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.

yeah the last series was awful. Actually anything filmed during the pandemic was awful, because it’s so date-able, I just don’t want to rewatch what was a really shit time as my entertainment.

was interesting to see the disdain that big corps have for unions with superstore though

It’s not even necessarily about whether one agrees or disagrees with the message. It’s the sheer unsubtlety of it all.

I mean, I “agree with” the importance of the environment and climate change and all that. But I don’t want to watch (say) a Lord of the Rings remake where a ton of unsubtle and clumsy “save-the-environment!”dialog has been shoveled into the film. And we all know perfectly well that if/when LOTR gets remade, that kind of thing is exactly what they’ll do.

I don’t want that when I’m watching LOTR. I want to get lost in Tolkien’s magical thought-world, not feel like I’m watching some kind of documentary with some magical characters bolted on.

Tolkien DID have environment-related messages in his work, but they were extremely nuanced, and sort of percolated their way naturally through his work, rather than feeling like a lecture.

That’s the difference, everyone. And it’s why I’m getting annoyed at all the posters saying things like “Nooo, films and TV shows have always had political ideas behind them!” Yes, but not like this. Looking at films and TV shows the way they are being made now vs the way they were made even as little as 20 years ago, there’s been a change. And it’s not a change for the better.

It’s not about being environmentally skeptic. I want to hear environment-related content—at other times, like when I’m reading or watching news content or a documentary. I don’t want it when I am watching Tolkien. Is that too much to ask?

You have a very odd definition of woke. Stories about power, corruption, and evil, are not "woke" they are just stories about human nature.

My grandmother had an abortion carried out by an Anglican nun in the late 1960s. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Got it in one!

Not really.

from M-W:

aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)

reflecting the attitudes and beliefs of woke people

Succession is all over that shit.

Oh yes, your generation were sooooo individual and superior. There was never any groupthink in previous generations, oh no.

There was Group think in that that was how society worked - and the majority accepted it. There wasn't the media /internet there is now and constant 'information' and 'news' to correct our wrong thinking which is very tedious (and threats, cruel comments etc etc).
When I was younger the "cool" thing to be was an individual, with your own mind, and often controversial viewpoints.
The difference now is that the 'individuals' have enough money and influence to change the world. We certainly didn't in the past it was you and your friends. It was a very different time.

@Catspyjamas17 where have I said that previous generations were superior? You've misunderstood. But I do think there was much less "groupthink" than there is now and young people seem to be much more wanting to conform than have different and controversial opinions. I think it's social media tbh that's the difference. There's a lot of telling everyone what to think these days (hence this thread) and young people are obviously going to be more susceptible to those messages. I am sure we would have been the same had social media been about back then. It's not about one set of people being better than anyone else! But I also don't think it's a positive thing and we should be calling it out imo. I'm sure there be push back though by future generations as there usually is against whatever the previous generation was about.

Nope. Most of my favourite shows present viewpoints I disagree with. It's all about the HOW, not the what.

Isn't the whole point of this that they are concerned about the wellbeing and health of the women (and conflicted with their reglious views)? I don't understand why you think that's unrealistic.

The OP is why media studies should be compulsory in schools. This has existed for as long as film and television has.

Completely agree with this.

To add all the unnecessary sex and aggressive making out scenes, makes most of them completely unwatchable. There are so many ways to change things up without resorting to stereotypes of changing things up.

It's sad because there are so many options nowadays compared to when I was growing up and had no on-demand stuff to choose from, but they're useless to me if I can't find anything that isn't cringy or eye-roll inducing. If I find one, it's like a miracle.

I actually happen to know several Anglican midwives who are are all against abortion - and this is the 21st century. So I'm pretty sure that the majority of devout CofE nuns in the 1950s/60s/70s would have been too.

I'm absolutely not turning this thread into a discussion on abortion - my point was not about the ethics of abortion. I was merely saying that the BBC was unconvincing in its scriptwriting of that particular episode of the Call the Midwife. It would have been better for the nuns to have had views on abortion that were actually convincing for the time, even if it complicated them as "good" characters in the eyes of many viewers. Because that's what makes for great television! Nuance and layered, convincing characterisation :)

I think the sex scenes are in for such lenght of time because writera run ojt of ideas for acript and needwd to pad it out. I think jt used to be prolonged scenery shots before. I like them

Not sure how you can extrapolate that from knowing a handful of midwives. You're just trying to row back on the fact that you were outraged about CATHOLIC MIDWIVES despite them not being that at all.

OP, my nan used to moan about the state of telly in the 70s and 80s, now my dad does. And oh god, don't get him started on music...
Par for the course, old people bemoaning the culture of younger generations

Yeah. Definitely preferred the prolonged scenery times or even longer boring dialogues than watching soft porn - People know where to find them if they want to.

Oh no I'm perfectly happy to accept that I was wrong - indeed, they're not Catholic on CtM, but Anglican. But even with this in mind, from knowing lots of Anglicans, several midwives, and several Anglican midwives, all of which are against abortion, I feel pretty confident that decades ago Anglican nuns (who were probably even more devout than your everyday 21st century Anglican) would have felt the same but x10, given the taboos around abortion at the time.

You sound offended? I'm simply observing society - I'm not saying they're right or wrong 😕

'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).'

Love that you used this as an example! Anne has always been a gay icon - always. For generations of little lesbians all over the world.

and as for the author who had 'no interest ' as far as you are aware - scholars have long debated whether or not she was gay. she was in a deeply unhappy marriage ( her diaries) and most of her emotional energy appears to be invested in VERY close female friends...

in short, there's a a very strong chance that she was gay and/or had gay friends.
She certainly wrote the kind of kick ass heroine that gay girls who didn't even know they were gay were strongly drawn too... quite a few gay boys too.

'The new Little Mermaid deleting the line "men don't like women who blabber" from Ursula's songs.'

it's old, tired. Like a MIL joke. And insulting to men as well. it belongs in the era of ads where all the husbands are feckless fuck-wits who can't do the laundry properly without this mrs rolling her eyes and having to 'help' him.

But well done you for getting upset at a single like from a song that hardly anyone knows the words too rather than the more obvious fact that the Little Mermaid is black this time around. That really got some conservatives frothing.

I find the reactions of Gen Z to programmes and films that were popular when I was their age fascinating. A lot of Friends, for example, has not aged well at all.

I think alot of tv is great at the moment, especially for my kids who have lived through a pandemic and have gone through mental health issues. We have some of our best discussions about tv programmes we watch together, covering far more diverse and interesting topics than when I was their age, bring it on!

It makes me laugh the way liberal-left wokesters still think they are the cool outsiders. As if they are the counter-culture! Counter-culture...fucking hell, nothing could be more mainstream than a liberal-left 'progressive'. To be rebellious or counter-cultural today, you'd have to be a patriotic conservative. The woke left dominate everything. They run the BBC (which is basically a woke-left propaganda unit), the universities, the libraries, the publishing industry and the arts.

The other thing that makes me laugh is the word 'woke'. It suggests that only those who hold the 'correct' liberal-left views are really thinking. But no one is more intolerant, conformist or narrow-minded that a left-leaning liberal. Whenever I meet such people, I never feel like I'm having a real conversation. They just mindlessly regurgitate the standard liberal-left view on everything. In Orwell's 1984, he warns that totalitarian states try to control language, narrow the range of thought, and re-write history. And that is exactly what is happening. It's unbelievable. But because it's liberals who are doing it (instead of Communists or fascists), somehow it's OK.