[b9a2cab5]

Netflix is already on the way down. They infused all of their new shows with wokeness. Every new show feels like woke concepts are shoehorned in without regard for their impact on the story that's told.

Look at the Witcher for an example. Or if you want to see this kind of shift happening over the course of a show, look at Madam Secretary. Season 1 didn't feature any of this crap and showed a strong woman main character that wasn't shoehorned in, by the last season everything was about "hurr durr let's ban guns and white men suck".

I'm not even white and I can notice the excellent storylines being ruined. It's like the writers don't know how to write a story with woke concepts that's actually strong so instead they shove it into every successful show until the show isn't successful anymore. HBO and Disney are going to eat their lunch at this rate with more compelling content.

[RussianCow]

I don't totally agree that this is a problem, but to be fair, every network is doing this. Even previously silly and light-hearted TV shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine have become noticeably heavier as they try to shed light on real-world social issues. There's nothing specific to Netflix here.

[jrsj]

If it were done well it would be one thing but it’s typically just thinly veiled (DNC) propaganda. Not much to be said on always climbing record fentanyl overdoses, class issues, etc though. If they were actually talking about anything of value to the vast majority of working people instead of rhetoric that’s specifically designed to keep them divided and afraid of each other I wouldn’t complain.

[KerrAvon]

You want a comedy show to cover fentanyl overdoses?

By DNC, do you mean the Democratic National Committee? Have you considered that your worldview may be heavily biased by right-wing propaganda?

[jrsj]

I didn’t say comedy specifically, no. But comedy should probably actually be funny and not feel like I’m being lectured to, which has become increasingly common. And at times comedy can cover even the darkest topics, that’s really up to the comedian to decide.

And I actually consider myself a leftist I just strongly dislike corporate Democrats. So if I sound like right wing propaganda that comes mainly for our mutual distaste for certain aspects of “progressives” in the U.S. or whatever you’d like to call them.

[jrsj]

In fact now that I think about it the only jokes I’ve heard about the opioid crisis have basically amounted to “lol white people are dying and they deserve it” despite the fact that this shit is killing everyone. So-called journalists have written about it with the same sentiment — white people didn’t have compassion during the crack epidemic and they don’t deserve any now.

That’s a pretty good example of popular media using racial antagonism to divide & conquer the working class.

[wayoutthere]

Some of the most vocal critics of the DNC are coming from the left. [1] They’re a center-right party masquerading as left-wing opposition. They have no interest in helping working folks and every interest in making sure corporations are as powerful as they can be. A lot of folks who previously drank the DNC koolaid are realizing how bad it is with how the democratic administration has tried to gaslight us about Covid this holiday season.

[1] https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/build-back-bette...

[jrsj]

This exactly. They use progressive language to create this image for themselves and their role is only to serve as controlled opposition and prevent any challenge to the current economic order from occurring.

Being a Democrat these days is like being in a “union” that your bosses set up just to try and convince you that you had representation when they were deciding what you were going to “win” from “organizing” ahead of time.

This is why I dislike propaganda aimed at supporting them in television etc. No matter how nice the individual thing sounds, it serves to reinforce this institution who’s only mission in life is to fuck you over and continue extracting wealth from you and your family.

[jrsj]

How is the Witcher woke? I actually haven’t really heard this before so I’m genuinely interested to hear your thoughts on it.

[maximus_optimus]

I think black actors is the least woke thing of concern compared to others. I watched half a first episode and the amount of ideological conditioning is comparable only to the old soviet movie I've watched.

The whole plot is based on "good natured people who are different are unjustly considered monsters because of prejudice, and have to do bad things because of it", and they'll make sure to mention this injustice every 2 minutes or so.

When it's not about "bigotry", it's about girls proving they are "strong independent women" by dressing boys etc...

Maybe the authors find a way to turn it all on its head, but considering the naiive seriousness in which all this is delivered, I don't think so.

From what I've seen, all this series is for people who are still amused by all the "antiestablishment" trope

[b9a2cab5]

Many of the characters have been changed (in personality/storyline and in ethnicity) from the books and from the games. For example Yennefer is no longer a mature, smart person but now is a stereotypical "I'm a strong independent woman" character that has the personality of a 15 year old. Triss is completely different from the books and game. Fringilla magically changed to be black even though EVERY other Nilfgaardian is white. Side characters were changed to be black but still act as if they come from the same background as their original book characters. This doesn't make sense in a medieval Eastern Europe type environment.

This is what I mean by shoehorned in. HBO Rome did a great job of integrating racial diversity in a plausible way that made sense in the context of the story. Egypt/North Africa historically had Numidians in major leadership roles. The Witcher does not bother to write a story that makes sense with the replaced characters.

Again, I'm not white and even I can notice these changes.

[ketralnis]

> characters have been changed ... Yennefer is no longer a mature, smart person but now is a stereotypical "I'm a strong independent woman" character that has the personality of a 15 year old. Triss is completely different from the books and game

That doesn't sound like wokeness, it sounds like a character change that you just don't like. Fair enough, but it's not wokeness.

> Fringilla magically changed to be black even though EVERY other Nilfgaardian is white. Side characters were changed to be black

I just finished watching this series. Some actors have dark skin but it's not part of their character or even mentioned. There's no reference to any sort of Black culture or even nation in-universe where people tend darker. There's no sense in which they are black except for the literal colour of their skin. And at that level, there's no sense in which the characters in the books aren't black. There's no "changed to be black" here.

I assumed you had some objection about the actual storyline which does in fact revolve around discrimination against Witchers, racism and genocide and slavery against Elves, culture wars between nations, and cultures domineering others through centuries of abuse and slavery. But really you're just annoyed that some actors are black?

[b9a2cab5]

> There's no sense in which they are black except for the literal colour of their skin

That's the _point_. The writing is completely unrelated to the actors being black. They were casted as black people because the writers/producers wanted black people for the sake of having black people on screen. If there was reference to black culture or some sort of backstory then it would be a _justified casting_ and I wouldn't be complaining.

You don't cast a British person as a Hispanic character in Narcos. Why are random characters in the Witcher magically changed to be black when there's no story reason for them to be black?

> I assumed you had some objection about the actual storyline which does in fact revolve around discrimination against Witchers, racism and genocide and slavery against Elves, culture wars between nations, and cultures domineering others through centuries of abuse and slavery

I actually think the Witcher does a great job at showing the effects of discrimination and racial conflict in this sense.

[ketralnis]

> You don't cast a British person as a Hispanic character in Narcos

But they aren't British nor Hispanic. They're Nilfgaardian and Elves. If you have some idea in your head about what that means for skin colour, it's clearly not the same idea that the writers do.

[b9a2cab5]

> They're Nilfgaardian and Elves

Right, but the show casts all other Nilfgaardians and elves as white people. If the show casted all Nilfgaardians as black people or gave a story reason for a mixed composition then it would be compelling. But they don't. That's why Fringilla's casting seems shoehorned in.

[BlackSwanManZ]

>You don't cast a British person as a Hispanic character in Narcos.

YYou realize in Narcos they cast a Brazilian actor to play Pablo Escobar a famous Columbian. The actor had to literally learn Spanish for the role and despite his best spoke with an obvious Brazilian accent. Besides Pablo, numerous other characters were played by actors who, while native Spanish speakers are not from Columbia and you can tell by their accent. You literally couldn't have picked a worse example to make your point.A

[dragonwriter]

> The writing is completely unrelated to the actors being black.

It is just as unrelated to them being White where the actors chosen are White. “Black needs justification but White doesn't” is a recipe (long followed, btw) for White favoritism in casting.

[nr2x]

Yes, the walkout of trans employees was definitely because the CEO is too woke.

[ksec]

Well nearly all of Silicon Valley are woke. May be Facebook being the exception.