4 ms·

It seems like all of these nostalgia-bait nerd culture TV shows and movies being pumped out by megaconglomerates as of late have absolutely nothing to stand on

by hbn 4y ago

It seems like all of these nostalgia-bait nerd culture TV shows and movies being pumped out by megaconglomerates as of late have absolutely nothing to stand on in terms of story quality or originality, so all they can do to sell it is show you things you remember from good original movies/shows of the past, and race-bait to trick people into thinking if you like this show/movie it means you're a good person. I'm almost certain they cast these shows specifically so they can find someone on twitter to say something racist, and then all the journalists can write ads- er I mean "articles" about the supposed backlash to the diverse casting that's apparently very widespread, even though I never see it. Every time a new show comes out, I only find out because of the dozens of articles claiming that there's a huge swathe of people upset about a black person in it. The entire marketing ploy is so clearly planned in advance, I can't believe we're still doing this routine after all this time.

dereg 4y ago
> I'm almost certain they cast these shows specifically so they can find someone on twitter to say something racist [..] I cannot imagine being this cynical about something that is, at the end of the day, an Amazon Prime show. edit: removed judgmental tone
- hbn 4y ago
  You can't imagine being cynical about a trillion+ dollar company taking advantage of serious issues and socially manipulating people so they can make more money?
  - dereg 4y ago
    Does the character work or not work? For me, the character works. Why do we need to be talking about his race again?
    - 2muchcoffeeman 4y ago
      It's hard not to be cynical or entertain thoughts of Hollywood planning these things in case the show sucks. Because they can clearly do entertainment with diverse casting, non-white people, female leads and succeed: - Tom Holland Spider-Man does not have a red-head MJ, Flash is Indian and the made up best friend is Filipino. - Domino in the Dead Pool movies is black. NTW doesn't seem to have the same powers and is gay. But I'm not sure what the current character status is. - Everything Everywhere All at Once - Black Panther - Shang Chi - Jordan Peele does good work: Nope, Us, Candy Man, Get Out - The Expanse - Life of Pi - Sandman swaps a bunch of stuff Appetite for completely foreign media is much slower in English speaking countries but once in a while you get a major break through: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Parasite. For iconic female leads: Terminator has Sarah Connor, Ripley from Aliens, The Bride from Kill Bill, Charlize Therons character in the last Mad Max movie. Buffy. I apologize for how narrow the genres are here. I don't think the popular media for anything I just mentioned was too negative (maybe Black Panther?). Is it really just the fans? I bet the overlap of Rings of Power watchers and watchers of the stuff I listed is pretty big ... edit: formatting
- phantom_of_cato 4y ago
tunesmith 4y ago
Intrinsic in that belief is the belief that those actors would not be cast if they weren't POC. Like that the only reason they were cast was because they were POC. And that their talent and qualifications were not sufficient. Like, if that belief were not held, then there would be no backlash to speak of. I mean, seriously. Race-baiting? Race-baiting. I can't even fathom the twists of mind it requires to believe this. I've seen a lot of people talking about the "supposed backlash to the diverse casting" that they never see. Those people don't realize that they're the backlash that the rest of us are talking about. That's why they don't see it. It's a blind spot. It doesn't require someone to say something overtly racist like using slurs or whatever. We've already got legions of people complaining about race-baiting and how there is no other explanation other than it being a cynical marketing ploy, like NO other imaginable explanation because of course these POC would not be hired for reasons other than being POC. Why is it so hard for some people to believe that these days, casting can cast a wider net and that there are plenty of qualified actors of all races that will still fit the parts being cast?
- leetcrew 4y ago
  > Why is it so hard for some people to believe that these days, casting can cast a wider net and that there are plenty of qualified actors of all races that will still fit the parts being cast? that's not the part that's hard to believe. there are enough talented actors to make an entire (good!) cast out of any single race if the management so desired. the part that's hard to believe is that the racial makeup of the cast is not itself an intentional choice. this particular story is a PR minefield for a large company. in universe, there are multiple literal races (species?) of humanoid creatures that have intrinsic differences. there's no way they just "let the chips fall as they may" on those casting decisions. I don't think they deliberately chose a diverse cast to be able to argue that anyone who didn't like the show was a racist. I do think it is part of a larger strategy to make their $750mm show appeal to a broad audience at the expense of upsetting nerds whose suspension of disbelief is shattered by an interracial dwarf marriage.

by hbn 4y ago

dereg 4y ago

> I'm almost certain they cast these shows specifically so they can find someone on twitter to say something racist [..] I cannot imagine being this cynical about something that is, at the end of the day, an Amazon Prime show. edit: removed judgmental tone

hbn 4y ago
You can't imagine being cynical about a trillion+ dollar company taking advantage of serious issues and socially manipulating people so they can make more money?
- dereg 4y ago
  Does the character work or not work? For me, the character works. Why do we need to be talking about his race again?
  - 2muchcoffeeman 4y ago
    It's hard not to be cynical or entertain thoughts of Hollywood planning these things in case the show sucks. Because they can clearly do entertainment with diverse casting, non-white people, female leads and succeed: - Tom Holland Spider-Man does not have a red-head MJ, Flash is Indian and the made up best friend is Filipino. - Domino in the Dead Pool movies is black. NTW doesn't seem to have the same powers and is gay. But I'm not sure what the current character status is. - Everything Everywhere All at Once - Black Panther - Shang Chi - Jordan Peele does good work: Nope, Us, Candy Man, Get Out - The Expanse - Life of Pi - Sandman swaps a bunch of stuff Appetite for completely foreign media is much slower in English speaking countries but once in a while you get a major break through: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Parasite. For iconic female leads: Terminator has Sarah Connor, Ripley from Aliens, The Bride from Kill Bill, Charlize Therons character in the last Mad Max movie. Buffy. I apologize for how narrow the genres are here. I don't think the popular media for anything I just mentioned was too negative (maybe Black Panther?). Is it really just the fans? I bet the overlap of Rings of Power watchers and watchers of the stuff I listed is pretty big ... edit: formatting
phantom_of_cato 4y ago

tunesmith 4y ago

Intrinsic in that belief is the belief that those actors would not be cast if they weren't POC. Like that the only reason they were cast was because they were POC. And that their talent and qualifications were not sufficient. Like, if that belief were not held, then there would be no backlash to speak of. I mean, seriously. Race-baiting? Race-baiting. I can't even fathom the twists of mind it requires to believe this. I've seen a lot of people talking about the "supposed backlash to the diverse casting" that they never see. Those people don't realize that they're the backlash that the rest of us are talking about. That's why they don't see it. It's a blind spot. It doesn't require someone to say something overtly racist like using slurs or whatever. We've already got legions of people complaining about race-baiting and how there is no other explanation other than it being a cynical marketing ploy, like NO other imaginable explanation because of course these POC would not be hired for reasons other than being POC. Why is it so hard for some people to believe that these days, casting can cast a wider net and that there are plenty of qualified actors of all races that will still fit the parts being cast?

leetcrew 4y ago
> Why is it so hard for some people to believe that these days, casting can cast a wider net and that there are plenty of qualified actors of all races that will still fit the parts being cast? that's not the part that's hard to believe. there are enough talented actors to make an entire (good!) cast out of any single race if the management so desired. the part that's hard to believe is that the racial makeup of the cast is not itself an intentional choice. this particular story is a PR minefield for a large company. in universe, there are multiple literal races (species?) of humanoid creatures that have intrinsic differences. there's no way they just "let the chips fall as they may" on those casting decisions. I don't think they deliberately chose a diverse cast to be able to argue that anyone who didn't like the show was a racist. I do think it is part of a larger strategy to make their $750mm show appeal to a broad audience at the expense of upsetting nerds whose suspension of disbelief is shattered by an interracial dwarf marriage.