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."
Was watching that series, Last of Us, until they threw in the gay couple episode. One of the writers bragged about how they pushed the episode on the audience.
“Off-putting”
Nice eupehmism for disgusting.
They ruined the latest Midsomers Murder series. Last episode had gay, trans, and a few other alphabet people. I gave up after the first 15 minutes.
The new Top Gun movie the opposite of this and hit paydirt. Did nobody pay attention to that and learn a lesson?
Not “off putting”, don’t care.
I have no interest in telling every story over again but shoving some homosexual into the story for no good or meaningful reason.
“A very linear (tall) and pretty Geena Davis was cool.”
And she’s Mensa, IIRC.
Brit TV has been like that for years. Actually liked Are You Being Served? More camp then serious relationships. The new series of All Creatures Great and Small, is very good. As good as the original with Tom Hardy and Peter Davidson.
We’ve been watching Route 66 from ‘60-63. Greenie stuff was touched on a few times.
Hot male white guys cruising the USA in Corvettes. Then I learned George Maharis was homosexusal. [sob]
I haven’t been in a movie theater in a decade. I also rarely watch TV because I’ll turn off a program at the first hint of any kind of DEI garbage. It’s easy to spot when the next door neighbors are an interracial couple for no reason, or a couple of homos that are there just to include gays but add nothing to the plot otherwise. We used to call it “normalization of deviance”, when something that’s a bad practice becomes standard by repeatedly ignoring normal practices. That’s what they’re trying to do with the homo/racial stuff, they’re trying to make it normal in the mind of the public by repeatedly portraying it that way. After a generation or so young people perceive it to be normal. It’s a subtle form of brainwashing. When I recognize it for what it is I turn the TV off, hence I don’t watch much TV.
Try the old black and white shows, like Bat Masterson and Have Gun will travel....
Don’t forget the Alfred Hitchock Presents, Route 66, The Naked City, and all the old noir movies.
It’s not that Americans won’t watch black shows. We will IF they are original like the Jefferson’s, Sanford and Sons, Cosby show and others. The problem is people don’t want to see shows where blacks take over our beloved classics. Wonder years, one day at a time, fantasy island, quantum leap, and a slew of others have performed worse than the original by far only lasting a short while. If you want minority shows, start a show from scratch and go from there.
The obvious solution is to force feed the public more crap.
"the lack of".
There is one industry untouched by wokeness for what the customer wants. Porn.
American and British TV have segenerated into propaganda programming. Every new production features N Words and Queer/Dyke characters that are bdly out of place.
There was for instance never a Black Earl in England.
and all those blacks in TV ads pretending to be white ,LOL
Every time I see the commercial for that farce with her supposedly jumping off a fire escape, I can't help myself wonder how far she "bounces" back up! LOL
Agreed. Stop hijacking the classics. Start creating original content.
“I’m sure HBO saw me fast-forward through the gay love scenes in “Last of Us.””
That’s one way to look at it. Another way is that they saw what they’re algorithm says is a conservative person watch this show despite the homosexual scenes. Just saying.
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