Posted on 04/09/2023 9:30:05 AM PDT by Twotone
Amazon audiences still prefer traditional story lines featuring "straight, white, male leads" and often steer clear of woke programming, a new report says.
According to Bounding Into Comics, the shows that audiences have consistently panned are those with "queer" story lines. Perhaps the most notable example is "A League of Their Own," a series reboot of the beloved movie of the same name released in 1992. While the original follows Dottie Hinson and her sister, Kit Keller — played by Geena Davis and Lori Petty, respectively — as they try to make their way in a women's professional baseball league, the reboot stars a black woman who must constantly overcome racial obstacles to play.
There is also a strong lesbian subplot to "A League of Their Own," as some members of the Rockford Peaches — still wearing their iconic pink and red skirted baseball uniforms by day — engage in same-sex relationships off the field. Rosie O'Donnell, who acts as a playful and humorous sidekick to Madonna in the movie, guest-stars on the new show as a cross-dressing owner of an underground gay bar.
This sexualized mangling of a cherished film about feminine athleticism has been a big swing and a miss with viewers. In fact, the Hollywood Reporter called it one of the most "expensive disappointments" of Jen Salke's time as head of Amazon Studios. The outlet claimed that audiences found the "queer stories" in the show "off-putting," prompting executives to encourage "downplaying those themes" in show promotions.
The Hollywood Reporter also suggested that overall consumer disinterest in "A League of Their Own" could represent a larger disconnect between content creators and audiences. According to the outlet, many Amazon focus groups "tend to favor broad and less inclusive programming," creating a ranking system in the algorithm which often prefers "straight, white male leads above all others," even as some in the industry continue to push for "diverse and inclusive shows."
To demonstrate the conflicting demands of audiences and producers, That Park Place pointed to a focus group test case involving two different cop shows. The first show features a female cop who is both a racial minority and a lesbian. She moves to an unidentified southern town, where she struggles against "racism, sexism and abuse of power of her new colleagues." The second show is just a pastiche of old "Starsky & Hutch" clips adapted for a modern audience. The main characters are white, male cops, and they are the good guys who take on bad-boy criminals, often with mild forms of violence like fist-fighting.
The audience preferred the "Starsky & Hutch" redux by a "huge" margin, prompting That Park Place to conclude that "the marketplace of 'normies' is growing tired of tropes circled around tribalism, politics, geo-elitism, etc." and that those who promulgate those story lines "are poison to the well that is public good will."
I’m normal and I consume normal culture.
Yep...”click”.
I'm sure HBO saw me fast-forward through the gay love scenes in "Last of Us."
It’s hard to find American shows without gay characters. I tend to watch more foreign shows because of it.
Well that just means we'll have to double down.
There was a time when Rosie O'Donuts was the cute little - almost lovable - lesbo. But that was long ago before she revealed herself as a hateful angry beast. I cannot watch anything with her in it, whether old or new.
Same goes for Wanda Sykes, who despite any discernible talent keeps getting gigs.
Beloved? By whom? Geena Davis was in her heyday and Tom Hanks was good too. But Madonna and Rosie? And it was overly sentimental tripe, as were most of Penny Marshall's flicks.
I guess it’s nice to have some verification of what everyone should know, but the real question is if the preferences of the audience even matter.
Reality has a funny way of working out
At the first indication of CRT/BLM/Equity BS I dump otherwise likable shows.
Will Trent
The Rookie
Rookie Feds (Didn’t even try this one)
The Glades
White men are evil, stupid, or both.
Terrorists are always White Supremacists
F ‘em
Notice the weasel wording of this, using the word "promotions" as where to downplay the lesbian storylines. The storylines will still be there in the actual film you are watching. They just won't put it in their advertisments.
I am thinking that they still don't understand the problem.
How much more obvious could it be? If you make entertainment featuring minority groups and focusing on the so-called issues of these groups, the wider audience is not going to be interested. Additionally, how many films / TV shows have we seen featuring the difficulties of being black / gay/ lesbian and now trans?! People are sick of it!
Oh Gawd....
They had to conduct a study to figure this out? People living in the Hollywood bubble are truly clueless about it how the rest of the country thinks.
It’s the bait-and-switch that turns people off. Happens a lot these days. Once a show abandons its premise to tell stories ripped from today’s culture war headlines, people are going to tune out.
Duh!
They think they have the ability to change how the rest of the country thinks.
It isn’t so much the LGBT stuff, it’s that the content is not entertaining. Every scene, plot twist and dialog element is evaluated by a committee. Starting with boy meets girl, maybe it’s girl meets boy. And maybe it should be a black boy instead of white. And maybe the girl should be Asian. And where they meet, what kind of dogs they have, who has what gay friends, what kind of work they do, who is in charge. After they all agree, they spend millions of dollars making a rather uninteresting film. It’s like listening to NPR. Boring!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.