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Political themes in TV shows are pretty ubiquitous these days. In part this is because US politics are more interested in "culture war" issues than they are wit

Political themes in TV shows are pretty ubiquitous these days. In part this is because US politics are more interested in "culture war" issues than they are with specific political platforms. In other words, culture war issues tend to deal with moral and social values. In a previous time, political issues might be much more limited in scope: what should the government tax? Which regulations are helpful? etc. "Culture war" issues tend to be a bit more subtle, and can usually be ignored as valid plot devices. There's not even anything explicitly wrong with adding your own cultural values to a movie, but rather it can get pretty overbearing, even if you tend to agree. A good way to look out for these themes is to look at the characters and ask some basic questions: - Which characters in the show are in charge? What groups (racial, sexual, etc) are they from? - Which characters in the show are competent? What groups are they from? - Which characters in the show are the villains? What groups are they from? - Which characters in the show are the victims? What groups are they from? - Which characters have "good" traits such as humility, kindness, etc? - Which characters are shown to be bigots? - etc. This can get a bit more complex, too. The solutions to problems, or explanations for the ills of the world might also follow culture war lines. Who are the bad guys? Are they from a corporation? From the government? From a certain gender or ethnic group? etc. A great example of this might be the Mulan remake vs. the original. In the remake, much of the movie is occupied with showing how Mulan is better than everyone, and then quickly cutting to show face-shots of men who are either severely intimated, cowed, afraid, or impressed. I'm not suggesting there is anything wrong with this. Rather I'm just making the point that this was added to the movie for political and cultural reasons. The original cartoon didn't really have much comeuppance in this way, because it was written during a different time. Again, I don't think there's anything wrong with people putting their political views into shows -- really, that's inevitable at some level. But, there's also a certain level where it becomes too over the top, too sanctimonious, too pervasive, and you just want to get away from it all.

tomnipotent 5y ago
Poppycock. Political issues in media have always included cultural and social issues, it's just that they now span a larger universe that includes more than white male Christians.
- otterley 5y ago
  I grew up in the '80s and it was there then, too. Some example episodes from "Diff'rent Strokes," a show about a white industrial magnate who adopts a couple of Black orphans: * A social worker investigates the boys' home life and tells Mr. Drummond that she believes black children belong in black households. * Mr. Drummond scolds Arnold for secretly recording other people's conversations. Arnold disobeys him and records Kimberly's boyfriend Roger making racist comments about Willis to his sister. * Arnold's poor dental checkup has Drummond suspecting that the easy availability of junk food from vending machines at school is to blame. But when Drummond begins a campaign to replace the hot dogs, cookies, potato chips and soft drinks with more healthy foods, Arnold's friends try to convince him to get his father to reconsider. * Arnold's joy of being transferred to an all-white school (and riding a bus to get there) is shaken to its very core when a racist busing opponent calls the Drummond household warning the pro-busing family patriarch not to send his black children to the new school, or else. * When it is learned that Drummond's upcoming construction project may be located on top of an ancient Indian burial ground, he faces protest from a Native American who threatens to go on a hunger strike if the land is built on. Arnold and Willis follow suit by going on a hunger strike of their own. -- And of course, we mustn't forget "All in the Family" from the 1970s; pretty much every episode was about politics in some way.
  - bcrosby95 5y ago
    How about Mr Rogers. Sharing water with a black man was intensely political when he did it. On a childrens show no less.
- twofornone 5y ago
  Except in virtually all of this woke programming white male christians are deliberately and exclusively portrayed negatively, if their characters aren't outright replace with race and gender swaps. It's petty revenge racism.
  - otterley 5y ago
    If you're saying that you cannot find a single example where a white male is portrayed non-negatively, you need to look harder. Longmire on Netflix is just one example. Jack Reacher and Bosch on Prime Video are others. That said, there's plenty of room to make fun of white male Christians, just like there's plenty of room to make fun of everyone else. It's not like there's a shortage of hypocrisy and foibles out there.
handoflixue 5y ago
> Which characters in the show are competent? What groups are they from? > Which characters in the show are the villains? What groups are they from? Genuinely curious here - is there some difference between the dominance of one group in the 50s vs 80s vs today? Or do you feel that TV has always been dominated by political themes?
- everdrive 5y ago
  It would certainly be disingenuous to say that TV shows did not have political themes in previous eras: obviously they did. I believe what's different now is simply the speed of change and extremity of political viewpoints. This debate is sort of similar to when people worry about misinformation on social media, and someone answers back "well there's always been bias and misinformation in the news." This is true, but it fails to address that the nature of the problem is different now than in previous eras. I think what you have these days is a splintering of the mainstream, and the rise of extremist viewpoints. Both of these, in my opinion are due to social media. In the 80s, (and before) there was a true mainstream culture. For certain, people fell outside of that culture, and if you did fall outside of the mainstream I believe the consequences were harsher than they would be nowadays. But, broadly speaking, that mainstream culture encompassed more Americans than the mainstream culture of today. In modern times, there is no real majority mainstream culture, and because of this centralized media is reflective of a smaller and smaller portion of the country. In other words, there are simply going to be a larger number of people who might not feel represented by views and positions they watch in TV or hear on the news. And to be clear, I'm not talking about "racial representation here." I explicitly do not mean that "if I don't see a person of my race or gender in a show, I don't feel represented." I mean instead that the social and political values of a given show today reflect the views of a smaller percentage of Americans than the political and social values of a show in the 50s or 80s. I'm not even arguing that this is a bad thing in the objective sense: simply that the political views of the current "mainstream" feel narrow and extremist to me, to the extent that I just don't want to watch a lot of popular shows.

tomnipotent 5y ago

Poppycock. Political issues in media have always included cultural and social issues, it's just that they now span a larger universe that includes more than white male Christians.

otterley 5y ago
I grew up in the '80s and it was there then, too. Some example episodes from "Diff'rent Strokes," a show about a white industrial magnate who adopts a couple of Black orphans: * A social worker investigates the boys' home life and tells Mr. Drummond that she believes black children belong in black households. * Mr. Drummond scolds Arnold for secretly recording other people's conversations. Arnold disobeys him and records Kimberly's boyfriend Roger making racist comments about Willis to his sister. * Arnold's poor dental checkup has Drummond suspecting that the easy availability of junk food from vending machines at school is to blame. But when Drummond begins a campaign to replace the hot dogs, cookies, potato chips and soft drinks with more healthy foods, Arnold's friends try to convince him to get his father to reconsider. * Arnold's joy of being transferred to an all-white school (and riding a bus to get there) is shaken to its very core when a racist busing opponent calls the Drummond household warning the pro-busing family patriarch not to send his black children to the new school, or else. * When it is learned that Drummond's upcoming construction project may be located on top of an ancient Indian burial ground, he faces protest from a Native American who threatens to go on a hunger strike if the land is built on. Arnold and Willis follow suit by going on a hunger strike of their own. -- And of course, we mustn't forget "All in the Family" from the 1970s; pretty much every episode was about politics in some way.
- bcrosby95 5y ago
  How about Mr Rogers. Sharing water with a black man was intensely political when he did it. On a childrens show no less.
twofornone 5y ago
Except in virtually all of this woke programming white male christians are deliberately and exclusively portrayed negatively, if their characters aren't outright replace with race and gender swaps. It's petty revenge racism.
- otterley 5y ago
  If you're saying that you cannot find a single example where a white male is portrayed non-negatively, you need to look harder. Longmire on Netflix is just one example. Jack Reacher and Bosch on Prime Video are others. That said, there's plenty of room to make fun of white male Christians, just like there's plenty of room to make fun of everyone else. It's not like there's a shortage of hypocrisy and foibles out there.

handoflixue 5y ago

> Which characters in the show are competent? What groups are they from? > Which characters in the show are the villains? What groups are they from? Genuinely curious here - is there some difference between the dominance of one group in the 50s vs 80s vs today? Or do you feel that TV has always been dominated by political themes?

everdrive 5y ago
It would certainly be disingenuous to say that TV shows did not have political themes in previous eras: obviously they did. I believe what's different now is simply the speed of change and extremity of political viewpoints. This debate is sort of similar to when people worry about misinformation on social media, and someone answers back "well there's always been bias and misinformation in the news." This is true, but it fails to address that the nature of the problem is different now than in previous eras. I think what you have these days is a splintering of the mainstream, and the rise of extremist viewpoints. Both of these, in my opinion are due to social media. In the 80s, (and before) there was a true mainstream culture. For certain, people fell outside of that culture, and if you did fall outside of the mainstream I believe the consequences were harsher than they would be nowadays. But, broadly speaking, that mainstream culture encompassed more Americans than the mainstream culture of today. In modern times, there is no real majority mainstream culture, and because of this centralized media is reflective of a smaller and smaller portion of the country. In other words, there are simply going to be a larger number of people who might not feel represented by views and positions they watch in TV or hear on the news. And to be clear, I'm not talking about "racial representation here." I explicitly do not mean that "if I don't see a person of my race or gender in a show, I don't feel represented." I mean instead that the social and political values of a given show today reflect the views of a smaller percentage of Americans than the political and social values of a show in the 50s or 80s. I'm not even arguing that this is a bad thing in the objective sense: simply that the political views of the current "mainstream" feel narrow and extremist to me, to the extent that I just don't want to watch a lot of popular shows.