For anything new, will have to watch for indepedent flicks and international movies and shows. Unless it's Tom Cruise.
We'll have to wait for the woke virus to take its toll on Hollywood. Then they'll go back to making entertainment.
Yes.
The good news is, there is plenty of non-woke content out there. Finding it is the trick. I know I'm a broken record on this, but we need to do a better job of spreading the word. If you see something, say something.
One of the reasons that the left prefers centralization and giganticism -- in all fields, not just movies and tv -- is that large, bureaucratic, highly centralized systems are easier to pressure. And once a beachhead is established, they are easier to control. The big studios are easy targets. They want to make money, but when the pressure groups leaned on them, they folded without a fight. Senior management gets roped into drum circles about "diversity," they set up a DEI committee in an attempt to buy off the zealots, they get pushed into formalizing good intentions into guidance documents with goals that immediately turn into quotas, and presto: a radical fifth column has taken over. Honest writers and directors who just want to make good movies start muttering anonymously about the need to conform to the agenda.
Independent filmmakers have more freedom to maintain control. I'm growing to like writer-director teams of one. The question is whether the little guys can find funding and a good enough distribution deal for their stuff to get noticed.
Non-woke recommendations? In the interest of brevity, I'll limit this to 2021/22 releases, so these are relatively new films: The Dig; CODA; Jockey; I'm Your Man; Petite Maman; After Yang; Stillwater; Compartment No. 6; Drive My Car; Free Guy; Old Henry; The Last Duel; Montana Story; The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis; The Outfit.
How many of these have you seen? Maybe they're not to your taste, but they ain't woke.
Repeat for emphasis: none of these movies are woke. Drive My Car, a Japanese film, is the only one with nudity. (No spoilers, but the nudity and sex scenes are early and are used to establish bad character.) Several are quite conservative in thematic and moral terms; the rest at least give conservative perspectives fair play. I could extend the list but would be getting into films that would draw more argument here. Call this the "freeper friendly" list. The selection leans towards small, character-driven indie films. Partly that reflects my taste, but I'm beginning to think that it also reflects the kinds of films that are small enough to slip under the woke radar screens.
This is a small selection simply because I'm averaging just over one movie a week. I don't last long with most series. The last two I watched to completion were Chernobyl and Queens Gambit, and I thought the latter was dragging midway through.
There are gay characters in a couple of these movies, but there is no proselytizing or celebration. The gay characters are just there, looking and acting like everyone else. If anything, the gay relationships are seen as sterile and as dead ends; there is a whiff of the gay character yearning for something better. Diversity? Well, watch them and see. None of them preach about it; the diversity is natural in the context of the setting. Which is perfectly fine; the problem lies with forced stuntcasting to hit quota targets and drive an agenda.
Other suggestions?