This is probably a really weak comparison in contrast, but I found The Joker to be a hilarious illustration of what bourgeois freaks think class struggle is. They really just don't get it.
One of the few shows that I think deals with sexual assault well is The Magicians.
Although it is brutal, most of what it does right is in showing how Julia Wicker deals with the aftermath of that.
It has more psychological depth than most people, who have not actually experienced these things, are likely to understand.I would very much recommend that show, but with a warning that it covers some heavy issues related to addiction, mental health, child abuse, loss of freedom, etc.
I wonder what incentives a global capitalist system in collapse from both economic contradictions and climate change could have to make all struggles look grey, push people into apathy through mass-applied both sides-isms, desensitise people to war, rape, murder, etc, and paint a dark picture of the future where everything is the same but worse. :thinkin-lenin:
Of the stuff I’ve watched, the only ones I’d push back on you about are The Sopranos and The Wire. There’s violence in them, but it’s more incidental, it’s part of the nature of the story that’s being told. But they’re really character pieces, and ultimately are holding a mirror up to modern American capitalist society, which obviously hits home for me.
Btw, what shows do you actually enjoy?
ETA: both those shows are also 20 years old at this point, I think they deserve some credit for being some of the first (and still best), before “prestige tv” was even a term, long before the industry just started devouring itself and churning out show after show of the kind you describe.
Rome didn't predate the Sopranos, it came out near the end of the Sopranos run and when HBO was trying to use the Sopranos as the formula for prestige tv.
It is, of only because it has a sense of humor and likeable characters. Trying to amp it up and match the tone of BB towards the end was a mistake
the Shaun videos about CinemaSins are really great and funny if you haven't seen those yet.
I used to find CinemaSins funny
completely :haram: you must watch Shaun for penance.
I like a fair amount of prestige TV, but I agree with you as a whole. I'm tired of the all the "grey" characters who are mostly just straight up brutal assholes with "badass" speeches. I hope the culture swings round and we get more genuinely nice, "good" characters again tbh.
Yeah I'm way more interested in a good person struggling to figure out how to make the world a better place, making mistakes, acting selfishly sometimes, etc., than a straight-up asshole trying to wreck shit.
I tried to rewatch breaking bad with my partner last year because they had never seen it. I think we made it to episode 4 or 5.
Yeh, I watched BB when it aired and back then would’ve put it up in the very highest tier of TV shows ever. I feel like as I get further removed temporally from that moment, it has lowered in my estimation a fair bit. Still an enjoyable show in my memory at least, but nothing compared to The Wire or something like that. And as someone who watched The Sopranos for the first time AFTER seeing breaking bad, it kind of made me think “why did breaking bad need to get made, we already have a better version of the same show”. Sopranos deals with 90% of the same themes, it just happens that he’s already a mob boss at the start of the show instead of becoming one.
Anyone else feels like the aspirational part of TV has disappeared? We no longer have shows depicting a just and moral world, or even a future which doesn't suck. It's all just "hehe hope you like corruption and murder" heres the next season of "dark gritty characters talk about fictional politics and kill each other"!
Like how many of these shows can you even watch before it becomes boring?
Also I can turn on the news at anytime and watch the elite rape and pillage the planet for profit while millions die, I don't want that shit in my escapism, at this point it just feels like every new high profile TV show or big budget movie is preparing the population to live in a boring version of the Blade Runner future.
Absolutely. One reason I’m drawn to Star Trek TOS is the campy, optimistic writing of the show. It comes from a time where science really seemed to be the answer for many of the problems facing humanity.
I’d just like shows that are hopeful and not bleak dystopia-porn or gritty and ultraviolent.
Ive literally only seen three episodes of TPB. I just couldn't get into it. I was eating a steak when I made this account and couldn't think of anything.
Marty MacGravy 1.21 Giga-guts and inflatable Elvis are the best randy dunks
Wrestling is the highest form of entertainment and nothing anyone ever says can change my view on this
The lib who downvoted has no taste. It is truly the ancient and modern day art form of proletarian grappling.
Classics: https://youtu.be/8C4lK41SX-Q
https://youtu.be/33c43Bbd4Eo
https://youtu.be/6JMeKSjBYQY
https://youtu.be/msDuNZyYAIQ
https://youtu.be/rqrW5EZMIM4
https://youtu.be/ScyuduMWZzc
New hotness:
https://youtu.be/8X3zFqjHIUM
TW: japanese death match https://youtu.be/vD8mpLMDqY8
https://youtu.be/WsnX55RqJHs
https://youtu.be/l29mwpuKLJs
Only bad things happen and the only exceptions are when it sets a character up to have something to lose later. SO DEEP.
Never try to change things for the better, because the compromises you make along the way will become more and more severe until you become Jason Voorhees. SO DEEP.
If we change all the character motivations every episode nobody will be able to predict where the plot goes. Wheels within wheels. SO DEEP.
While it is true that prestige tv is regurgitating itself into oblivion.
The wire fucking owns
Watching this right now https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3839880/ It's pretty good.
Funny enough I think Westworld is moving past its "prestige" beginnings , the third season is pure popcorn action and revolution porn. Its very much shifting towards Johnathan Nolans other work, Person of Interest. Color me excited for the future of westworld when its not afraid to move past genre conventions.
I am totally on board for some revolution porn. I thought the themes from the last season paralleling the way social media and youtube algorithms shaping and influencing reality on an individual level were interesting, if not mind blowing.
lol i refused to watch game of thrones. i am however sad to say that I am a cringe normie that thinks breaking bad is awesome and have watched the whole series twice.
I'm rewatching breaking bad right now and I also still think its great, but anyone who hates skyler is a deranged misogynist. That it became so popular is pretty damning. Anna Gunn got death threats over her role.
Yeah, most of them are just pretentious crime dramas that think they are smarter and deeper than they actually are. I'd take a good sitcom over one of those any time.
