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I found the first “wokish” show that I enjoy. The Last of Us based on a video game it’s basically your typically zombie show. But unlike a lot of woke stuff I found myself identifying with characters and enjoying it. Curious if other people would give similar reviews and this is light for a top level posts. While theirs culture war and I’ll be against those ideologies because I believe their bad - I’ve also found modern movies/shows to be unwatchable. There’s something about inserting woke into shows that I believe the issue is it makes characters not believable. (Some spoilers to follow)
In the third episode it was primarily about the love relationship of a gay couple. One was a typical red tribe prepper type who had a good set-up for a zombie apocalypse. Then one day a guy shows up outside his electric fence and to summarize they fall in love and they spend the next 20 or so years together.
In some ways since they were gay and I wasn’t physically interested in his new partner it made the story better. It made me see the human parts of caring about someone and the process of growing older.
Obviously for a zombie show you can just insert any character you want. It’s not like game of thrones the dragon show where you make the characters black when they were super concerned about family purity feels off and unbelievable. I’m calling this show woke because they specifically chose to add a gay love story early which I think is reasonable.
I personally don’t use certain brands because of their ideology (nike, Disney, etc) and will not watch some media if I think it’s something I don’t believe in. But there’s also a lot of movies/shows I don’t enjoy because of ideology. Foundation along with the new thrones would be examples of this to me. Maybe I’ll get trashed for saying I enjoyed the show but it’s the first time I watched something woke and felt like it didn’t ruin the ability to identify with characters. Certain shows like The Wire could never be made in a woke a world. How do you show black drug dealers doing black drug dealer stuff in a world where black people cant do bad things?
I know the old filmmakers many of them were socialist and had ideologies I disagreed with but they still made great art. A criticism of woke has been that the art sucks which in my opinion this didn’t suck but was solid something to watch (not must watch but for laziness).
Also interested in if their are other “wokish” films that are enjoyable to watch
I think The Last of Us is almost right wing in that so far it's largely about the necessity of restricting your circle of empathy to an extremely small group of found family. Many Left wing projects rely on group solidarity and extending empathy to the other but all large scale cooperative groups in TLOU (so far) are authoritarian and dysfunctional and the main character eschews involvement with them in favor of protecting his (found) nuclear family.
Heck, even the gay love story in Epsiode 3 takes this form. Nick Offerman's as character is sitting on a tremendous amount of resources that could presumably be used to help others but him fencing it all off so that he can live in comparative luxury with his lover is heroism. There's even a bit in Offerman's character's letter to Joel about men finding purpose as protectors (of specific individual not a group), which is a conservative value.
I don't think the creators of TLOU are ideologically right wing, just that the post apocalyptic genre plus individualistic culture lends itself to that sort of story. A small set of characters set against the world of fascists and raiders is more compelling than a large commune of reasonable people figuring out how to do agriculture and rebuild generators in the post apocalypse.
This reminded me of the co-op garden that was set up in CHAZ and almost immediately destroyed.
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It was certainly portrayed that way, but it struck me as pretty horrific. They have an entire small town boarded off with all sorts of amenities, and they can't seem to share it with anyone. Even if you don't want to share, that's the perfect setup to get something good done--maybe man a radio tower, do some research into the disease, synthesize insulin, etc. Anyone who hangs up their coat at that point and says "I've done enough" is neglecting their duties towards humanity.
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So far, I don't really agree that "Last of Us" (I've watched through episode 3) is a woke show. To be, the important thing about woke content is that it lies to us about the natural relationships between people. Instead it substitutes a fake, aspirational, version of reality where, for example, a woman is just as strong as man. Woke content is especially awful when it distorts the plot or makes its characters mere shells who exist to hammer a political point down the viewers throats.
There's nothing in the love story in episode 3 that felt unnatural or weird to me, and the characters felt like real people. The creators had a good story to tell and they told it - without drifting into politics. They could have thrown in a few sneer lines about the red tribe or bigots or something. They didn't. I enjoyed the episode a lot and I have a very low tolerance for woke content of any sort.
No.
And I appreciate all this. They don't try to "bust stereotypes" just for the sake of it. Stereotypes exist for a reason and are often quite accurate. Certainly more accurate than the opposite where every black character has to be an MIT scientist or whatever. It felt real.
Probably our differences come from me never having played the game and thus having no prior attachment to the characters, thus simply appreciating what I felt was a well executed and touching storyline.
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Breaking off into gay love story in the third episode lost some momentum for the overall story. Perhaps it’s too low of bar to call something woke for adding a gay love story. And this is more of a 20 years ago liberal theme that’s now mainstream accepted.
There’s a bit of semantics I’m picking up in the comments that anything that feels well done and natural by definition can’t be woke. Woke by definition can only be things we don’t like. If we like it then it’s good pre-wokism liberal.
I own a bunch of wbd stock. It’s been cheaper than Netflix for a while but I’ve always had a thesis HBO has much better content (and the other brands they’ve rolled up). I had about 2 years where I didn’t like anything new HBO made. So I’m glad to see them hitting on characters again.
I agree the episode slowed the momentum of the overall story, but I enjoyed it for its world-building. It showed that besides the authoritarian enclaves and lawless bandit ridden country outside of them, there were tiny pockets of civilisation that resourceful and competent people had made for themselves.
Pretty believable to see how he created his own little paradise, and the non-romance aspects of this episode is really red meat to certain red tribe 'prepper' aligned types. It was great that the prepper knew what he'd built was a target for raiding from the start rather than having a scene of him trusting someone to have them pull a gun on him like in similar media (like The Walking Dead) where protagonists need to be taught what kind of world they're living in now. Pre-apocalypse, this attitude would be seen as delusional paranoia, but it was clearly what saved him from the FEDRA death squads. He also immediately sees the truth in Joel's advice of 'They'll come at night, quiet and armed'.
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I'm not sure about the specific criterion, but I broadly agree with this. A "woke" show (or film or game or etc.) isn't "woke" merely by having diversity or messaging that appeals to woke people. It's something that specifically reflects the woke mentality in contrast to the standard 90s-00s liberal "diversity is our strength" mentality. Which is that the world is a constant war between different oppressor/oppressed classes, and that TV shows are just another battleground where the messaging or representation has direct downstream effects that play out in literal people being killed or injured or otherwise going through unnecessary suffering. As such, the primary determinant of the quality of a TV show is its messaging, with trivial matters like likeable characters, character development, intriguing plot, clever writing, visually appealing cinematography, engaging pacing, satisfying character arcs, and the like, taking a very far back seat.
If a show just integrates concepts like diversity into its script in a way that's natural and meant to play into those traditional or outdated ways of making a show "good," then I don't think it's reasonable to consider the show "woke" in any way. It's just a standard liberal show.
90-00 liberalism might be a good analysis versus woke. That being said turning a prepper whose “clinging” to his guns into a closeted homo might make the “woke” bar. And some of you seem to be concluding if the art is done well and feels natural it then can by definition not be woke since woke can only be things we don’t like.
I'm not watching the show, so I can't make a meaningful judgment on this specific case, but that's possible, depending on the execution. Closeted homosexuals is something that's been explored in fiction long before wokeness, such as American Beauty (which ironically starred a famously homosexual man as the straight protagonist), and I don't see the concept of turning a stereotypically conservative prepper into a closeted gay man to be automatically woke. From the other comments here, it seems that, if anything, having this be the 3rd episode in a way that breaks up the pacing of the show might be the strongest case of it being woke.
Hard disagree. It's to differentiate "woke" from "standard liberalism." These are different - though related and somewhat similar - clusters of ideologies, and "woke" is "woke" by how it differentiates itself from "standard liberalism." If a show can't be distinguished from what a standard liberal would make in terms of integrating their political messaging into the work (ie in a natural way that is meant to enhance the work by those traditional standards of how shows get judged, rather than supersede them), then I don't think it makes sense to call it "woke."
For a I watched a show and I think this is interesting post there’s some good ideas going on.
It seems as though people want to separate pre 2020 media from post 2020 media. Things based on pre-2020 of which this is can still have real characters you connect to. The left liberal of the ‘90-2016 maybe a little longer can do art. And for conservatives can be someone we can get along with.
Theres an added issue from video game people that the creators went from left liberal in the first game and their follow up is harder woke. That would be interesting to set a 1 year or so timer on this post to compare.
It seems like there is general agreement that gay love story episode 3 is well done art and hits home for that human element of deeply caring about someone.
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Disclaimer: I only saw the Last Of Us up to episode 3. I found this episode touching and very well done on one hand, and for itself. On the other, I am not sure if it was a good idea to air it in this form as the 3rd episode of the series. It doesn't really tell us much about the 2 main characters, and completely takes out the speed out of the main arc. I feel that this would have been a great episode as the 9th episode of season 4 say, but not in the set-up phase of the story.
Maybe the episode will be fully justified by the rest of the series, but I'm afraid it might be a bad sign for narrative decisions to come.
I didn't mind it because it was just such a good episode. It's kinda like if you have an amazing song, you don't want to put it as the 12th track on the album, even if it doesn't quite fit the natural flow of songs early on.
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Thanks for the review. I follow video game news more than I play video games these days, but the Last of Us game and sequel are a particularly hot culture war flashpoint in the video game world.
The developers and creators of the game are some of the most subversive, degenerate, and outspoken culture warriors in the entire industry. I don’t think I can support the show based on what I know about the series.
The narrative of the first game (season 1) was well liked and hit on some timeless themes and archetypes. the sequel to the game has one of the most controversial narratives and is extremely heavy handed on culture war issues. Even beyond the CW issues, some of the choices seem to be optimized for shitting on certain types of people, as opposed to telling a good story.
Ok so I’m not a big video game player I’m just a guy who hit play on HBO and found it enjoyable. So if there’s video game issues would be nice if you explained. I obviously found that woke themes were built in.
I don’t want to spoil the plot for you. Suffice it to say that the creators of the show are the worst culture warriors in media. And the direction the show will likely go in season 2 is controversial to say the least. And not controversial like the gay episode 3. Controverisial insofar as many if not most people think the narrative choices are horrendous storytelling.
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