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ZorbaTHut  2yr ago (text post)   Edited 2yr ago   38759 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 12, 2022

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They said this is the most expensive show ever and that the future of the studio itself relies on its success, and yet they decide to check the woke quotas instead of giving Tolkien fans what they want. Did they really just not expect this level of blowback? Its so unfathomable to me that the answer is that simple, could it be something else?

I also find it a bit funny because two of their most popular series recently, Reacher and The Terminal List, were extremely successful acting as straightforward adaptations of their source material with all the problematic themes and messaging included.

Compared to the Jack Ryan TV series which seems to have plopped out two seasons and been largely forgotten, and as I recall it was because hardcore Tom Clancy fans picked apart the show's accuracy to real life and the plausibility of the plots (i.e. the things Tom Clancy was famous for) whilst the casual viewers found it too hard to follow and with too dour a tone.

Turns out, many popular things are popular because of certain elements that can be directly adapted to the screen, and trying to wedge in themes, ideas, characters, etc. that weren't present in the original poses a real risk of crowding out those elements and alienating the audience that actually likes the property.

I also find it a bit funny because two of their most popular series recently, Reacher and The Terminal List, were extremely successful acting as straightforward adaptations of their source material with all the problematic themes and messaging included.

I watched Reacher and I don't recall much "problematic" about it except in the sense that a huge white man in a mostly white small town was running around solving crimes.

Even then the show threw some "woke" stuff in by talking about how that town treated black inhabitants.

I mean, Reacher goes around on a vigilante rampage beating up on criminals of various stripes, including some PoC. Guns are treated as a generally useful affordance for protection rather than a dangerous item to be feared and regulated. Small town rural life is given an overall positive depiction (corruption by the local elites notwithstanding) and race relations are actually shown to be overall peaceful and genial.

I think by current standards Reacher himself represents many aspects of so-called 'toxic masculinity.' Doesn't talk about his feelings much, solves problems through application of brute force (precisely targeted, though), and demonstrates active contempt for authority figures or, indeed, anyone who tries to reign in his behavior. Oh, he also gets to rescue some damsels in distress at the end there.

Its not like it actively seeks to trangress current year norms, just doesn't pay them any respect, either.

But Reacher does end up being more about dumb entertaining violence than any real message whatsoever, which is actually quite refreshing in it's own right.

I mean, Reacher goes around on a vigilante rampage beating up on criminals of various stripes

Meh, vigilantism is kind of a weird grey area where you can reason from first principles that "wokes" would be set against it but they aren't, necessarily. Super hero movies are hugely popular, including ones like Batman who are more grounded vigilantes with all of the problems that entails.

Vengeance and violence are also allegedly not progressive values but they sell well and with little controversy.

I think by current standards Reacher himself represents many aspects of so-called 'toxic masculinity.' Doesn't talk about his feelings much, solves problems through application of brute force (precisely targeted, though), and demonstrates active contempt for authority figures or, indeed, anyone who tries to reign in his behavior. Oh, he also gets to rescue some damsels in distress at the end there.

He doesn't talk about his feelings but there're flashbacks that humanize him.

As for brute force: Reacher in the show (and the Tom Cruise movie) uses brute force the way Batman does; after he uses his other advantages of wealth and atypical intelligence to find the Acceptable Target.

In terms of sexual dynamics...not really much there either. Reacher doesn't stick around to raise a family with one woman he does have a sexual relationship with but there's functionally no acrimony and romance doesn't even seem to be that important to the plot of the show.

I'm not saying that no individual "woke" person could take offense - I've seen criticisms of A Quiet Place for allegedly lionizing rural, red state values, whatever that means - but I'm also not surprised that this hasn't boiled up into something more.

Its not like it actively seeks to trangress current year norms, just doesn't pay them any respect, either.

Sure, it's not really "woke" I guess but it's also not anti-woke or "problematic" such that it would be one of the juicier targets.

I wouldn't necessarily enjoy it if it were 'anti-woke' either, is the thing. I don't crave entertainment that validates the opposite of everything SJWs believe, I just want entertainment that doesn't either cram SJW values in where they clearly don't fit OR cowtow to SJW sensibilities to the detriment of its own audience, who may or may not care about such things.

That is, I appreciate works that are 'politically neutral' insofar as the story is able to stand on its own and the messaging isn't overtly designed to push a given ideological lens.

I got a similar sense from Top Gun: Maverick. Somehow that film even managed to downplay the RAH-RAH AMERICAN PATRIOTISM angle! It just wanted people to be able to get some positive emotions and thrills in exchange for their money! And audiences have rewarded the hell out of it, in return.

If there's a reason Reacher isn't a juicy target, I suspect it is because it doesn't have the same cultural cachet of, say, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and of course LOTR so it isn't as valuable a vessel to control. If it does breach into wider popularity, not sure if that'll hold.

If there's a reason Reacher isn't a juicy target, I suspect it is because it doesn't have the same cultural cachet of, say, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and of course LOTR so it isn't as valuable a vessel to control. If it does breach into wider popularity, not sure if that'll hold.

I'd argue that Rainbow Six is probably the more recognizable Tom Clancy IP, though maybe that's not fair to bring in a franchise that Ubisoft continues to milk to this day.

A note on the "Jack Ryan" thing, I thought the first season was very solid and went into the second hoping for more, but it was a dumpster fire. I don't know or care what they changed, but it ruined the show for me. Season 2 was just shit.

Tend to agree. The few bits I liked about Season 1 were gone in Season 2.

I don't mind John Krasinski in the role, and you get the sense that they could have made something realistic, tense, and interesting, but I forgot literally everything that happened in Season 2 less than a week after watching it, and have no desire to follow up on it.

Oh wait, I didn't forget the part where they literally turned the government of the Venezuela-analogue country into a RIGHT-WING dictatorship with a heroic left-leaning female candidate as the country's hope for revival.

Jesus.

Oh god, you're giving me flashbacks. YES. They made not-Maduro a conservative. They couldn't even set it in Chile or something. Wild, wild stuff.

Oh wait, I didn't forget the part where they literally turned the government of the Venezuela-analogue country into a RIGHT-WING dictatorship with a heroic left-leaning female candidate as the country's hope for revival.

...Yup, that was it for me. Doing it while executing a piss-poor retread of Clear and Present Danger, probably my favorite Clancy story when I was a kid, was just salt in the wound.

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