I like when high concept stuff is explored in a more grounded way. I guess that’s my sensibilities. Hyper-reality is just too much for my delicate self to handle. Reality-reality is bad enough. I think it’s very clever, but cheap.
On top of that, every show now-a-days seems to have to put in some overt sexual or violent content, if not that it makes a passive attempt at mind fucking you with varying results. We know it’s just to generate interest and buzz but it’s really to the detriment of it’s quality.
I don’t mind when those events are consistent with the theme or an exploration of the concept, but modern television and even a lot of modern literature is just a string of interconnected events staking claim to various different aspects of the human experience, picking them up and discarding them at will and then patting it’s self on the back for doing so.
We accept this because that more closely mirrors real-life but that’s kind of sad isn’t it? That all television is just becoming a overly saturated version of the mundane. I think it started with Breaking Bad and has just spiraled out of control from there.
That said should we put stock in people making things for us to that exists to just whittle down the hours towards death? I think so, complaining would be pretty pointless otherwise.
Modern writing is largely trash because no one is writing a cohesive narrative with a beginning, middle, and end. Everything is written with the idea that it will continue to be written forever. Threads must be scattered far and wide to ensure there’s always something to pick up, some way to raise the stakes. And then those stakes never get lowered, continuing to spiral off into the blue yonder like a rocket full of robot zombies (PLOT TWIST).
My favorite example is Weeds. The first three seasons are a pretty normal, mostly funny show. Then shit went off the rails and it became garbage instantly. It’s actually the show that most informs my contention that if you can’t tell the full story of your show in three seasons, then it’s a bad show. Obvious exceptions for sitcoms and other episodic shit like Trek, where that’s kind of the point. But if you’re writing a gritty “realistic” show, end that shit in season 3.
Worse is when they end up writing a coherent and planned ending to a show but then the network realizes said show prints money like mad, and so they drag it out for something like ten seasons no I’m not thinking of any show in particular why do you ask?
wut if ya phone wuz ya mum
Wot if instead of someone saying “how was your day” they said “what did you download”
Children’s cartoons (not an*me) are unironically the best television out right now. The writing necessarily has to be better because it can’t rely on gore and sex and shock factor in lieu of a cohesive plot.
Adventure Time, Infinity Train, Young Justice and a whole bunch of other stuff actually makes me feel like actual human emotion as opposed to shit like Law and Order: SVU or Evil
There’s a new season of the show SWAT starting up and I shit you not, from the commercials I see, they seem to be trying to address real life police violence. A character - who looks exactly like every bald, Oakley wearing cop chud in real life - giving a speech about how some officers just aren’t good enough and holding themselves to the high standard of SWAT teams. It’s frankly disgusting.
Worst part about getting woke to lefty shit is I can’t enjoy anything other than like… Food Network these days.
She-Ra is pretty great, sff about lesbians forming coalitions to fight colonialism, it just finished back in april. Hilda is a little young but has a lot of heart and the art style is great. Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts was good and I think also just completed its story recently too, it has fun world building and great characters.
Dragon Prince is decent too, it’s off to a bit of a slow start but has potential
Would like to add The Owl House to this list, I was recommended it after finishing She-Ra and it’s pretty good.
Yeh, I’ve never really had a way to put it into words, but whenever I’ve watched black mirror I’ve always been like “why watch this when we already live in a tech dystopia?”
I really like black mirror but yes the themes and presentation are very surface level. They criticize technology rather than capitalism most of the time
what’s extremely fucked up is that they criticize technology, yet they use technology to produce and distribute their show. curious
