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.

I haven’t turned the TV in in a decade.

And I don’t consume any mainstream media which is all propaganda

Obviously. But you can see the difference in, for example, the attitude to producing at the Globe in the mid-2000s compared to today. Of course in 2005 the Globe wasn’t offering authentically dirty orange-peddlers from 1600, teenage boys playing all the female cast (though they did experiment with this a bit), or doing away with the fire exit signs in pursuit of a more authentic experience. But they were much more conservative in terms of historical conservationism, interest in performance history etc. than today.

Lots of interest in the mid-2000s in “grittier”, less polished versions of historical drama, too: less Colin Firth and more dirt, mud and bad teeth. That doesn’t mean they weren’t producing something just as constructed as before: but those shifts in how we think about different kinds of authenticity and whether they matter are pretty interesting. It’s not at all historically plausible for Anne with an E or Catherine called Birdy to have had gay friends, and it isn’t in the original texts. But currently it seems to be important to the people producing adaptations to shoehorn in contemporary political issues, in a way that 15 years ago was much less obviously urgent.

You might prefer the current approach. OP might be bored with it. But it’s undeniably there.

I entirely agree OP. It's profoundly depressing and rather frightening.

I love Lucy has the first pregnant woman on TV. Showed the first married couple sleeping in bed together. Also, it almost didn't get made because the executives didn't think it was believable that a Cuban man could be with a white woman, despite the fact they were an actual couple.

What is frightening about tv shows you're not into?

We watch very little TV and have not been to the cinema for years. We have loads of DVDs from the past and watch them. I refuse to buy new ‘censored’ books and only buy second hand ones. Best program on TV ‘Clarkson’s Farm’ new series in October !

Because of the reasons @Fisharejumping set out.

It's frightening, because in my view its total lack of nuance and ambiguity discourages critical thinking. Context is everything. And we see that seeping into all areas of life these days.

It's also boring, simplistic and patronising.

I agree. Books, TV, films, art have always dealt with social and political issues but these days it feels like we're fed a diet of pure propaganda. We're told WHAT to think rather than actually think.

I miss the days of feeling really challenged and made to think by books, TV etc because they presented the full complexity of life and the real world rather than there is right and wrong, pick a side. I hardly watch any TV now because it's so tedious.

Oh and I can't bear the amount of gratuitous nudity and sex either, so much time is wasted on those scenes I'm convinced it's just filler to make up the required amount of time for a programm.

I agree. Things aren't represented well, how do I know? I'm old enough to remember the 60s and 70s.
I argued previously about swearing in progs set in the past - I was told we've always sworn look at Chaucer - but that wasn't always angry blaspheming it was more bawdy slang.
Hardly anyone swore when I was growing up. Or if they did not F and C and not normally in front of women or by women. People wanted to be seen as respectable - I'm SURE there were areas of the country, parts of society where the language was bad but not that I came across. People went to church. Keeping up appearances - not to say there weren't dreadful things going on. It was kept quiet by a sort of acceptance that there were immoral lesser beings who should know better and got no sympathy.
But progs set then have a 'hero' who can see what is wrong and is fighting for the underdog which hardly happened then in real life - unless the 'hero' was a rich and influential person.

I think the problem is that it's very clunky signalling, no subtlety to it. Very obvious and sometimes totally out of place.

Totally! Every movie I'm like at some point there will be a pointless shower scene. 😂

I'm not sure comparing. Dickens with Ten Pound Poms is a fair comparison.

There has always been art produced solely with the intention of mass appeal to make money. Often saccharine and sentimental.

And art produced with a political or social ideal behind it.

Your mistake is thinking Ten Pounds Poms (or similar) is trying to fit into the second category. It's not. It's in the first. It has those ideas in the script because they are popular. Not because they are moral.

I sometimes wonder if Mumsnet starts these threads themselves to generate traffic and ad views, since they tend to generate a lot of traffic, also plenty heat (but not much light).

I can't say I watch much TV. But if you really want to avoid these issues then watch older properties or watch TV/films from non-Anglophone countries that are more socially conservative like Japan or South Korea. British and American media isn't your only option.

The last season of Good doctor really fits into this OP.

"I've noticed that American shows have gone this way big style. Star Trek Discovery recently had a storyline about a non binary couple and the whole thing felt utterly forced. A PP mentioned Supergirl upthread and that one is definitely guilty of picking a "woke" theme of the week."

Compare Discovery with the way The Orville dealt with identity - a couple from a society of males where women are considered a genetic anomaly have a female child. It was very well written and acted. Incredibly thought provoking. Almost unbelievable that it came from the same writer as Family Guy!!

There has been an absolute loss of trust in people to be able to think critically. From the Dr Who example upthread, we all know racism is wrong, seeing a character react with emotion reinforces the values. Being told off by the Year 9 drama class makes you switch off.

Joker made a DC villain into and incredible study of a decent into madness, highlighting the issues in mental health support without lecturing (also had a variety of characters without having them wearing the 'token' t-shirt).

I read somewhere last year that critics were shocked that Maverick was so high grossing because it lacked a message. No it was high grossing because it was a bloody fun film with some action scenes!

Writers need to remember audiences are not stupid and producers need to stop trying to make things appealing to every demographic.

I'm not saying art has always been apolitical. Please read my previous comments

I agree OP and I think several PPs are missing your point. It's the poor quality of the writing where you feel that the writing has inserted some unnecessary plot line/character into a script to make the story "more appealing" to modern sensibilities rather than reflect a realistic world view.
I switch off the moment I feel manipulated. In fact very little drama is actually watchable and I tend to stick to documentaries and books.

Tell me you hold archaic views without telling me you hold archaic views 😂

Everything has an agenda.

Everything.😉

Yep 😆

What I really hate is period dramas where they make the characters use modern turns of phrase, and 'simplify' things for Generations X Y and Z. Like people in World War II saying 'run that past the General'.

My mum was a catholic midwife - call the midwife is essentially her job she went around delivering babies in people homes. She was the most pro-choice person I know!!!

YABU - media and art have always had slants, biases, included opinions on social issues etc. All forms have always had their good and bad attempts at representing these. The idea that the past was innately better is rose-colored glass thinking. You will have forgotten the truly terrible stuff on tv way back when, and sounds like you're missing some amazing stuff now.

There are good discussions to be had about true representation, tokenism, nuance, cultural appropriation, various forms and values of story telling etc. But the idea of some nefarious 'agenda' going on just makes me think of conspiracy theorists and evangelical Christians. I'm a church refugee and I am so over mysterious oft-touted 'agendas' in media or society that I'm supposed to feel victimized by. I just really, really don't.

It's no skin off my nose if Netflix goes overboard with non-White casting to make up for decades of White-washing by most media (which most people who bemoan today's 'agendas' apparently don't have a problem with). Ditto for sexuality and gender. Honestly, why is my white, hetero body considered 'normal' and brown bodies considered 'diverse'? Why is my love story or sexuality the default, and other stories different from mine are an 'agenda'? It is truly bizarre to me.

Also, anyone using woke as a pejorative should look into the history of the term, and reconsider.

I agree with you OP. The prime example being And Just Like That, the Sex & The City reboot.

SATC was about these 4 fabulous flawed women and their relationships with each other, with men, with how their private lives and work intersected. Let’s ignore the second film for now! AJLT turned them into a bunch of cliches, surrounded by ‘lessons’ in the form of characters who tested their woke credentials. Storylines about racism and trans issues were shoehorned in, with all the characters we’d grown to love being made to appear stupid and bigoted.

Similar feeling with Ted Lasso on Apple TV. The first couple of seasons were perfect happy TV. The final season we saw everyone going their separate ways to have unconvincing same sex relationships, lessons on consent, storylines about politics etc. It was painful. I’m all for any of those being storylines when they occur within an actual story, but the wokeness becomes the story and it doesn’t fit the characters we know and love, it’s just irritating.

I started watching something else about relationships and they couple were on the therapists couch. First question what are your pronouns. I switched off. You just know it’s going to be shit.