media gripe
You know that one episode of MST3K where Joel flips out and dares Frank and Dr. Forrester to riff a movie, and it's TERRIBLE? Everything they say is just kind of vague "Haha! They sure are in a... wacky situation. You could sure say something there!"
Every single review or reaction video I've ever seen on Youtube has sounded like that to me. No insight, no thesis, no analysis, just some 19-year-old kid giving us full real-time access to his hindbrain.
media gripe
@zebratron2084 If I may add to the pile: The copious "sins" videos stray into this territory.
"I will now point out minor inconsistencies I have observed, and provide no meaningful insight other than a smug sense of superiority"
re: media gripe
@Phorm I hate them so much. They're so superficial, so literal-minded, and so willfully ignorant of the ways good cinema SHOULDN'T AND MUSTN'T just blandly recapitulate material reality. I want to just.... pick up my old film prof and bludgeon the shallow fuckers with him. (Shit, he would probably *consent*. :) )
re: media gripe; "let me tell you about my project" O:)
@Phorm Oh gods, that's the other thing, the colossal sense of consumer entitlement. I am REALLY bracing -- should we ever be so lucky to have Parallax actually go anywhere -- for that kind of so-called "fan." Contact with the Steven Universe and MLP fandoms have pretty much soured me on the idea of having a following, and... tbh, I'm trying to fill Parallax full of red-herring bait for the compulsive theorists, whom I also can't stand. :>
re: media gripe; "let me tell you about my project" O:)
@zebratron2084 I wish you only the best fans, and thoroughly approve of your red herring plan :D Reminds me a bit about something Andy Price was talking about at an MLP comic panel at a covn-
Oh. Shoot. I'm one of those fans, aren't I? Ugh.
(Honestly, I know just what you mean. My experience with that kind of fandom has left me confused and tender to this day.)
re: media gripe
@zebratron2084 Oh! Also, on the topic of "Superficial Idiocy Passed Of As Legit Criticism of Movies" you might enjoy this video:
re: media gripe
@zebratron2084 @Phorm I mean, if you really want a refutation of Cinema Sins-style analysis, Shaun has a terrific takedown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9IBlbfjNH0
re: media gripe
@zebratron2084
Quite thoroughly agreed. I could go off on a very long screed here, particularly as this phenomenon has infested other media. I still remember seeing a video from [POPULAR TRASH RACIST YOUTUBER] years ago that spent upward of twenty minutes ripping a game apart.
After it was over it dawned on me that all the petty, meaningless criticisms that were leveled amounted to "THIS WASN'T THE GAME I EXPECTED IT TO BE", rather than any insight related to actual criticism of the game it WAS. That wasn't terribly shocking, but I remember being taken aback by how widespread the influence of that video was, and how it permeated throughout the internet quickly, halted all thought and reducing all discussion to "GAME BAD".