To not be able to stand film and TV nowadays because it always has an agenda?

[mintlily]

I've noticed that I can only bear to watch TV shows and films produced until roughly 2008.

It feels like everything nowadays has some kind of moral or political agenda. The writers are either trying to show off how enlightened they are, or condition you to accept their certain neo-Marxist world view. Virtually ALL dramas have an LGBT, feminist or anti-racist agenda, delivered with 0 subtlety or nuance. And the way it is done is so patronising and disrespectful to historical writers and figures - as if we 21st century people are the moral arbiters of history, and must overlay our more enlightened worldview on their bigoted work, which was surely produced in ignorance. It's also patronising to the intelligence of viewers, as if we need everything censored for our innocent eyes and can't make our own moral judgements. There is something puritanical and unartistic about it, like the Victorians censoring art to not corrupt the masses.

For example:

The new Little Mermaid deleting the line "men don't like women who blabber" from Ursula's songs. Ursula is a villain. We can cope with her being sexist, for goodness sake - we know that we're supposed to think she's wrong. The writer didn't need to fret that children would internalise the worldview of the villain.

Anne of Green Gables and her gay best friend. Why? This is not the genre to deal with LGBT issues. The author had no interest in this subject (as far as I'm aware).

Call the Midwife and it's pro-abortion stance. As if CATHOLIC MIDWIVES IN THE 1970s would have been pro-abortion?!

It's nothing to do with your actual views on these subjects. I just find that TV and film lacks the nuance and intelligence that it used to and I actually can't bear to watch any of it anymore, as it just feels so soulless.

Which of my posts was that in? If you click on the 'quote' button it'll link it in full with my name.

Looks like the typical mumsnet tactic of misquoting somebody and then arguing with the fabricated thing they never actually said.

There are plenty of queer/lgbt filmakers creating original, fresh content. Have you looked on indie streaming services, A24 films etc or did you just want to bring up GB News/UKIP talking points?
I don't know why you expect huge corporations like Disney to be creating a certain type of content, they exist to make profit and the new emerging market in gen z/alpha. If you want original stuff, go indie.

It's mostly just another thing for woke white people to froth on about, like wanting equal gender representation in all sectors despite most women not actually wanting to dig ditches or empty bins.

A lot of men don't want to dig ditches or empty bins either, but don't let that get in the way of your misogyny.

Were 1 in 5 people in TV ads and shows non white?

Nope.

SusiePevensie · Yesterday 19:57
Best stay away from A Matter of Life abd Death then”

One of the best films ever!

British people for British TV. Local shops for local people.

TV programmes are sold to a global audience now, we're not some isolated little island no matter what people like you might prefer.

I don't hugely disagree with @mintlily but I think it's not necessarily an "agenda" but incredibly bad/lazy writing. The art of storytelling seems to have been lost.

For example, I've recently been rewatching Ugly Betty on Disney+. Within that, there were the good protagonists (Betty), the gay characters (Marc, Betty's nephew), the trans characters (Alexis), the villains (Amanda, Willamena Slater, Bradford Meade). There was a beautiful mix of diversity amongst age/gender/race - and every single character was well written with their flaws and their strengths, and you saw them change and grow - sometimes they would be mean and bitchy, other times they were generous and kind. In short, they were all treated as equal and I loved every single character.

But these similar shows these days don't seem to have those subtleties of nuances. Your bad, or your good. There's no character growth or development. If you're a trans or non-binary character, that is LITERALLY your only "personality" trait (see Che Diaz from AJLT as a prime example). There's nothing to the character other than that one defining feature. And if as an audience member you dare to say "this character sucks", you're almost called out by the showrunners for being "phobic" - such as how the creaters of AJLT slated literally EVERYONE for not falling in love with such a badly written, hateful character.

In comparison, take something like Schitts Creek where there was so much love for someone like David Rose who was just a gem of a character, so well written that I genuinely got upset to say goodbye to those characters when it ended.

A huge bugbear of mine is where TV shows pick a topic for each week that the audience must be lectured on. AJLT did this, and so did Ted Lasso in the final series (one week was about coming out, the next about a sex tape, then it was about race relations) - but because it's all one episode then never alluded to again, it doesn't feel organic or natural to the character development and the storytelling. It feels like 'Im being lectured to by the writers

Well, it obviously depends on whether the show is Top Boy or Downton Abbey.

OP and the others who agree area appear to be MOR TV consumers who watch whatever the BBC trailers advertise.

Just watch better shows - and shows run by, written by and controlled by minorities - and you won't have this problem.

I'm talking about in the past, and also neither of those is an advert.

Incidentally Top Boy is excellent and devoid of moral lecturing or stereotypes IMO.

It's not a direct quote but that is in essence what you said. Or if not, what are you saying? You complained that there are so many mixed race couples etc in advertising and that people of colour were overrepresented. Doesn't that mean you think there are too many people of colour in adverts? And if so, why does it bother you? You said that it is not representative of the UK majority population. So? Why does it offend you not too see more of yourself represented in adverts? Will you not buy the product if the advert has a person of colour? And if so, is that bad? Why do you care how effective advertising is at selling products?

So what's the solution? Dictating quotas to scriptwriters and directors?

What we're seeing here is the typical woke reaction whereby anybody who doesn't 100% acquiesce is branded racist/transphobic etc.

All I'm saying it that with 4% of our population being black, 4 in 100 people on TV being black is an accurate reflection if our cultural demographics. Reality is reality, not whatever you want it to be. Just like a man is a man and a woman is a woman.

Dr Who was ruined by in-your-face wokeness.
Rings of Power used such diverse casting that recognizing which characters were related was incredibly difficult.
Sex Education has straight characters in such a minority that it makes no sense that the gay/lesbian/bi/trans/asexual/pansexual struggle to find acceptance.
The Umbrella Academy turned a character trans and homosexual when there was no indication in prior seasons that the character struggled with their gender or sexuality.
Our Flag Means Death is very heavy-handed in pushing an LGBT+ with most characters being at least bisexual.
The Little Mermaid is a clear casting of a visual minority purely to say that Disney is "diverse" now instead of actually creating a film with a likeable black heroine.

It feels like the producers/directors/writers are preaching to the converted. We know the environment should be prioritized, we believe in equal rights for ethnic minorities, we believe in fair treatment to all, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. So why does every program need to force the issues in the least subtle ways possible?

I would recommend that the OP watch The Patient on Disney+. I was struck with how much I enjoyed the lack of preaching despite religion and mental health being prominent features!

I'm not at all offended or complaining.

Seems pretty accurate to me.

You think there are too many black people on TV.

Still waiting for your interpretation of the diversity data for TV

people of colour are overrepresented on TV = complaining

Here's a bonus quote from DH: "Find something that matters to get upset about!" 😂

I think it depends on whether you believe that life imitates art, or vice-versa.
I noticed it first when Princess Diana died, and literally millions of people (who didn’t actually know her) expressed their grief in a manner akin to soap-opera dramatics.
However, as time has passed I realise that this was not necessarily a bad thing, as it showed that Society has evolved from the repressed state that it was in after WWII, and that change, of becoming more accepting and tolerant of feelings and emotions, is for the better IMO.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I feel exactly the same. I can't remember the last time I watched a new film. I just assume they'll be rubbish. If I want to see one, I order classics on Amazon. Right now, I've got a stack of French films from the 1950s. I've also got a boxset of Hancock's Half Hour and I Claudius to get through. I'm getting into plays as well, and have started ordering them on DVD (Pinter, Stoppard, etc).

I never watch soaps or dramas any more. Frankly, I'm close to giving up my TV altogether. I reckon I could make do with youtube and DVDs, which I can watch on my laptop. I really resent having a liberal-left/'progressive' agenda rammed down my throat.

The over representation of black people in adverts is only a problem because it’s clearly not colour-blind casting (ie it’s virtue-signalling). It’s also odd because south Asians are a bigger group in this country. I assume maybe south Asian people are less likely to go into acting so they use black people to fill the diversity quota, which is itself pretty racist imo. Either way, it supports the OPs point that all of this is done cynically and treats the audience like idiots.

Childrens books are the same: boring Victorian morality tales. Where’s the humour fgs? I want books that make my kids think rather than just mindlessly eat up whatever shit moral they’re being fed. Because guess what? People who can’t think for themselves also swallow ideas that aren’t so wholesome.

The Umbrella Academy turned a character trans and homosexual when there was no indication in prior seasons that the character struggled with their gender or sexuality

Probably because the actor themselves was trans and they respected that and showed their support. It wasn’t even a big thing or took away from the story unless you chose to find that bothersome.

The Little Mermaid is a clear casting of a visual minority purely to say that Disney is "diverse" now instead of actually creating a film with a likeable black heroine.

So Tiana, one of the Disney Princesses in 2009 wasn’t likeable? Disney is diverse now? Think you may need to look back at the catalog when stories were more than just white Princesses. They started diversifying in the early 90s with Aladdin.

This is also not the first time a minority played in an expected white role when it comes to such movies. I have fond memories of watching Cinderella played by Brandy, Whitney Houston as her godmother, Whoppi Goldberg as the Queen, Victor Garber as the King, Paolo Montalban as the Prince, Bernadette Peters as the Stepmother and there was a host of other celebrities in the movie in the late 90s and it didn’t clock into most kids’ minds the diversity in the movie, how could a white man and a black woman have an asian child or how could a white woman with red hair have a white daughter and black daughter. It was a discussion with my classmates this year when Brandy and Paolo reprised these roles a few months ago, how these things never crossed our mind til now. That could be because mainly adults want to call it a problem.

Gonna let you in on a little secret.....ready?

TV (or any media) doesn't have to be an accurate reflection of a country's cultural demographic 😮🤫

Adverts for different companies ... what so are we going to have to start telling companies "sorry. Your product might be intended for a diverse audience but too many other companies have included black/gay/diversity cast and so you can only use straight, white cast"?

Much of these complaints are "weh there are black and gay people on my TV and I don't like being confronted by the fact this is acceptable"