Nearly everything published in the last few years has been political, a growing trend since the mid-2000s. I'm finding myself watching shows from the 90s for escapism.
I don't get commenters going "X has gone woke" when that's nothing new. Sure, a lot of modern-day media is overt and often unsubtle in its more liberal viewpoints to the point where it seems to detract from the story itself, but that's not a bad thing per sé if it means marginalized communities feel more represented and the non-marginalized communities get a counter from the preceding era's straight/white/male dominance.
This is of course less the case for more fantastic settings.
You can make anything fit any narrative you want if you want to analyse something closely enough, but this statement isn't true in good faith. What's the political statement of Japan's Ringu? Or Swiss' Pingu?
> a default political context (in the USA, white-normative and cisheteronormative)
I don't see why the statistically likely (white, cis, hetero) is a "political context"? white-cis-heteros disagree on politics all the time.
> For the marginalized, politics reaches out and touches them whether they want it or not.
Politics touches everyone. I am already living with politics for 80% of my waking life, I would prefer my entertainment time not also reflect that unless I want to. Lazy writing and characterisation since the mid-2000s has made politics a character trait rather than a plot point and it's boring.
I fundamentally disagree that art is inherently political.
-- George Orwell
What a bald exaggeration
The 90s had a different context sure, capitalism was peaking, we didn't have the crushing reality of the post 2008 world, or the crazy chest bumping Murica militarism of the post 9/11 era. But the 2000s scare, the internet fear, the office jobs being boring/grey and soulless. The slight fear of science and progress (see Jurassic park, gattaca, fifth element), the work culture being inhumane and dehumanising (matrix, office space, clerks, american beauty), the same happened in music with grunge being one of the main genres of the decades.
All of this art was made in the backdrop of probably the most optimistic period of time, Disney had a renaissance, america absolute cleared the floor in the first gulf war, the stock market had an impossible never ending rise, pop music was happier than ever and fashion was in the most sexy, thin, in your face hotness ever.
If you only want to enjoy the 90s happiness without seeing the fact tons of counter art was being made and that our current cyniscim isn't only a product of the post 2008 economic stagnation but also comes from the seeds that were planted at the height of the cultural hedonism of the 90s then you are just straight ignoring some of the biggest hits of that decade.
I enjoy media that has a political message or meaning.
Get Out was my favourite horror film of that year, and that very clearly exists in a world with a strong political undercurrent.
I'm saying right now, I want more media that is not drenched in political ideology, left wing or right wing. I (like the majority of people) live in a shit world with a shit job and a shit life. But it could easily be worse. I would rather not be reminded how shit everything is even when I just want to be distracted for a short while.
> 90s happiness
I want escapism, it doesn't have to be happy.
I'm getting near middle aged and have started watching more of the 90s scifi (with some good modern shows as well) when I just want to escape for a bit. I just started rewatching Farscape again. What a bizarre/wild ride.
> Everything just seems like preaching and it can be difficult to watch even if you agree with the message.
Maybe this is more accurate to how I feel. DS9 and B5 had a lot of plot lines that would probably be called political, but were abstracted away and never felt like I was being force fed political ideology, it was more of an exploration of those ideas.
I thoroughly enjoyed DS9 as well, but outside of some things like Quark and Garrak, I feel it to sometimes be a pale imitation of B5.
Farscape is just freaking weird, but just so much fun. The characters have no restraints on emotion. There is no chain of command.
Stargate SG-1 and all the spin offs are also extremely good and the only science fiction show my wife could really get into. If you haven't watched it yet...well then you have like 18 seasons and a few movies to get through if you count all the TV shows.
Now all of those formats (ESPECIALLY books) have always had ones that were QUITE political, but there was also a lot of content that was just for relaxing and escaping from the reality of the world which has always sucked. Recently, it seems like they've started really ramping up the political content in many movies, shows, and games and some people certainly enjoy that, but then again...a lot of people don't like being preached to in every aspect of their lives.
Looney tunes, Animaniacs, some SNL skits, Blue's Clues- these all had that lack of present day political stuff, but even something as light as The Drew Carey Show had themes about stuff like political correctness in the office place, and cross-dressing/genderqueer folks.
I mean going by the highest grossing movies of the year you got plenty to choose from. Other than barbie (which I would argue is not super deep in terms of politics anyway) the rest are all escapism: Super Mario Bros, Fast and furios 10, guardians of the galaxy 3, spiderverse 2, mission impossible, quantumania, little mermaid and elemental are all extremely light in terms of politics.
The three movies with "heaviest" political message are oppenheimer, barbie and even then in case of oppie the message is "mcarthyanism was paranoid and political engagement was stiffled as well as weaponised for personal and selfish goals" certainly not a super crazy political opinion that america's red scare went too far. And in terms of Barbie its mostly surface level "its not easy to be a woman" and capitalism takes advantage of people. But saying "self actualisation is hard with economic forces pushing against you, and some parts of the patriarchy have a compounding effect on women in terms of how difficult it is" is incredibly milktoast feminism even if its pushing the boundries in a movie that is essentially a toy ad that lasts 2 hours.
I don't know what kind of media you think does not allow Escapism and its so absolutely drenched in political content that is impossible to enjoy.
Most emmy noms went to Succession, a shakespearean tale of rich brats picking on each other for father approval and Last of Us, a zombie show about a father daughter found family that shows humans are the worst threat and not the zombies. Neither seems incredibly political.
Videogames this year, top of the crop were Baldur's gate 3, Zelda and Spiderman 2. One is a DnD campaign about power, world domination and brain washing aliens. Another is Ganon is back, you are the hero go make a car and kill him and the last one is Spiderman saves new york from the same guys he has fought since the 1960s.
What is this escapism that existed in the 90s that no longer exist and where is the political undercurrent in all mainstream media that makes it so hard to escape into?