Bounding into Comics just released an article telling us that Jamie Lee Curtis described the new Halloween movie as a #MeToo movie. And upon hearing that I immediately didn’t want to see it anymore. I’ve had that reaction to pretty much every new movie and television show that even hints to pushing a political agenda. Why? Partly because I’ve already been to college. I’ve already paid money to be lectured for hours on end. The market has been saturated with politics. It’s everywhere. And, for some reason, producers think people want to see politics shoehorned into movies – even after they fail time and again. (Even Star Wars couldn’t pull this off.) The answer, counter to what Hollywood elites might tell you, is not because America turned to Nazism or some other nonsense. It’s because when politics saturated our daily lives, it also saturated the market for media with politics.
Personally, I’ve even stopped watching most political shows, podcasts, and YouTube channels – even the ones that agree with me. I’m just tired of it. I feel like a glass that’s already full, but people are still trying to fill. And looking at all the monumental failures of movies, comics, shows, and video games that proudly proclaim their political agenda – I’m not the only one.
For my fellow lovers of capitalism out there, this might be a blessing in disguise. I believe a new market has opened up that has very little new product feeding into it. Thanks to the insistence that “everything be political,” the people who want a break from the constant politics are eager and hungry for something very few big-name industries are willing to provide – politics/agenda-free entertainment.
I mean, look at #ComicsGate. They promised to produce works that are free of any kind of political agenda. They promised to create comics that center around character and thrilling adventures. That’s all. And bam – they’ve raised nearly $2 Million in six months.
The world today is one where a few shrill crazies are given all the microphones and attract all the cameras. But I think the average person is tired of the propaganda. They want something entertaining without having to cringe their way through the “all men are evil”/”White people are the devil”/ “Trump is Satan” sections of everything.
So, if you’re an indie writer or filmmaker, I’d make one suggestion that might make the difference between success and failure. Remove the politics from your work. Don’t push any kind of agenda or even make any kind of metaphor/allegory to modern day events. Cut it clean – and just tell a story.
Literature Devil 