Netflix's The Witcher series

[Sinner's Sandwich]

and that as a white male he would just have to try harder and prove he was worth it anyway

The shoe is on the other foot now

 

[Ihavetinyweewee]

I'm not sure, but my impression is less than a decade ago. I honestly can't remember when I heard about that, and on reflection I'm less confident it was exactly as I recounted. But I do remember hearing about it.

Something else from Scriptnotes I've posted before that I'm very confident recounting: a listener wrote in expressing frustration with an apparent inability to break into TV writer's rooms via the usual routes. (I think he started as a gopher for the staff, which is common.) He had been trying for a while. The hosts responded that an active effort was being made now to hire minorities and women as writers, and that as a white male he would just have to try harder and prove he was worth it anyway. Both hosts approved of this practice and were pretty smug about their bigotry. (Both are men, but one is gay, and that other is a Jew. Shocking, I know.)

It could be that "diversity casting" is an informal initiative being taken by SJW-types in television production. Or it could be a calculated attempt to sell every show to everyone as a possible audience, and they're just spinning it as a political move. (The latter makes more sense to me.)

More the latter than the former, for sure...

 

[Secret Asshole]

I guess I'm just making excuses because I'm hoping this will be decent. I'm tired of this diversity casting bullshit, but the Witcher writer is a progtard himself so he probably approves.

Just cast appropriate to the fucking story. Is it so fucking hard? I remember there was this interview with the first black bond villain who thought the diversity casting trend was 'insane' and he loved playing the character and didn't think it was inappropriate. He said bond was a white man because that's how the writer envisioned him. You can have a black 006 or a 008, but not a double 007. He also made the comparison that if he said he wanted to play JFK, he'd be laughed out of the room, and rightly so. And then took the position (That anyone sane takes) is that black people and minorities have to pen their own stories, because copying whitey just implies that they can't create on their own. I could tell the Guardian writer who wrote that was almost breaking down crying and tried to limply discredit his statements by linking him with 'racist' tweets from another Bond actor.

Another shocking case of a minority blowing a white, privileged cunt's mind. I'm surprised the Guardian writer didn't call him a house nigger on the spot. He was probably too busy crying and pissing himself.

It could be that "diversity casting" is an informal initiative being taken by SJW-types in television production. Or it could be a calculated attempt to sell every show to everyone as a possible audience, and they're just spinning it as a political move. (The latter makes more sense to me.)

It is certainly informal. A bit of part A and a bit of part B. The BBC is government controlled, so it was basically mandated to have 50% (why) minorities on all shows or something like that. Hollywood doesn't violate labor laws and was pretty diverse to begin with. I don't know, let them constantly fuck up. I'd rather this shit just burn to the ground, there's no saving it.

I don't know how many times this woke shit has to fail while other non-political properties excel for them to get the message. Western comics are dead, western animation is dead, western games are dying. Like, how much failure does it take? These people are so pigeon-hold into their politics and their desire to push propaganda onto people, its causing a shift to the right. Culturally, if you are a conservative, you're the rebel. Because your speech is silenced, your stories are censored. You are de-platformed. You are 'dangerous'.

Its why I want Trump to win again. Not because I support him. Because I need them to completely lose track of reality even more. They're cracking, now we just have to break them completely. Their behavior is unacceptable. Suppressing art, speech and everything all under bullshit that can never be proven, just believed emotionally.

a listener wrote in expressing frustration with an apparent inability to break into TV writer's rooms via the usual routes. (I think he started as a gopher for the staff, which is common.) He had been trying for a while. The hosts responded that an active effort was being made now to hire minorities and women as writers, and that as a white male he would just have to try harder and prove he was worth it anyway.

I certainly believe this. Hollywood has drank the cool-aid completely. Its full of insane intersectionalists who basically don't understand a single thing about the average person. The problem is you get worse stories, worse movies out of it. I think the MCU went 'Future is Female' because they think the property is invincible, but even the prequels didn't kill Star Wars. It took one Disney made movie to do that.

It just doesn't seem to be worth it to write in Hollywood. You have to abide by all their intersectional inoffensive bullshit. I'm tired of sanitized, limp-dicked movies with a 'message'. Uncreative sequels and reboots and soft-reboots. Endless amounts of fucking trash.

 

[frozenrunner]

The shoe is on the other foot now

Exactly! It's about "revenge," not equality. Like almost all high-minded SJW behavior.

It just doesn't seem to be worth it to write in Hollywood. You have to abide by all their intersectional inoffensive bullshit. I'm tired of sanitized, limp-dicked movies with a 'message'. Uncreative sequels and reboots and soft-reboots. Endless amounts of fucking trash.

Not to mention the forced union bullshit.

Good shows are still being made, but the diversity bullshit often ruins those, too. It's sad when you can watch it happen to an existing show. Berlin Station's first season was great, but it was made during the tail end of the Obama administration. Then Ashley Judd, the patron saint of shrill SJW nonsense, was added to the cast in the second season, they added a black actress (who was fine, actually) because muh diversity, they started dropping Drumph lines into the show, and they made neo-Nazis (active in Germany, lol) the (ostensible) villains. The third season was no better (even more Orange Man Bad), and I didn't end up watching much of it. It's canceled now.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

The worse case of that shit I ever saw was American Gods. It started so promising but then we go a few episodes in and Anansi is giving speeches about cops killing black people for fun and a bunch of rednecks gunned down Mexican Jesus at the border.

She didn't, only one of her credited episodes features the Punisher (Ep.9, with the Punisher and Fisk in prison).
I don't think that 4chan post is true either, but c'mon guys, you treat Hissrich like she was responsible for the best parts of Daredevil and has proven herself to be extremely capable. 3 general episodes of one season of Daredevil and 5 (out of 8!) episodes of the blandest shit known as The Defenders are hardly compelling writing cases in my book.
View attachment 854187

I'm pretty sure writing for TV shows doesn't work that way. She presumably did some amount of writing on every episode but the ones she's credited with are the ones she did the bulk of. In any case, I daresay it's a better way to gauge talent than searching through her twitter for wrongthink.

Honestly I got a bit of a chick-flick vibe from the trailer. Lots of drama and hunky Geralt. I mean I don't mind either of those things but I definitely got the impression that it was aiming at women, which is odd because I've always assumed the majority of Witcher fans to be male. Also I feel like it seems to have too much of a generic GoT look to it as opposed to the distinctly Eastern European feel of the games and arguably the books as well. Tldr too much talking not enough slaying also don't make it GoT 2.0

Honestly that tone is pretty true to the books. The first two are like 30% monsters, 20% politics, and 50% relationship drama. They may not be afraid to show tiddies in the books or the games but Sapkowski isn't exactly based and redpilled. There's even a cringy segment in book 5 where all the good characters sit around and talk about how absurd the idea that a woman would not be allowed to have an abortion is. They're good books but if you're an IDpol sperg or reactionary you're gonna be disappointed.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Something else from Scriptnotes I've posted before that I'm very confident recounting: a listener wrote in expressing frustration with an apparent inability to break into TV writer's rooms via the usual routes. (I think he started as a gopher for the staff, which is common.) He had been trying for a while. The hosts responded that an active effort was being made now to hire minorities and women as writers, and that as a white male he would just have to try harder and prove he was worth it anyway. Both hosts approved of this practice and were pretty smug about their bigotry. (Both are men, but one is gay, and that other is a Jew. Shocking, I know.)

John August >>>>> Ryan Murphy

Also this reminds me of Lucy Liu in Charlie's Angels. It worked specifically because there was nothing about her being Asian that factored into the films. Her dad was Iohn Cleese ffs.

The worse case of that shit I ever saw was American Gods. It started so promising but then we go a few episodes in and Anansi is giving speeches about cops killing black people for fun and a bunch of rednecks gunned down Mexican Jesus at the border.

Gay Muslim sex scene with anal

 

[frozenrunner]

The worse case of that shit I ever saw was American Gods. It started so promising but then we go a few episodes in and Anansi is giving speeches about cops killing black people for fun and a bunch of rednecks gunned down Mexican Jesus at the border.

That episode was the type of unbelievably bad that could only spring from that mind of someone with terminal TDS. It presents right-of-center Americans so one-dimensionally that it works as a comedy, like a frighteningly earnest and real version of the Garth Marenghi's Darkplace episode Scotch Mist.

Bryan Fuller and Neal Gaiman should be ashamed of themselves.

 

[juwo]

I daresay it's a better way to gauge talent than searching through her twitter for wrongthink

I agree, her supervising The Defenders as the co-executive producer is a good way to set proper expectations – The Witcher already looks as cheap, boring and lifeless as that garbage series.

 

[Juan But Not Forgotten]

The worse case of that shit I ever saw was American Gods.

How about Game of Wheelchairs? In the book Dany is surrounded by people, who know better, constantly makes mistakes and pays for them. In the series she always knows better and all her mistakes lead to better opportunities.
In the book Jayme finally grew some balls and told his whore sister to fuck off. In the series he was turned into pathetic beta male and a doormat.
In the book Little finger is a strategic genius and has control over Sansa, like she is his puppet. In the series he suddenly goes extremely dumb to let Sansa show how good she is in politics. Same for Ramsey, who had been turned from dumb fat sadist into kawai death machine, just to let Sansa kill him in the end and show how strong and independent she is.
Teon's sister was tough in the book, but here she is fucking one woman army. And a dyke.
Dorn plot. Basically "women won, because they had thicker plot armor and more Deus Ex Machinas".
Fucking little girl kills a giant.
Night King is killed by a girl with katana, who teleported behind him, because fuck your subplot with John being the Hero of Light, he has a dick.

I know it's a different studio, but the trend is everywhere. In the books Geralt was very dependant on Yen, they broke up many times, but he still couldn't live without her. I don't wanna think what they are going to turn it into here. Also, actress who plays Yen is fucking ugly. Great choice for one of the central characters, Netfucks.

I agree, her supervising The Defenders as the co-executive producer is a good way to set proper expectations – The Witcher already looks as cheap, boring and lifeless as that garbage series.

How exactly bad? Like Luke Cage bad or Iron Fist bad? Or worse? I couldn't bring myself to watch it and I'm not going to.

 

[juwo]

Like Luke Cage bad or Iron Fist bad?

I never bothered with Iron Fist 'cause I saw some .webms from the show and couldn't believe what I saw - the show about martial arts has really shitty martial arts fighting, why watch it then. So, I can't compare The Defenders to it, but that entire show screams "wasted potential" to me, meaning you have this little Avengers-lite group of heroes with next to no fun banter, no interesting antagonists (these series were wasted on fucking magical ninjas called The Hand, personally I was tired of them as soon as they appeared in Daredevil S2) and all build-up to no pay off.
Now all those shows are cancelled, and I can't say any of them were even worth watching aside from Daredevil.

 

[Juan But Not Forgotten]

I never bothered with Iron Fist 'cause I saw some .webms from the show and couldn't believe what I saw - the show about martial arts has really shitty martial arts fighting, why watch it then. So, I can't compare The Defenders to it, but that entire show screams "wasted potential" to me, meaning you have this little Avengers-lite group of heroes with next to no fun banter, no interesting antagonists (these series were wasted on fucking magical ninjas called The Hand, personally I was tired of them as soon as they appeared in Daredevil S2) and all build-up to no pay off.
Now all those shows are cancelled, and I can't say any of them were even worth watching aside from Daredevil.

Oh, believe me, fight scenes are not the worst thing in that shitshow, cause they are like 20 percent of the runtime. Characters, their interactions and the whole plot they interact inside are fucking atrocious. Especially main character, who is not martial arts master with will of iron after years of training and pride of a man who killed dragon with his bare hands, but a cringy dumb teenager, who cries over everything like a little girl and has a PTSD because of a fight with said dragon. And everyone around him are not better.

As for "Defenders" - mixing shows with good fight choreography (Daredevil), attempts at fight choreography (Iron fist) and no fight choreography at all (other two) will result the latter. Same for main themes - justice and vigilanty, women are most oppressed, niggers are niggers and autist fights dumb rich people and handicapped ninjas - this shit doesn't mix well, even if you change it for "ninjas are going to destroy New York, because dragons". And it's hard to find a good threat for all four, because what Cage can endure, other three probably won't. You can use alien army like in the "Avengers", but I doubt they had the same budget.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Second season of AG was shit. No gay sex. No Gillian or Chenoweth. Dumb. You can really tell they struggled.

 

[Kaiser Wilhelm's Ghost]

I'm not sure, but my impression is less than a decade ago. I honestly can't remember when I heard about that, and on reflection I'm less confident it was exactly as I recounted. But I do remember hearing about it.

Something else from Scriptnotes I've posted before that I'm very confident recounting: a listener wrote in expressing frustration with an apparent inability to break into TV writer's rooms via the usual routes. (I think he started as a gopher for the staff, which is common.) He had been trying for a while. The hosts responded that an active effort was being made now to hire minorities and women as writers, and that as a white male he would just have to try harder and prove he was worth it anyway. Both hosts approved of this practice and were pretty smug about their bigotry. (Both are men, but one is gay, and that other is a Jew. Shocking, I know.)

It could be that "diversity casting" is an informal initiative being taken by SJW-types in television production. Or it could be a calculated attempt to sell every show to everyone as a possible audience, and they're just spinning it as a political move. (The latter makes more sense to me.)

Sadly not to powerlevel too much but it's in the production process and the writing rooms as well.

A lot of productions get people with communications or media degrees, but it also tends to act as a dumping ground for middle class white liberal elite types. A lot who didn't do well enough in college to actually do something amazing with their degree, but are able to get outside of being a desk jockey in a corporate office.

The problem with this then is preclusion of hiring. If your not a lefty, if you haven't got the right ideas, right points, etc, then unless your something remarkable your not going to get hired.

Anyone else will take you on the team. (The actual crew side of things) but they won't let you anywhere near the production office, if your not part of the hug box. Extra points are to be had for progressive hiring practices, and like academia once you have a few people of certain political persuasions in powerful hiring positions they dictate all other policies. So the whole idea of meritocracy goes out the window, unless your relative is a producer, or has connections. (White male is bottom of the barrel, hence so many nu-male feminists, gotta get some brownie points.)

The other major part of it is how it's invaded the writing room. Now what I mean by this is that I know a lot of really solid writers who are more centre right/left and not into the whole "muh diversity" thing they just want to write great stories with good characters and get their ideas made.

Major hurdle, producers and an industry that has reinforced the idea of this is what we want now. So you can write a script, that script has to be read and the reader then rates it whether or not it goes to a producer to get made. IE a gatekeeper, because there is a lot of shit out there. You write something that is brilliant and funny, and the script reader recommends it, producer reads it, it gets made, great.

But what happens when your script reader knows that the producer only wants to read diverse scripts, with woke storylines? Your script is deemed unsuitable, it gets thrown on the dump pile, or if it's really good it gets optioned by never made.

The result of this, and I've seen this happen in real life is people who want to get their stuff made, start tailor writing it for diversity audiences, which don't exist, just so the the gate keepers don't crash out their stuff before its first read.

 

[frozenrunner]

Sadly not to powerlevel too much but it's in the production process and the writing rooms as well.

A lot of productions get people with communications or media degrees, but it also tends to act as a dumping ground for middle class white liberal elite types. A lot who didn't do well enough in college to actually do something amazing with their degree, but are able to get outside of being a desk jockey in a corporate office.

The problem with this then is preclusion of hiring. If your not a lefty, if you haven't got the right ideas, right points, etc, then unless your something remarkable your not going to get hired.

Anyone else will take you on the team. (The actual crew side of things) but they won't let you anywhere near the production office, if your not part of the hug box. Extra points are to be had for progressive hiring practices, and like academia once you have a few people of certain political persuasions in powerful hiring positions they dictate all other policies. So the whole idea of meritocracy goes out the window, unless your relative is a producer, or has connections. (White male is bottom of the barrel, hence so many nu-male feminists, gotta get some brownie points.)

The other major part of it is how it's invaded the writing room. Now what I mean by this is that I know a lot of really solid writers who are more centre right/left and not into the whole "muh diversity" thing they just want to write great stories with good characters and get their ideas made.

Major hurdle, producers and an industry that has reinforced the idea of this is what we want now. So you can write a script, that script has to be read and the reader then rates it whether or not it goes to a producer to get made. IE a gatekeeper, because there is a lot of shit out there. You write something that is brilliant and funny, and the script reader recommends it, producer reads it, it gets made, great.

But what happens when your script reader knows that the producer only wants to read diverse scripts, with woke storylines? Your script is deemed unsuitable, it gets thrown on the dump pile, or if it's really good it gets optioned by never made.

The result of this, and I've seen this happen in real life is people who want to get their stuff made, start tailor writing it for diversity audiences, which don't exist, just so the the gate keepers don't crash out their stuff before its first read.

Wish I could double-rate this and horrifying.

My first impulse is "there needs to be a competing industry that can eat Hollywood's lunch by delivering the non-woke entertainment people want," but we all know that won't be allowed to happen. Too much money in the right places to allow competition to enter the movie/TV market.

And so these unbearable faggots will keep forcing shit nobody cares about (stronk wammen, trannies, every other character is black, etc.) into their shows, and it will hurt their viewership, but they'll seemingly never take the hint because they can afford not to

No wonder the MSM/legacy media is going so hard at independent content creators.

 

[juwo]

My first impulse is "there needs to be a competing industry that can eat Hollywood's lunch by delivering the non-woke entertainment people want," but we all know that won't be allowed to happen.

I wish countries like India or China produced more international films since their movie industry is huge but local (check out their highest grossing films lists, it's almost entirely their countries' productions). I'm not saying their films are great or would be great in that case, but such giant markets could've very well pushed Hollywood from its solitary dominating pedestal of world-wide cinema. I'd much rather prefer some European competitor, but Europe is simply just as pozzed.

At this point I'd rather go to the cinema to see this amazing Indian bullshit than Thor 4: Now 200% More Female!

 

[Kaiser Wilhelm's Ghost]

Wish I could double-rate this and horrifying.

My first impulse is "there needs to be a competing industry that can eat Hollywood's lunch by delivering the non-woke entertainment people want," but we all know that won't be allowed to happen. Too much money in the right places to allow competition to enter the movie/TV market.

And so these unbearable faggots will keep forcing shit nobody cares about (stronk wammen, trannies, every other character is black, etc.) into their shows, and it will hurt their viewership, but they'll seemingly never take the hint because they can afford not to

No wonder the MSM/legacy media is going so hard at independent content creators.

So big media's problem has always been that it's been a victim of it's own success. The studios as they gained more power and money are able to make any film they want, they just have to justify the cost of getting the Hollywood machine to go in one direction or the other.

Film making is always a chaotic process, whereby you see the work of at least 50 to 60 people in a major Hollywood film that have had their direct input on the film, whether that's costume, lighting, directing, etc. It costs a lot of money to have this, and so the people who control the money have to be able to justify the costs.

Now here is where the weird disconnect happens. The majority of producers are business democrats, they like the idea of a progressive better society, as long as it doesn't bite into their power structures or bottom lines. The issue with them, is that they've hit a peak point of being the oldest dinosaur in a saturated market, and the ticket returns are showing that.

It's the same reason that you have Marvel film after Marvel film, Disney recycling products it knows will make money hand over fist, because Hollywood is creatively bankrupt.

It's not that there aren't creative people, they get the best of the best in most cases in the higher echelons, because any good film maker, director, DOP, or crew worth their salt will take the better paying jobs. But the issue with that, as discussed is that if you don't share opinions, outlooks, or tow the line, you never get to sit in the directors seat, you never get to produce the film, or anything close.

So you have to deal with a level of just established cronyism to even get anywhere near the production end of things, and in most cases they've precluded anyone who doesn't fit the narrative.

As such you've got a very poisonous combination of Hollywood's money men, funding whatever they think will get them access to new markets. And the Lefties cultural Marxist on the production side, who think they can address their white liberal guilt by "changing the world" by casting a Black Ariel.

It's self serving for both. For the White Savior they get to assuage the guilt, and feel like they've done something productive for society, while fighting the Patriarchy TM. For the Money Men, the risk of pissing of a small portion of your audience, to open up a bigger one is worth the risk.

Sadly the most original material is going to come out of Independent film makers. Hopefully the liberal establishment in Hollywood will fail enough to force them back into line, or go bankrupt, but that literally depends on the apathy of their core viewing audiences. (In Sci-fi and Fantasy that the patriarchal white male.)

 

[Stab You in the Back]

How exactly bad? Like Luke Cage bad or Iron Fist bad? Or worse? I couldn't bring myself to watch it and I'm not going to.

Much, much worse. Defenders suffers from the same problem as Agents of SHIELD in that characters constantly monologue, make threats and hint at mind-blowing secrets, but never deliver any payoff. For example, they spend what feels like hours of screentime on Sigourney Weaver's cancer, only to give her the Night King treatment in a twist so painfully anti-climactic that it renders the first four episodes of the series completely pointless. The Hand is a joke. Everybody in the Hand is a joke. The Hand's plan is a joke. Oh, the Hand's plan...

The Hand's plan is to blow up NYC to cover up the excavation of magical dinosaur bones under the World Trade Center. I am not joking. All of Daredevil season 2. All of Iron Fist. All of Defenders. It was all leading up to a bunch of fucking magic dinosaur bones.

 

[Kaiser Wilhelm's Ghost]

I wish countries like India or China produced more international films since their movie industry is huge but local (check out their highest grossing films lists, it's almost entirely their countries' productions). I'm not saying their films are great or would be great in that case, but such giant markets could've very well pushed Hollywood from its solitary dominating pedestal of world-wide cinema. I'd much rather prefer some European competitor, but Europe is simply just as pozzed.

At this point I'd rather go to the cinema to see this amazing Indian bullshit than Thor 4: Now 200% More Female!

They have two really great native industries, even Africa has it's own incubation industries. (South Africa had a film industry until apartheid became a major political issue, then was destroyed because audiences refused to watch, and would blacklist actors who had worked in South Africa.) Nollywood is the biggest in Africa, and ironically has enjoyed a natural growth, and is a really strong film industry. (Especially when they make their films for pennies on the dollar, and create some of the most memorably bad cinema, they're great.)

Hollywood tries to get it's own influence into the Chinese international market by adding expressly token Chinese characters. This was true with the new Independence day script, they literally added in the Chinese fighter pilots for the Chinese market and nothing else. It's also fueling some weird conservatism is aspects of films, like female dress codes, because the Chinese market (and by this I mean the Communist Party Film Board) doesn't like nudity, or certain political expressions.

As for Europe well it's an interesting industry that hasn't experience much growth due to two factors. A stalled industry that never recovered and an over reliance of government film spending to prop up the industry.

First I'd say there is the UK film industry, which having benefited from the propaganda boom in WW2 in terms of film making died essentially in the 1970's. Now what I mean by this, is that there is a parallel of two film industries.

Domestic and Hollywood.

The domestic market is dead, it produces gangster film and small budget indy fare and not much else. It used to produce Anglo-centric films, that would be shipped out to Hollywood, now it doesn't get outside of the UK unless your an aficionado.

All the top talent gets absorbed by Hollywood UK, which is your Harry Potters, etc, etc. Any major film released in the UK outside of an occasional Indy hit, and it's American money, British talent. There isn't an appetite or apparatus to fund domestic films with the level of cash Hollywood throws at the UK film market.

As for the rest of Europe, the leaders in cinema at the beginning on the 20th century were France and Germany.
France was by virtue of the fact that it had produced the technology for photographs, and the first films were a natural extension of this cottage industry. Germany was the European leader, and it can be seen in such films as Metropolis that realistically when they were made showed a great spark of creativity and exploration of the new medium.

Those industries ceased production in both war time periods, where as Hollywood, and UK to a lesser extent was able to go on unabated.

Germany that had been a pioneering film industrial giant had always relied on state money to produce films, and just as it was starting to recover in terms of it's creative output suffered the major set back of Hitler's election to power. The industry boycott of Jews, and the resulting turning out of creative talents from the industry, as most fled or left Germany to go find work elsewhere, alongside Joseph Goebbels assuming creative power over the industry as it was incorporated into the Ministry of Propaganda, was the death knell for it being an industry leader.

Those creatives that fled Germany for other European countries, including the soon to be invaded France, eventually took refuge in America, and never returned. In Hollywood, where the industry had gone to make use of the natural sunlight and avoid Edison's early patents, a contingent of film makers including a lot of Jewish immigrants had set up early Hollywood and welcomed in the European talent.

Hollywood and Britain to a lesser extent not directly affected by war, and mandated to produce not only educational and propaganda films, but as well able to work unabated by the fall out of direct conflict, was making massive amounts of money that fueled the war time cinema boom. The talent pool it had was open and liberal enough to make use of anyone from any political or racial affiliation, that excluded them from Europe.

(Which in itself set the stage for McCarthy later, as forty years of communist/socialist political ideology, old world affiliations with countries under the USSR combined with America liberalism and beat culture made California a hotbed for Soviet spies and sympathizers.)

Germany never recovered from the mass exodus and consequent brain drain that followed. All of the people who had been talented and served the film industry during the rise of Nazi regime like Leni Reifenstahl, in turn were pushed out of the industry post war because of their associations with the party as part of De-Nazification. It's place as Europe's leader in the film industry was toast, and then with austerity during the rebuilding periods and threats from the Soviets, it never recovered prominence.

(I'm not including the facts that the European system has always been state sponsored film making efforts, so big studios in Germany and France were state funded and more risk averse because the tax payer foots the bill.

Early Hollywood was willing to take risks, by privately fundraising and either making it back or busting out, which worked to it's advantages, except for when studios went bust.

As well it deserves mentioning that the evolution of the national film industry was actually galvanized by the introduction of language. The silent era, it was possible to make films and export them to everyone. (Benshi are fascinating aspects of the Japanese industry.) Language created barriers, so Hollywood had less talking and more action/camera techniques. It worked.)

Sorry it's off topic, but it's an aspect of film making industries history that rarely gets addressed.

Edit: I added stuff in a more cohesive manner.

 

[RadicalCentrist]

There's always been a sense in the back of my mind that I should give the Witcher series another try because of how well regarded it is among CRPG's. I played the first but put it away after the first 30 mins because wtf is this garbage. This series had briefly piqued my interest... but Scotum Armor and everything else mentioned has put that to bed. Oh well.

Sorry it's off topic, but it's an aspect of film making industries history that rarely gets addressed.

Nah man it's good stuff.

 

[Secret Asshole]

So big media's problem has always been that it's been a victim of it's own success. The studios as they gained more power and money are able to make any film they want, they just have to justify the cost of getting the Hollywood machine to go in one direction or the other.

Film making is always a chaotic process, whereby you see the work of at least 50 to 60 people in a major Hollywood film that have had their direct input on the film, whether that's costume, lighting, directing, etc. It costs a lot of money to have this, and so the people who control the money have to be able to justify the costs.

Now here is where the weird disconnect happens. The majority of producers are business democrats, they like the idea of a progressive better society, as long as it doesn't bite into their power structures or bottom lines. The issue with them, is that they've hit a peak point of being the oldest dinosaur in a saturated market, and the ticket returns are showing that.

It's the same reason that you have Marvel film after Marvel film, Disney recycling products it knows will make money hand over fist, because Hollywood is creatively bankrupt.

It's not that there aren't creative people, they get the best of the best in most cases in the higher echelons, because any good film maker, director, DOP, or crew worth their salt will take the better paying jobs. But the issue with that, as discussed is that if you don't share opinions, outlooks, or tow the line, you never get to sit in the directors seat, you never get to produce the film, or anything close.

So you have to deal with a level of just established cronyism to even get anywhere near the production end of things, and in most cases they've precluded anyone who doesn't fit the narrative.

As such you've got a very poisonous combination of Hollywood's money men, funding whatever they think will get them access to new markets. And the Lefties cultural Marxist on the production side, who think they can address their white liberal guilt by "changing the world" by casting a Black Ariel.

It's self serving for both. For the White Savior they get to assuage the guilt, and feel like they've done something productive for society, while fighting the Patriarchy TM. For the Money Men, the risk of pissing of a small portion of your audience, to open up a bigger one is worth the risk.

Sadly the most original material is going to come out of Independent film makers. Hopefully the liberal establishment in Hollywood will fail enough to force them back into line, or go bankrupt, but that literally depends on the apathy of their core viewing audiences. (In Sci-fi and Fantasy that the patriarchal white male.)

It makes sense. This generation has produced way too many people with liberal arts degrees and communication degrees. So you have them infiltrate media, media outlets, media organizations. The big business thinks there's some sort of magical market for this. Thing is returns are going down, this market obviously does not exist. There's push-back and people looking to other forms of entertainment (YouTube, Independent Creators, Overseas) or just in general ignoring 'woke' stories.

I know it really seems hopeless right now. But the studio system, which was thought too big to fail, collapsed in the 1970s. Even Disney can collapse. Its already destroyed Star Wars and reduced its value massively. Its going towards woke Marvel, which can be destroyed as well, which then leaves Avatar, which has been so long I don't know who cares about it.

Regardless, people will go back to classics, find other entertainment. No matter the dominance, you cannot force someone to consume or buy your content. The first place that goes 'fuck you' and goes merit over diversity will win. Because that's new and fresh. Re-casting whites as blacks or having a black Ariel is old hat. People just roll their eyes and move on. Marvel even had to create fake outrage over femme Thor because literally no one gave a shit. This is when you start to see cracks, when they have to generate their own bullshit.

The problem is I've NEVER seen this new market materialize. Its like these people live on Twitter and Social Media, which has been culling centrist and milquetoast right wing views for years now that they actually believe this is their market they can access. When in reality its a technocrat massively censoring his platform. These initiatives always just crash and they go "What went wrong? Everyone on Twitter loved it. We might not have diveristied enough!" And then they keep pushing and crashing, over and over again.

I don't see how this is remotely sustainable.