entertainment capitalizing on important social issues

Shout out to Golda on this one.

This week, I tried watching the tv series, I May Destroy You. (Side note: it’s funny I just called it a tv series when most people don’t watch scheduled tv programming anymore. I guess VOD series, or simply just ‘series’ would be more correct.) There were a few things I liked about I May Destroy You but I ended up giving up on it because I don’t like shows that are so singularly focused on topics that they just aren’t realistic. I fully agree that consent (sexual consent, in particular), the lack of it, and all the shades of grey in between, are important topics that need to be talked about in depth by everyone. However, I don’t think dedicating a tv series (there it is again…) to the topic works well, because in order to do that every character in the show needs to be having sex with different people virtually every day. Maybe some people really do live like that but I don’t know anyone who does, let alone a half dozen or more, and that makes it tough for me to swallow. In this way, it’s similar to stupid sitcoms like The Office — am I supposed to believe that none of those characters in The Office have any substantial friends or families or anything at all going on outside their zany workplace friendships and antics? It’s asinine. Likewise, am I supposed to believe that every character in IMDY has sex with different people on a daily basis, or even multiple partners on any given day? That’s absurd. Who could possibly have time for that? When do these people eat, when do they work, how do they pay rent, when do they go to the grocery store, when do they sleep? I can’t get past this.

So I stopped watching IMDY because that aspect bugged me. But another thing that bugs me, and this is obviously a bigger problem, is the weird conflict of interest I see in art addressing social issues while also seeking to be commercially successful. I know these things are far from mutually exclusive — it could certainly be argued it doesn’t matter where the conversation comes from, just as long as the conversation is being brought up, but I can’t help but question the legitimacy of the conversation when it’s rooted in Hollywood making big bucks. I mean, the reason a show like IMDY is out now is because there is a market for it, and there is money to be made off that market. I think that’s sickening, turning legitimately important topics into consumable entertainment.

Maybe I’m being too idealistic though, too pie-in-the-sky. Maybe I should look at this from the perspective of being happy that there is now a market for socially conscious shit. Yeah, the soulless shills who are eager to do whatever is necessary to profit from whatever they can are still real life vampire scum, but those people will always exist anyway so why not at least put them to use in making something that has at least some kind of a positive effect? IMDY is obviously better than more, I dunno, reality dating shows for influencers.

^{nuke these fucks}

Ok, I talked myself off the ledge. That’s good. I still don’t like IMDY though.

I hate sitcoms, and our ‘youth & beauty cult’ culture

Jenn’s been watching a lot of Modern Family lately. Take a wild guess how I feel about that show.

I think the things that bothers me most about sitcoms are the feel-good formula 99% of them follow, and the way the characters’ entire world consists of maybe half a dozen individuals who all share the same space.

I think Seinfeld is the only show I’m aware of that didn’t do the feel-good formula — even the crude shows like Family Guy do it, virtually without fail. What I’m talking about is that each episode is comprised of a fight or misunderstanding between a few of the characters, some zany mayhem ensues, and in the last two minutes everyone apologizes, a lame joke or two is made and hoo-ray, we’re all left feeling rosy.

Except for those of us that despise feeling rosy.

As far as the tiny worlds go, I think virtually any sitcom (besides Seinfeld, of course) is a perfect example — Modern Family, Three’s Company, Family Ties, The Office, whatever. You have a small group of people who either live or work together, and they don’t have lives outside of that group of people or location. Everyone is basically all, “I live in a home/work in an office with these crazy kooks, and that’s it!” I hate that. It’s so fucking unrealistic that I can’t suspend my disbelief because all I can think of is, don’t these people ever go home/go to work/go to school/hang out with friends/DO ANYTHING AT ALL THAT DOESN’T INCLUDE THE REST OF THEIR FAMILY/CO-WORKERS? I can’t get past it.

***

Today while Jenn was watching Modern Family, there was a reference to Tawny Kitaen. She was a model in the 80’s who appeared in Whitesnake’s terrible rock music video, Here I Go Again. She was a real ‘it’ girl for a year or whatever back then. I wondered what she was up to these days so I looked her up and holy hell, she is a monster now. She has had so much plastic surgery that she, well, looks like every other out-of-touch Hollywood freak. I suppose she isn’t a unique story but it just reminded me of how

a) stars lose touch with reality,
b) people who have made their living on being a beautiful young person have a very difficult time with aging,
c) women are the primary victims of this ‘cult of youth and beauty’ culture and it’s horribly sad that we do this to them,
d) Jenn has talked about how we really should pity the beautiful ‘it’ girls, like all the current Instagram influencer babes, because they’re encouraged to go this route, to sell themselves short and focus 100% on their beauty, regardless of its ephemeral nature. They are not aware that they will likely end up as fucked up as Tawny Kitaen and every other woman who was taught they didn’t need anything else — these girls and women are ignorant of and ill-prepared for the harsh reality that looms in their near future, so as annoying and as entitled as they may seem now, you have to look a few years down the road and feel bad for them.

^{Think about how mentally and emotionally damaged someone has to be to do this to themselves. That’s the grossest part to me.}

Life, death, and Instagram influencers

I don’t like Instagram influencer culture.

Last year I read an article about an influencer who was found murdered. That’s obviously awful but the death isn’t what this is about. I had never looked at an influencer IG account but the article made me curious so I checked out their profile. I saw a beautiful scantily clad young woman wearing expensive-looking clothing in expensive-looking places and in front of expensive-looking cars and expensive-looking boats. She had the same rehearsed look on her face in all of the pics. All the comments on these pictures were variations of “R.I.P.” but some said shit like:

Rest in Peace…You beauty will rest forever in our hearts. A part of you will be with us on our journeys to places you would have gone in the future and can not travel anymore. Your future was so bright. Your light will burn forever. Andy

I don’t like any of this.

1. I don’t see why anyone gives such a shit about what attractive people are up to at any given moment. Who subscribes to these kinds of profiles? Why? Those are rhetorical questions. I know why, it’s because people are bored and they hate their lives, but I don’t understand those things either.
2. I can’t believe anyone actually covets shit like yachts and luxury sport cars and fine dining. Again, I feel completely at odds with the huge number of people who value this stuff.
3. The name of the IG account I’m referring to is something like “I’m so grateful for this beautiful world,” which suggests a sort of zen humbleness that is totally incongruous with the fact the account is solely used to showcase how awesome it is to be rich and beautiful.
4. I can’t believe anyone would bother writing RIP or anything else — especially the bullshit “your grace and beauty taught me so much, shine on” stuff — for an internet personality that was nothing more than a nice face and body. Are people really so superficial or deluded that they believe being attractive automatically makes a person good and interesting? Plus, she’s dead now — she can’t read those sycophantic comments so why bother writing them?
5. I know it’s quite possible her online presence was simply a job for her and not indicative of who she was as a person, but even if that’s the case, I don’t feel like the world has lost a hero. I feel like the inflated importance of material stuff and physical beauty are negative things that the human race should be striving to devalue, and people who are actively working against those efforts are doing the world a disservice. It’s horrible she was murdered but no more horrible than, say, a Walmart employee being murdered, so it’s kind of wack that so many people cared so much about this particular death.

I just find the whole IG influencer thing to be thoroughly depressing on so many levels. It’s kind of like Las Vegas in that it really encapsulates a lot of things that I hate about humanity.

In somewhat related news, I read that the family of a recently deceased person was talking about how that person was a shining light and always true and good and they were the glue that held the family together and they always had a smile on their face, etc. Boy, I hate hearing that drivel. Everyone who dies, especially those that die young or of a disease like cancer, automatically becomes a pious and humble saint, incapable of wrongdoing. It’s hogwash. I wish I had video of those dead people doing the terrible stuff we all do so I could show it and say, “they actually weren’t special. They were not a saint. They were just like any of the rest of us — sometimes good, sometimes bad. They were a normal human.” I don’t think you need to pretend someone was an idol in order to mourn their death.

It’s funny how full circle this post just went.