The HBO adaptation of the The Last of Us has not even started airing yet, and I'm already utterly exhausted by the online discourse surrounding the series. Which is why I'm writing this post to remind myself that once the show's first season draws to a close and I have said my piece, I will distance myself from most of the discussions about it.
While this might initially sound like a weird overreaction, it's not purely about one television series, but instead a bigger realisation I have come to about the nature of social media and entertainment criticism and their impact on my own mental health. Simply put, a lot of the online discussions about games, films and television can be incredibly toxic and draining, fueled by people who fish for strong reactions to generate engagement for their own profit and visibility.
With The Last of Us, we are already seeing this with clickbait YouTube videos hypothesizing about how bad it will be, tweets quoting the showrunner Craig Mazin out of context to create outrage and grown adults spending way too much time online comparing the 19-year-old actor Bella Ramsey's appearance to a fictional 14-year-old girl to the point that it's beyond creepy and gross.
Even if the show is actually great, I can already see the YouTube thumbnails with Ramsey's photoshopped face and titles like "HBO's The Last of Us is Overrated Garbage" and so on. And God help us if the show turns out to be actually mediocre or worse.
It truly feel like we are living in an polarized era where social media has turned everything into a discussion of how things are either the best or the absolute worst, with no room in between. Mediocre shows like The Rings of Power from Amazon are made to seem like the worst crimes against humanity, and online critics put out three-hour-long rants tearing them apart in overly dramatic fashion for views. Mind you, Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films are some of my favorite movies of all time, whereas I did not enjoy the Amazon adaptation, but even I don't really think it is worth all the hate directed towards it. (Especially when a lot of it seems to center around how "woke" the show is.)
I'm not going to call out any specific people or include any links, as I'm not looking to make this a hit piece about any one person or give them any more visibility, but it's not hard to find examples if you do even a single search about these shows.
The ironic thing is that even if I might sound all high and mighty right now, I actually in many ways take part in this same culture of cynical media criticism. I grew up following and loving YouTube channels like RedLetterMedia, YourMovieSucksDOTorg, Nostalgia Critic and I Hate Everything, all of which are famous for their long deconstructions of bad movies and television series. RLM's legendary "Plinkett Reviews" of the Star Wars prequels especially were a sort of awakening for my younger self and got me interested in more detailed film analysis, even (and especially) if that analysis was done with a comedic tone. Famously, the Plinkett review for Episode I begins with the line "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was the most disappointing thing since my son."
But while I still really enjoy a lot of that same content I grew up on, regularly watch RedLetterMedia's output and listen to the Sardonicast podcast (featuring YMS' Adam and I Hate Everything's Alex alongside with ralphthemoviemaker), the larger trend of "tearing apart" games, shows and movies has really worn me out. The difference between someone like RLM's Mike Stoklasa and many of the newer generation of online film critics is that the former, while at times being cynical, still has an obvious love for filmmaking and has fun talking about movies instead of trying to hyperbolically wallow in a constant state of rage and contempt.
Recently a perhaps lesser known channel called meeptop uploaded a great video called Film Criticism Should Not Be Negative, and even if I think the title is a bit misleading, the video itself encapsulates my feelings and experience on this subject incredibly well. (At times it's almost uncomfortable how similar our experiences with the subject is, down to being a fan of the same people.)
Essentially, while I understand perfectly well how shitting on something that you dislike can be cathartic, I don't think that focusing so much on negativity is healthy in the run long either. It's not a new or groundbreaking concept, but sometimes it can be hard to truly comprehend how much time we spend getting angry about meaningless things.
All of this to say, that even though I am thinking of doing reviews and breakdowns of all the episodes of The Last of Us season 1, I am going to actively avoid any outrage or overly negative discussions about it, for my own good.
However, constructive criticism is always important and in no way am I advocating for blind acceptance of the entertainment we consume. I am absolutely sure that I will find things to gripe about the show, especially as The Last of Us is probably my favorite game of all time, but I'm approaching the adaptation with an open mind and going into it with a surprising amount of hope. I'm not going to sugarcoat my criticism, but if for some reason I actively start to dislike the show, I will simply stop writing about it instead of posting angry rants for weeks on end. Let's just hope it won't come to that.
No comments:
Post a Comment