crash landing

Media I ignore personally - I never listen to critics if its something that I really really want t see

sum1

Bringing over my posts from the end of the last page so they don't vanish in a case of end-of-page-itis:

I just read an Irish Times review of the Punisher show. It was a long, elitist rant, sneering at all superhero tv except Legion (which it thinks is clever). It claims superhero tv is wiping out the subtleties of tv drama because superheroes were originally for kids. Or something like that.

Generally, elitist journalists sneering at superhero fare don't bother to get their facts right and that's the case here. The writer seems to think all superheroes (notably the ones the Netflix shows are based on) were invented in the post-WW2 years to entertain kids.

In fact, the classic Marvel characters (who mostly started in the 1960s) were actually the vanguard of making superheroes interesting for people older than kids. Not just teenagers, but college students and the occasional older reader (many letters were sent in by the latter group during the '60s). And as Stan Lee explained in an interview, he didn't write for kids, he wrote for himself, leading to the wide appeal of his comics that revolutionized the industry.

Unlike DC (which has ancient characters like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Flash), very few of Marvel's characters predate 1961 (examples which do are Captain America and the Submariner). Multiple of the characters in the Netflix dramas were invented in the '70s, when a third or more of Marvel's sales were to college students. In other words, people old enough to vote. Marvel wasn't writing for kids.

Jessica Jones was invented in the 21st century, when American comics were even less kid-aimed. Luke Cage, Iron Fist and the Punisher are examples of the '70s type and thus were aimed at all ages. Daredevil is from the '60s, when Stan Lee and Marvel were busy introducing that newer and more mature type of superhero comic. And the Daredevil the show is based on is very much the '80s/'90s version, a darker character.

I'm quite used to elitist Irish Times journalists sneering at superhero films and tv shows. In general, Irish journalists (unlike the general Irish public) are a bunch of pretentious wankers. I've often toyed with the idea of dropping the Irish Times, a newspaper which advertises itself with the line "You are what you read" as if people would be terribly proud to be reading that damned rag.

The sort of elitism that causes critics to sneer at superhero material even when it's done well (as it is in the Marvel Netflix shows) tends to be rooted in a lack of security in one's own maturity and intellectual capacity. They don't want to be caught taking superheroes seriously, lest they be seen as childish or unintelligent. They tend to resent superhero material that takes itself seriously (unless it embraces the sort of pointless intellectual affectation that Legion does), hence all the sneering at the Netflix shows and the DC movies.

The Irish Times even took offense at Deadpool, with the reviewer taking the ironic humour at face value and ranting about its supposed misogyny. They didn't dislike Logan, wonder of wonders, but I think that's because Wolverine died in it.

The Punisher is probably a good show. The Irish media sucks.

And more on the above: I've noticed that journalists think it's beneath them to research comic book material enough to get their facts right, but they feel they have the right to make pronouncements from on high about the stuff anyway.

PhoenixRising

Thanks for the rant, sum1. I've run into people like that myself. Anyone who actually thinks that way about comic books don't read them. Comics haven't been written for kids since the 1950's and 60's when the comics code was still enforced. The original comics from the 30's and 40's were hardly for kids if you saw them. Was Tales From The Crypt or The Vault of Horror for kids? Or Detective Comics? That was basically the comic version of Black Mask magazine. And how about Sgt. Rock? Military comics were violent as hell. And by the time you get to the 80's the level of writing had actually surpassed what you saw on most network TV dramas of the decade. If I were that journalist I'd lay more blame on reality shows like Keeping Up With The Kardashians, or the endless Law & Order, CSI, or NCIS clones that repeat the same format over and over again. The only bad comic book TV shows are the poorly written ones, and we know which ones are those. But The Gifted isn't one of them.

crash landing

Toothache

PhoenixRising

Feel better, Sarah. Buy some Anbesol if you can.

crash landing

Got some painkillers from my landlady but need to buy some more myself

sum1

Sarah, I hope yoour toothache gets better. Please be careful not to take too many painkillers at one time. Yeah, these guys don't respect comics at all so they feel that they don't have to know anything about them to make pronouncements on them from on high, because, like, who cares about comic books anyway? They get their facts blatantly wrong and make self-righteous elitist judgements based on that mistaken info. It's so annoying. But we have real problems with the media in Ireland. There's so much bull in the Irish media. The people of Ireland are basically a pretty straight-up bunch, but the Irish media... gah, what a bunch of eejits. And the Irish paper I read most, the Irish Times, I read it because it's Ireland's leading newspaper, but it's an elitist, pretentious rag. I keep using the word "elitist", but it can't be used too many times with regard to comic books' stuck-up detractors or certain sections of the Irish media.

Oh and I started the Punisher show and it's great. Jon Bernthal is excellent.

PhoenixRising

Really, sum1? For some reason I got the idea that Ireland being a very blue-collar, working class, no-nonsense type of country it would include their media as well. But that's journalistic academia for you. It's always this "our st doesn't stink" mentality when it comes to pretty much everything. At least some US newspaper outlets have given comics some respect.

I hope the painkillers work for you and your tooth feels better, Sarah!

sum1

Ireland's not especially blue collar. It's all collars. And the media in Ireland doesn't represent the people. It represents the wankers.

PhoenixRising

I guess what I meant was that it seems a bit more "collar" than England. Less pretentious and elitist. Although I guess the Irish media is full of wankers?

sum1

Well, Ireland is a bit more straight-up than most Western European countries, I think. But yeah, the Irish media is... endlessly disappointing.

PhoenixRising

Yeah, that's the impression I got from what I've seen on TV. But I didn't know that about the media. But I guess all media is like that these days.

sum1

I think a lot of countrie have medias that aren't worthy of those countries.

wickedrum

which is why I don't watch BBC

PhoenixRising

The BBC is that bad, Rita?


I think we have too much news media here, and it gets more ridiculous each year.