thank goodness Star Wars is saved, everyone says. Everyone gushes about how cool The Mandalorian is and how cute Baby Yoda is. What a great show.
But it’s not a great show. It just doesn’t suck.
I watched every episode of that show. It was fine. It wasn’t good. It wasn’t great. But it was watchable. It was fine. There were fun aspects to it but there was way too much fan service, much of it didn’t make any sense, and there were a lot of plots that were directly recycled from other (and better) shows and movies. But it certainly didn’t suck.
But see, now there are all these Star Wars fans that think The Mandalorian is simply amazing. They only think that because the Star Wars movies right now are so bad. It’s skewed their perception.
That brings us to the movie The Joker. Men and anti-SJWs all over the world, being sick to death of being preached to by left-wing Hollywood via a bunch of woke SJW bullshit all over today’s movies and TV shows finally see a movie where they think this stuff isn’t present, and they jizz all over it. They think The Joker is fucking great.
But it’s not great. It just doesn’t suck. I saw The Joker. It was decent. Not great. Just okay. It’s a direct rehash of the movies Taxi Driver and King of Comedy. It wasn’t nearly as violent as it should have been. Every character in the entire movie is an asshole, which strains suspension of belief. But it didn’t suck. It was fine. But everyone seems to think this is some kind of amazing movie. It isn’t. Skewed perception again.
Speaking of SJW wokeness, that brings us to The Witcher. People are so angry about the last season of Game of Thrones that they’ve completely thrown themselves at this new Witcher show and think it’s the greatest thing ever. It’s now one of the most popular shows in Netflix’s history.
But… it’s not great. It’s not even good. I watched all eight episodes. It was barely watchable. By episode six I wanted to stop watching it, but I forced myself to power through the last two episodes. It lacked action. The characters were crazily inconsistent and constantly doing things that made no sense. It hits you over the head with SJW insanity (yet another skinny, middle-aged woman in plate mail leading her troops into battle, over 50% of the characters are non-white in a European fantasy setting with no in-world explanation, a main character who is basically a mouthpiece for modern-day feminism, and so on).
It didn’t suck. It was fine. But it wasn’t good. But people are so desperate for quality TV fantasy after that Game of Thrones debacle that they think The Witcher is good. It’s not good. The Witcher is about a badass in a fantasy setting who goes around killing monsters and having sex with hot babes. I should have thought The Witcher was the best TV series of my entire life. But instead I’d give it about a C+.
Keep in mind that just because something doesn’t suck doesn’t mean it’s good. It just doesn’t suck.
The fact that everything else sucks doesn’t automatically elevate mediocrity to quality.
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John Smith
Posted at 07:48 am, 5th March 2020I had a similar reaction to The Witcher. At first I thought “This show is awesome!” and then at some point in the series realized I was actually bored and just wanted to get it over with.
AnonDude
Posted at 08:52 am, 5th March 2020It’s the same with the new Sonic movie. Everyone expected it to suck like everythimg else but it turned out OK and it’s breaking records now.
Also people who say tv is better than cinema are stuck in Breaking Bad and early GOT days. Those days are over and they just didn’t figure it out yet. Give it time and people will start shitting on tv soon.
Have you watched that 2010 Spartacus: Blood and Sand series and it’s prequel Gods of the Arena? If you ignore cheap/shitty 300 ripoff special effects and the fact that they had to change main character actor after first season since the guy tragically died of cancer the show is a blood, sex and violence filled masterpeace. I think you would like it.
Markus
Posted at 10:17 am, 5th March 2020What’s your opinion on the Expanse-series, and, yes on ST Picard?
Caleb Jones
Posted at 11:32 am, 5th March 2020Nailed it. That’s exactly right.
You’re not the first person to say that. I’ll add that to my “try” list.
I’ve watched about 6-7 episodes from the first season. It’s good. Not great, but good. If I had more time I’d delve further into it.
Star Trek Picard is a dumpster fire, written by people who don’t understand Star Trek and don’t even like Star Trek. Like with these new Star Wars movies, Picard and Star Trek Discovery portray a setting that doesn’t plug into the real Star Trek universe in any way that makes any sense. Terrible. (And I expected it to be terrible, so I’m not surprised.)
Mike
Posted at 12:35 pm, 5th March 2020You just put words to the emotions I felt while watching each of those. The first couple of Witcher episodes made me think it could be good. The rest let me down. Exactly the same for The Mandalorian. Star Wars…I believe you also nailed that one. I guess I could have just said, “ditto,” to the whole thing.
Jared
Posted at 04:34 pm, 5th March 2020Great article, and a subject which I think is important. The vaporization of our culture has depressed a lot of people. It’s something that I hope to fix someday (which sounds like crazy talk and goes against all your advice, but, there you go). They may think it’s just nostalgia. They may say, “but what could improve?” But yes, there is definitely something missing from today’s society. No, of course we can’t return to the past; and nor should we. But the problem is that we’ve stopped moving. We have no momentum anymore. And people can tell. Maybe some people are fooled by the things which simply “don’t suck”, but I bet there are the silent masses who know something is up. (Either that, or they think they need antidepressants, because they just feel so damn empty.) I know that your solutions would probably remove a lot of that emptiness. Heck, I’ve even wondered if it’s a blessing that we’re not glued to our screens anymore. But, as we can see, it’s an issue that even gets to you from time to time.
joelsuf
Posted at 10:23 pm, 5th March 2020LMAO so true. There’s really no such thing as a good video game based movie and there never will be.
We’re too comfortable and things are too convenient. Carlin was saying this kind of stuff about a year before he died. He was saying stuff like “everyone’s got a phone that will make them pancakes and rub their balls for them now, so no one has a real incentive to have any purpose.”
Now Carlin preached Lived Nihilism but he did it to be entertaining, since he was right to spit in the face at the Religious Right (same “wokeness,” different flavor. SJdubs borrow A LOT from the Religious Right when it comes to silencing people they don’t like). But now it seems like people are embracing nihilism more and more and oh yeah, we’re seeing the effects.
Today it’s our entertainment industry. Tomorrow, it’s gonna be other stuff. By the 2030s the US will be pretty much like any other collapsed former empire.
Look, if the US is gonna be a faux authoritarian state where our government has all say about how we live our lives then they may as well take three days out of every month and shut off everybody’s access to the internet and mobile data. At least it would get people to be more creative lol.
Antekirtt
Posted at 05:18 am, 6th March 2020The odd thing about GoT is that while most people hated the last 1 to 3 seasons, the reasons they give are wildly divergent. Personally, lots of things about GoT annoyed or bored me as early as s1 or s2. Later on, the writing becomes less good as D&D ran out of book material and had to wrap up the story as best they could based on the very broad strokes GRRM gave them. Here’s a view that might piss off a few though (spoilers obviously): (1) Dany’s nosedive, while botched and rushed, is LOGICAL and PREDICTABLE if you’ve been paying attention from the earlier seasons (and judging Dany the same as you’d have a judged a male character, which most people don’t), not only that, but understanding that she was meant to turn bad is central to the point asoiaf aims to make – unless GRRM does a complete u-turn under external pressure when he (but will he ever? lol) finishes the saga; (2) Jon Snow’s final fate is also very logical and comes full circle from how his story began, and he sucks at politics and ruling anyway (which doesn’t mean he sucks as a person); (3) dragon-related disappointment (in general) is misplaced, because the saga isn’t really about fire beating ice, but more likely fire and ice being extremes which both must be kept in check. Read some Quora answers from some of the big names that understand the books, you’ll make much more sense of what happens in s7-8.
Redbaron
Posted at 07:45 am, 6th March 2020It’s true that movies suck now, but there is some good in this. The good part is that I don’t have to go out and spend money on movies or spend money on a home theater setup because I know they’re going to suck.
Jordan
Posted at 12:00 pm, 6th March 2020I agree that movies and TV shows in the Western worldmore or less suck nowadays (lots of pre-1990s media for me), but what exactly is wrong with having a 50% non-white cast in a medieval European setting? Were non-white people not invented yet?
Also, what about indie films produced by companies such as A24? I know they’re not mainstream films and (usually) don’t break box office records, but in all of the movie posts I’ve read of yours, I haven’t seen them mentioned in your argument (which I mostly agree with).
Caleb Jones
Posted at 01:33 pm, 6th March 2020Here’s the example I used in the extended audio of this blog post. Let’s say you had a show set in a fantasy world based on medieval Africa (which I think would be awesome). That means that all the characters and nations were black (which again, I think would be awesome; my son is black). Now let’s say that 50% of ALL the supporting characters in this show were white. (WTF?) Let’s also say that wasn’t explained in any way; i.e. there was no “white nation” these white people came from; they were just there for no reason. (WTF?) Wouldn’t that look fucking weird? Wouldn’t that break the entire tone of the setting? Wouldn’t that harm suspension of disbelief and take you out of the show? The answer for all of these is yes. Then you realize the makers of the show just put a shitload of white people in the Africa fantasy to be politically correct and be “fair” to whites and to not look racist.
Reverse what I just said, and that’s the Witcher.
Caleb Jones
Posted at 01:35 pm, 6th March 2020You answered your own question. I didn’t mention them because they’re not mainstream.
Of course you can always find some quality if you venture far out of the mainstream and into the weeds, at least sometimes. That demonstrates my entire point. We didn’t have to do this 25+ years ago to find quality.
Alexander Romanov
Posted at 09:21 pm, 6th March 2020For several years before I read your reviews and reviews of other perceptive people, I felt it was me who has changed, growing a functional brain with age and no longer finding entertainment in sub-par things Hollywood & others seemed to be churning out ad infinity. Situation grew worser as my brain developed, so it is kinda natural assumption was made.
Still, after seeing good old movies I liked quite a lot before, while they are better than today, I start to question if there even was an era of reasonably good quality in films, as even gems are rough and with caveats.
Which time/era you think cinema was pretty decent to compare today to?
Caleb Jones
Posted at 10:50 am, 7th March 2020I’m not well versed on cinema prior to the late 1960s, so I can’t speak to “all” cinema, but read this for a mind-blowing example of how far modern cinema has fallen as compared to prior Hollywood eras.
Johnny Ringo
Posted at 04:33 pm, 7th March 2020I agree with most of this, though I did like the Mandalorian and it jump started a bit of a re-interest in Star Wars. That whole black light saber thing was pretty cool and got me googling a bit.
Seeing it has a Game of Thrones like universe was surprising to me and cool.
The last season of Game of Thrones was incredible until the end.
I guess few producers begin with the end in mind.
Better Call Saul is impressive as it gets when it comes to storyline cohesion and connectivity (imho) and I enjoy Westworld.
Then you got the big Amazon Lord of the Rings stuff coming, more Game of Thrones in a couple years, and god knows what else.
I think it will get better for a little while, but the biggest takeaway from me during this time is just seeing how rare creativity truly is.
So many copies of copies.
So many scared to take a chance.
I would like to see something big, new, and daring.
But, who doesn’t? lol
The Capitalist
Posted at 11:17 pm, 7th March 2020I agree.
I gave up on modern TV and movies for the most part.
I do enjoy some stand up comedy specials. Dave Chappelle being one of my favorites.
When I’m in the mood for TV or movies I usually go find some older show that I know I enjoyed but haven’t seen in a very long time. For example the last movie I watched was The Boondock Saints (from 1999). Great movie.
Farei
Posted at 06:17 am, 9th March 2020Just a side note about the Witcher – I think you mentioned you enjoy reading fantasy books. Disregard the show, the games and everything and read the original books if you havent already. You’ll love it. I haven’t read the English translation, but if someone at least halfway decent translated it, it should be very good.
Caleb Jones
Posted at 08:03 am, 9th March 2020Yeah that may be true.
Jordan
Posted at 05:45 am, 10th March 2020Have you seen American Vandal? It has two seasons, and each one is about an incident that happened at a high school. The first season is about an incident where dicks were spray-painted on the various faculty members’ cars. The second one is at a Catholic school where there’s various pranks involving the so-called Turd Burglar. It’s meant to be humorous, but the show is a parody of all those true-crime shows like Serial and Making A Murderer. It’s on Netflix, and for some reason, they cancelled it after the second season. It’s one of their better shows.
CTV
Posted at 12:27 pm, 10th March 2020I love the Mandolorians in the books, I wanna fuck Gina Carrano, and I’m a Baby Yoda fan BUT the next season better be dope or else Star Wars goes right back in the shitter..
On a Side Note Disney did bring back the Clone Wars carton for a Final Season. I always enjoyed that show on Netflix.. Very light and polite Star Wars action.
Either way it’s still better that Game Of Thrones. That last season made me throw up in my mouth.
Caleb Jones
Posted at 07:29 am, 11th March 2020She’d break off your cock. 🙂
guille
Posted at 02:35 pm, 16th March 2020i was very neutral to the witcher, didn`t hate it, didn`t love it. the fight scene in the first episode was very good, then all the other fights sucked ass…hand to hand combat, sword /knive fighting are something i pay a lot of atention to.
i haven`t seen one of the biggest complaints i had in other places but for me it was a big one… i hated the music sooo much, or more than the music, when it was used. it was so fucking distracting…
and of course the writing sucked…
i don`t have much hope for the next seasons, if it was a comercial success they won`t be to inclined to improve, the only thing that makes me re think that is amazon. Depending on how well amazon`s the wheel of time does…(and amazon did a great job with the boys) they could knock it out of the park with wheel of time, netflix may have to up their game…(not to mention thay also have a lord of the rings tv show in the works)
I was giving up on netflix, and then i struck gold…castlevania has been getting better and better. this 3th season was mind blowing, the first two episodes were a bit slow, but the remaining eight…holy fuck!!! needless to say highly recommended.
CTV
Posted at 11:53 am, 19th March 2020@ Caleb
I’m gonna start TRT soon so I’ll be ready for her lol
POB
Posted at 08:03 am, 20th March 2020Trevor is one of the best male writen characters on a western animation in a long time, and so are Dracula and Alucard. BUUUUT they have that annoying female wizard who’s a borderline Mary Sue and was put there just to make Trevor look stupid all the time. Oh well..
From the top of my head:
Altered Cabon: it’s ok, not great C
The Walking Dead: first four seasons A-, middle seasons D-, last two seasons C+
La Casa de Papel: first season B- (ok, not amazing, never got the hype)
Old series I always come back to:
The Wire
Breaking Bad
Justice League (Vanila and Unlimited)
Batman Animated Series
Neon Genesis Evangelion
guille
Posted at 12:40 pm, 20th March 2020Hey POB
Travor and Alucard are great. Dracula is great too, but my favorite characters till now are Isaac and hector. Their connections with Dracula and the vampire society and their hatred for humanity is very interesting to me. And their positions of power are curious, because unlike Dracula who is almost all powerful, they can grow their power and lose it to…they are constantly evolving, which can no be said of the other villans, and heroes for that matter, except for Alucard perhaps.
Actually I was a little bit disappointed with alucard in the first part of season 3, till the end, where they jumped from meee to wtf this was brilliant!!! His story ended up being the most intriguing for the next seasons, but it sure took a while to get there.
About the woman, I don’t see her as a mary sue, because it`s not clear how powerful she is from the start, and most importantly, in the main battles she does not take shine away from Trevor or Alucard. If that were the case then I would be much more against her, but in this case I find I don`t mind her character.
POB
Posted at 09:58 am, 21st March 2020Yes, they are amazing too, good call. Waren Ellis is a great screenwriter for sure!
Maybe, but the most interesting female characters of the show are the vampires. I’m deeply in love with Carnilla hahaha, she’s a super bitchy bad ass from hell!
guille
Posted at 10:11 am, 21st March 2020jaja yeah, the female vampire characters are incredible, real bitches. Fun to watch. the confrontation between the 4 sisters and Isaac is going to be epic. Can`t wait to see what`s going to be hector`s reaction to that situation.
I`m indeed very curious about Waren Ellis work, gonna check his comics.
Jordan
Posted at 01:38 pm, 6th April 2020I don’t know, people said that about sci-fi movies before the Forbidden Planet (which is…okay, but was one of the first sci-fi films that didn’t completely suck up until then so it was a BFD at the time), and I’m preeety sure people said that about fantasy movies before the Lord of the Rings trilogy, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
epiphoney
Posted at 09:41 am, 4th July 2020Just wondering if you’ve seen the movie Parasite that won the Academy award. I feel like the poor family was so clever and attractive, that they could have bettered their situation in a different way, instead of what they did, especially in the age of the internet. I can’t claim to have caught all the symbolism or even plot points on first viewing, until I watched a youtube video explaining it.