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Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 18, 2022

"Someone has to and no one else will."

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What percentage do you think of conversation about newly released media is organic/astroturfed/fans trying to drum up interest?

Let's say a relevant thread for a new episode of a tvshow on Reddit.

What about foreign language media?

I had a striking incidence of this recently.

We were watching Wednesday, partially cause I like goths, but 90% because I'd like to fuck Jenna Ortega. Even though I knew in my bones it would have some hamfisted woke junk in it. My wife expressed surprise and that it hadn't been on her radar at all.

As we watched, she continually dished out factoids.

This dance was choreographed by Jenna!

Christina Ricci was in the original and was really happy to return.

Gwendoline Christie said this was the first show she's felt beautiful in.

I asked: "Wait a second. You didn't even want to watch this show. Did you watch an interview with the creators or something?"

No. Instead she'd been served all this in Tik Toks about supposedly different topics from supposedly non-affiliated users/fans. Obviously not organic. The scope of it astonished me. She does spend too much time on Tik Tok, but not enough for something like this to be absorbed naturally. It was a massive coordinated campaign.

some hamfisted woke junk in it

I was "pleasantly" surprised how little there was: even in universe when she talked about the "patriarchy" seemed some kind of parody and the other characters replied like "are you a retard?".

Ah wow, that wasn't my take at all.

  • Constant comments about "Whitewashing history" and any fans of pilgrim town being ignorant tourists

  • A speech about how fudge is racist (?!?)

  • Tearing down a pilgrim statue == tearing down a confederate statue, even with a token "uh is it terrorism?" line from another character

  • There's werewolf conversion camps == homosexuality conversion camps

  • They built up the Lati heritage of the Addams family, despite them all being very white-coded

  • The climax is literally a black woman and a latinx woman tag-teaming an old white guy

I could go on but my eyes were rolling. They sacrificed world-building and feel for these things too IMO, everything past episode 3 was like kids running around hogwarts in jeans.

Mmm... Maybe it's because I am not American and I do not notice this thing as heavily.

Constant comments about "Whitewashing history" and any fans of pilgrim town being ignorant tourists

There's werewolf conversion camps == homosexuality conversion camps

A speech about how fudge is racist (?!?)

Those were annoying and eye-rolling but were so overt and ridiculous that I actually thought about parody. Is that Poe's law in action?

The climax is literally a black woman and a latinx woman tag-teaming an old white guy

I live in a whiter than average European country: I've met only 2 black people and zero Latinos so I didn't really noticed. For me every US tv shows since the "colorblind" 90s is exotic.

They built up the Lati heritage of the Addams family, despite them all being very white-coded

Now that I noticed I agree. Catherine Zeta Jones was seriously miscast and Gomez was supposed to be only half Latino (they could have at least chose an attractive Gomez though.)

FWIW hearing that you're not American makes this click a bit. Our race fetish is stronger than anywhere else, and there's a huge focus on the treatment of natives. Honestly this isn't the thread for CW but it was stunningly obvious, and I don't think that it's meant to be a parody. This is just the state of mainstream entertainment.

Regarding CZJ.... she's so hot I didn't even think about her being miscast.

Speaking as a non-American myself, the woke themes in Wednesday are so strong that I'm still surprised that someone can not notice them. Not only is the entire plot's message very clearly "Look at how the evil pilgrims have historically persecuted natives, why is no one talking about this!" with "outcasts" being used as a stand-in for natives, there is almost constant progressive messaging about gender relations from Wednesday and only once do I remember someone even slightly pushing back against her on that (Xavier, after he saves her life and she accuses him of upholding the patriarchy through his chivalry). I feel like it's far too charitable to interpret these things as satire, woke talking points are not only sprinkled throughout the show but are in fact woven into its very narrative, and they are never really significantly contested in any way.

I will say nobody's really missing much by giving it a pass. There's other problems I have with the show, like the character writing - Wednesday is 1) an I'm-14-and-this-is-deep quote generator and 2) an incredibly atrocious and overconfident detective who is wrong almost all of the time in spite of the show's best attempts to portray her as capable. Additionally, her friends and two potential love interests somehow stick around her despite her treating everyone quite terribly for most of the show, which does not come off as realistic, but I'm getting a bit into the weeds here.

Your second paragraph exactly matches my thoughts as well. While I understand the personality is who the character is to an extent, by the end of 8 episodes there wasn't much of a reason for anyone to like her. I could have been productive or watched a good show, I would definitely call it a skip.