The Less Talked About Things That Ruin Modern Media

[Xarpho's Return]

I fucking hate modern action scenes in Hollywood.
They hardly use stuntmen anymore and just replace actors with pixels.
Even if they use stuntmen, it's just a "here's the job, now fuck off", nobody physical is a consultant on these things.
Because of that, they don't know how a human body moves or how durable it is.
People get hit with bats in the face, get into car crashes, slam against walls, and then just get up and keep going like it was nothing.

You can see even with Marvel movies. Now it's just a lot of nonsense action that just takes up space, but in older movies like Spider-Man, it's done much, MUCH better. For analysis, the final fight scene.

Notice how Peter gets his ass kicked in the first half. Every punch lands, until Spidey is bruised and weakened, eventually just trying to defend himself. Once he gets his resolve, he's able to save himself from being skewered, turns the tables on the Green Goblin, gets to finally beat him into submission.

The other big problem with television shows especially post-Netflix, even stuff that originally airs on broadcast television (and it's a problem even ten years ago) is that shows are meant to be streamed. For most shows, you can drop the needle just about anywhere, understand the basic gist of what's going on, and have the immediate plot resolved within the hour. Sure, there might be a two-parter, and oftentimes (especially for shows from the 2000s) there's a few scenes that push along the ongoing plot.

Of course you'd get the filler episode, which served as a buffer to the heavier plot-relevant episodes. Some of the comfiest episodes from Monk, Psych, or The Mentalist were in fact filler episodes, because not every single episode has to push the plot along.

I can't stand the way things are filmed these days. I don't know if it's the framerate or the cameras or what it is but everything seems to look like a shitty tv movie from the 90's. The first movie I noticed this in was Quantum of Solace. But everything looks like that now. Everything moves too fast and just looks off and kinda cheap and shitty.

That used to aggravate me so much because no one else would notice yet it ruined almost everything I watched, modern TVs (built in the last ten years) have some setting will it will basically insert fake frames to make things seem faster. 60 fps on a game is great, 60 fps on a film or television show is horrible and makes everything look like a soap opera. Unfortunately, many modern shows are shot that way.

 

[Grub]

That used to aggravate me so much because no one else would notice yet it ruined almost everything I watched, modern TVs (built in the last ten years) have some setting will it will basically insert fake frames to make things seem faster. 60 fps on a game is great, 60 fps on a film or television show is horrible and makes everything look like a soap opera. Unfortunately, many modern shows are shot that way.

Even when I've pointed it out to people while watching something they don't seem to notice. I thought maybe it was the framerate but I wasn't exactly sure. I'm not entirely sure what the obsession is with 60fps is anyway even with games. I get that it matches the refresh rate of NTSC TVs and allows for more frames of animation but I've never really noticed the difference when a game is actually built around a lower frame rate like Ocarina of Time or something. Or even when a game is locked to 30fps people make such a massive fucking deal out of it. I've tried the PC port of OoT at 60fps and it just looks weird and too fast to me. It doesn't seem any better as far as actually playing the game goes.

 

[Kiwisee]

1. Excessive exposition. I find myself fast forwarding through a lot of movies because I'm not sitting through 30 minutes of exposition narration. “Show don't tell” used to be the number 1 rule of screenwriting.
2. Stiff dialogue. It used to be limited to English dubs of anime, it now shows up in a lot of modern movies. If you were to tell me that many of the LA writers exclusively watched weeb shit, I'd believe you.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Even when I've pointed it out to people while watching something they don't seem to notice. I thought maybe it was the framerate but I wasn't exactly sure. I'm not entirely sure what the obsession is with 60fps is anyway even with games. I get that it matches the refresh rate of NTSC TVs and allows for more frames of animation but I've never really noticed the difference when a game is actually built around a lower frame rate like Ocarina of Time or something. Or even when a game is locked to 30fps people make such a massive fucking deal out of it. I've tried the PC port of OoT at 60fps and it just looks weird and too fast to me. It doesn't seem any better as far as actually playing the game goes.

When I say "60 fps looks great" I'm talking about games designed for it because it has been industry standard for years. When you're talking about something like Ocarina of Time, it was made for 20 fps so 60 fps is going to look awful. Industry standards for films is also 24 fps, 30 fps for most TV shows, so something running at 60 fps or more makes ZERO sense.

 

[Hentai-Semitism]

Talking about YouTube channels, I would say its the way people talk, there's something about the cadence that feels less personal and more processed for me, this is something you rarely see in small channels but in bigger ones there's an unspoken standard when it comes to the way people speak there or something.

Everything's scripted now. Another thing I noticed is that a lot of people splice longer sentences from a few takes, so the result often sounds like something's off.

 

[William Murderface]

A cancer that’s causing a ton of hurt and lost rescues is the slap dash way stuff is made these days. There’s just no planning involved. If I was in charge of a movie production i wouldn’t allow a single frame to be shot until the script is finalised, sets, cast and crew are booked and so on and so forth. But this days it’s all a madhouse when the script is often either being written or re-written when principal photography starts. Then there comes the test-screenings which usually leads to another re-write, expensive re-shoots and then during post-production there’s the process of pixel-fucking where VFX are continuously reworked many times over.

That kind of thing has been going on for a long time though. Some suit pencils in the release date of a movie years in advance and it's effectively set in stone simply because it has to work, despite word one of a screenplay not even being put on paper yet. It was part of the reason Star Trek: The Motion Picture was incomplete when it hit the theaters that year. Roddenberry hadn't finished the screenplay before they started shooting, the SFX weren't complete when the project had to be put to bed, the story was disjointed and needed finishing and tightened, but the studio decided as soon as the thing was greenlit on the basis of "it's Star Trek on the big screen!" alone and decided the date because that's what the suits do.

 

[Gandhi's Left Hook]

The general lack of sincerity and earnestness. People call it "millenial humor, marvel quips etc"

But deep down modern media is ashamed to DO and to BE. So instead it just SAYS and tries to show itself as smart and self aware, but it ends up being a half commited mess.

I agree with this but was having trouble naming it myself. Most actors lack real sincerity in their portrayal of the character. Just spitballing but I would wager that this is because society has become increasingly less sincere. People want to fit in so they follow the norm. Modern acting is simply saying the right words with some lighting and special effects thrown in. It rings so hollow.

 

[Grub]

When I say "60 fps looks great" I'm talking about games designed for it because it has been industry standard for years. When you're talking about something like Ocarina of Time, it was made for 20 fps so 60 fps is going to look awful. Industry standards for films is also 24 fps, 30 fps for most TV shows, so something running at 60 fps or more makes ZERO sense.

I agree with you but I used Ocarina of Time as an example because I've specifically seen people complaining about the framerate in that game and praising how great the game is at 60fps.

Maybe it has something to do with movies being mostly filmed on green screens and basically being created during post processing these days? Maybe all the CG and bullshit look like garbage at 24fps.

 

[Pokemon Conquistador]

Fading professionalism.
Production designers, set dressers, wardrobe, continuity ("script girl" in the olden days), etc., are lazier or just doing less, partly for budget reasons (though budgets are nominally higher) and partly out of failure to preserve the professional culture (by hiring young girls for obvious reasons, and nepotism, and "DEI"). Directors who can't sustain their own crews don't have access to competent production staff. The average movie looks like shit and breaks immersion in a hundred subtle ways.
Lost art. Like America "forgot" how to go to the moon.

The worst example I've seen of this is "Radium Girls". It was supposed to be set in the 1920s, but the music and fashion were from the 1940s and it the movie looked cheap as hell. It seemed more like some first year film student's attempt to make a drama, with plenty of anti-capitalist, feminist and racial themes crammed in because Basic College Girls can't get enough of virtue-signaling their basic bitch opinions about that subject matter. Those poor Radium Girls. First they were exploited by their employers, then they were exploited by the people trying to tell their story.

I absolutely hate modern movie lighting, as mentioned many times in this thread. There's nothing wrong with using filters to create a mood. The problem is that every movie now has those fucking filters. Every police drama has to look like it's being filmed in Satan's pipe-filled basement. Every family drama has to look like it takes place in a house lit with 10-watt lightbulbs. Every winter scene has to look as if smurf poop has been smeared over the lens. Every action movie starring young, hip people has to look like a neon lamp exploded over it. Every fantasy show has to look desaturated and washed out. I want to see movies that look like they take place in the real world. The other day, I watched Driving Miss Daisy, and the interior of the old lady's house looked like an actual Victorian house with natural window-lighting, just like the kind of house I grew up in. You won't find anyone taking the trouble to light real life sets like that today.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

I agree with you but I used Ocarina of Time as an example because I've specifically seen people complaining about the framerate in that game and praising how great the game is at 60fps.

Remember that video games are infested with the same type of people that have ruined television, people who have no taste or understanding what makes something unique.

 

[Tasty Tatty]

What sticks out so much to me in modern media, especially shows, is when a moment is created specifically to go viral on social media. It's such an insult to my intelligence. I know that people behind the scenes were thinking "That moment is going to be so gif-able". I couldn't escape that dance scene from Wednesday and I never even watched the show.

I blame GoT for this. Them and the bar reactors that eventually became the many YT reactors. I do enjoy their commentary on movies I also enjoy, but I feel that many moments of drama TV aren't made for the sake of the narrative, but rather to have people react at them, online or not. GoT became primordially this. The big scenes didn't happen to move the plot forward, but to make people talk about it next day.

If you were to tell me that many of the LA writers exclusively watched weeb shit, I'd believe you.

It does and it tells. You can see how much anime has influenced American media, specially animation. Thing is, it just doesn't fit it well.

I agree with this but was having trouble naming it myself. Most actors lack real sincerity in their portrayal of the character. Just spitballing but I would wager that this is because society has become increasingly less sincere. People want to fit in so they follow the norm. Modern acting is simply saying the right words with some lighting and special effects thrown in. It rings so hollow.

Many actors just don't feel connected with the roles they play and considering the kind of media we have, I can see why and I can't totally blame them.

Actors who don't take seriously a character like Batman or Spiderman, who are part of the modern mythos of our culture, are in the wrong if they think they're above these roles. But I can totally understand an actor who doesn't want to play some YA character and would rather play good old Shakespeare instead.

 

[Slideshow Bill]

When a movie is set in the 40s-80s but everything feels like it's set today and the dialogue is ripped straight from Twitter. No, a gay man from the 50s wouldn't call himself queer. No, teenage girls were not openly talking about masturbation in a "sex positive" way. There were less mixed race people back then because of miscegenation laws so friend groups wouldn't look like they do in present day New York or Los Angeles. Being openly leftist in "modern speak" would get you branded a pinko. There were/are blue collar ways of discussing class issues but the writers look down on these people. We have an almost unlimited about of media (movies, shows, books, music) from that time frames so why is this so damn difficult?

 

[Gandhi's Left Hook]

Many actors just don't feel connected with the roles they play and considering the kind of media we have, I can see why and I can't totally blame them.

Actors who don't take seriously a character like Batman or Spiderman, who are part of the modern mythos of our culture, are in the wrong if they think they're above these roles. But I can totally understand an actor who doesn't want to play some YA character and would rather play good old Shakespeare instead.

I can see that being the case but at the same time the overwhelming majority of actors are hard left activists who are playing lefty incoordination rolls. IMHO they should connect with the dogshit character they are portraying because that's what they believe.

I think a more likely scenario is that since pedowood basically mandates leftist philosophy, anyone who is against the norm will be weeded out before taking on any serious rolls. As a result the actors that do make it are there more for their philosophy than ability to actually act. The end result is a bunch of shitty actors with a few naturally talented leftists who would have made it anyways.


To be clear this would happen if pedowood leaned hard right as well. The problem isn't necessarily the philosophy but the strict adherence to one way of thinking.

 

[Hentai-Semitism]

When a movie is set in the 40s-80s but everything feels like it's set today and the dialogue is ripped straight from Twitter. No, a gay man from the 50s wouldn't call himself queer. No, teenage girls were not openly talking about masturbation in a "sex positive" way. There were less mixed race people back then because of miscegenation laws so friend groups wouldn't look like they do in present day New York or Los Angeles. Being openly leftist in "modern speak" would get you branded a pinko. There were/are blue collar ways of discussing class issues but the writers look down on these people. We have an almost unlimited about of media (movies, shows, books, music) from that time frames so why is this so damn difficult?

They've been doing this with the American Civil War for a few decades now. For some reason you're supposed to believe that it was all about slavery, even though both the North and the South had the same attitude towards blacks. But history is written by the winners, so now the Confederate flag is a "hate symbol" and statues of Confederates have to be destroyed because people who get their news from the ADL feel offended.

I'm not even American, but it's just sad to me that one side is demonized in a conflict that took 1mln+ lives. All of them were your own people.

 

[RumblyTumbly]

I've actually been thinking about the films that unintentionally ruined cinema. Movies that might have been good, or at the very least harmless, but ended up having ramifications that negatively impacted cinema and pop culture through their influence.

For example, Rocky Balboa. I love the Rocky movies and that final sequel (aside from the Creed films) was very good and satisfying. However, I remember what the reaction was leading into the film's release. It was MOCKED and people openly made fun of such a stupid idea. Why would you revive a long dead franchise starring a near 60-year old actor?

Well, Rocky Balboa turned out great, was well received, far surpassed expectations and is considered a great sequel and ending to Rocky's story.

What lesson did Hollywood take from this? Well if we can do it with Rocky then we can do it with everything! Suddenly, you started seeing Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and then returns for Jurassic Park, Star Wars, and the Disney remakes, and eventually it got to a point where cinema became about IP farming and nostalgia baiting than actually telling the emotional stories or coming up with new ideas. And then with all the IPs coming out, the door opened up for the identity politics bullshit that turned Ghostbusters, Superheroes, and everything else into online battlegrounds rather than pieces of entertainment to be enjoyed or disliked.

So yeah, Rocky Balboa, great movie but man did it lead us down a horrible rabbit hole. Before that film, the idea of such a legacy sequel would have been seen as laughable and now it has become the norm.

 

[Thiletonomics]

I've actually been thinking about the films that unintentionally ruined cinema. Movies that might have been good, or at the very least harmless, but ended up having ramifications that negatively impacted cinema and pop culture through their influence.

There's more examples of this in the Good media that should never have been made thread.

Back to the topic, the increasing focus on analyzing every detail about a media, going down to even individual pixels on a screen, LONG analysis videos, and media databases like Wiki pages and TVTropes, and the advent of social media, seems to have pushed creators to try to emphasize and explain every detail about a show and its characters, compared to how in the past, some details about it, i.e. a character's backstory, would be left as a mystery, either for the viewer to self-interpret, or kept intentionally that way to emphasize an aura about the character.

 

[Dysnomia]

1. Excessive exposition. I find myself fast forwarding through a lot of movies because I'm not sitting through 30 minutes of exposition narration. “Show don't tell” used to be the number 1 rule of screenwriting.
2. Stiff dialogue. It used to be limited to English dubs of anime, it now shows up in a lot of modern movies. If you were to tell me that many of the LA writers exclusively watched weeb shit, I'd believe you.

If you look at some old films like "His Girl Friday" there's a very quick back and forth exchange between characters that makes it really engaging and fun. A lot of dialog now is just plain boring.

 

[RumblyTumbly]

If you look at some old films like "His Girl Friday" there's a very quick back and forth exchange between characters that makes it really engaging and fun. A lot of dialog now is just plain boring.

I just rewatched Fargo and its amazing how real the characters feel and their motivations make sense without having to do a bunch of exposition of their backstories. Movie is about an hour and forty minutes long.

Also, I thought of this:

 

[Idiotron]

Movies and shows are being made so that they can become TikTok memes

Me and a few others have noticed that recently, a lot of movies/shows are made in a way where everything is center frame, almost nothing happens on the sides.
That's because, when people will cut out a scene and put it on TikTok or Youtube shorts, you need to be able to see everything that's important for the scene.

The thing that made people notice was the recent Avatar live action show.
It was blatant in how it was basically made to be watched in vertical.

 

[skykiii]

This is something that is hard to explain but its also something I realize I keep saying.

For a long time there's been sort of a "fanfic-y" element to a lot of media. I said this about Doctor Who, that the post-revival series at times feels like I'm watching a fanfic that got put on screen.

This also feeds in to another thing: I don't tend to trust fan opinions because a lot of times when they explain what makes a thing great, it feels very "fanfic." Like for example this is why I never watched Scooby Doo: Mystery Inc... I always hear stuff like that it actually has story arcs. For some reason its a thing in fandoms that "story arcs in a franchise that usually doesn't have them automatically makes everything better" which is a view I've never agreed with, and when that's all your offering, I'm not convinced. Especially when the two episodes I actually saw (the one with the orc bikers and the one with the alligator monsters who were moving fake leather) fell right into a lot of things I hate about modern Scooby. And then I've seen that "we don't talk about Scrappy" clip.

But okay, what exactly makes something "fanfic-y?"

It can sometimes be a case of "I know it when I feel it" but the most recurring factor is when something is said or done not because it's thematically coherent, logical in-story, or particularly in-character... but just for the sake of the fandom, or else the author projecting their own views.

Modern Scooby always having to take digs at Scrappy for example. Or the Millennium Falcon being some legendary ship in-universe when the movie it first appeared in made it clear that in-universe its supposed to be a hunk of junk. Or cases where a villain is seen as a joke in-show even though he's always been a serious threat, just because the fandom makes jokes about them.

I think one particular way it manifests as well is an emphasis on what I call "youtuber comedy." This is one thing I recall not liking about Avatar the Last Airbender: often there'd be times where Aang and his pals would say something that sounded less like something an in-universe person would say, and more like something you'd expect from the Nostalgia Critic.