I just wanted to hear the thoughts of some comrades. I feel like the whole show is a dagger pointed right at the heart of amerikkkan culture and capitalism.
I’m not the most savvy on catching all the themes or lib brain worms that find there way into media, but it speaks to my disdain for the culture. The cynical narcissism of the supes (and holy shit their sexual pathologies), the capitalizing on things from every angle, the military jingoism, the soulless use of humans for capital, the commentary on the rot at the heart of the beast, and the religious cults preying on people. It hits for me, and I hate it all at the same time.
Anyway, hope ya’ll have a great Christmas or holiday, at least a break from the meat grinder.
Edit: Oh, and the fucking rainbow capitalism, it’s pretty spot on.
I watched the first two seasons? It wasn’t bad, but I can easily imagine it getting extremely stupid
I enjoyed it, but it feels kinda same. Like it’s clearly just hitting the same 3 satirical points over and over, but also it needs to do MORE each season so they’re like coming up with new and more extreme ways to do “haha what if a superhero exploded your dick” jokes.
For the cultural commentary, idk when the comics were written originally, but the whole thing kinda feels like repurposing radlib commentary on the bush era for the trump era. Like I feel like even the more faux religious types don’t present like they do in the show, I feel modern religious conservatism is less evangelical and somehow even more peasant brain-y. Like people should be getting mad about witchcraft or completely insane numerology more.
I grew up around a lot of those religious types that it’s specifically pointed at. It feels true to life in my experience ngl.
Seconded. I lost my shit at that scene in S01E05 when Ezekiel did the televangelist youth pastor bit because it was entirely too accurate. It was just missing “Our God is an Awesome God” and the Treatler Youth promising you free pizza and then you get there and there’s no free pizza.
all it takes is reading those words and it instantly starts up in my head, even though it’s been almost 25 years since I had to hear it in person
Bottom line, if your best friend introduces you to a dude named Zander or Parrish or whatever and said dude immediately starts freaking out and claiming that your Magic: The Gathering Revised Edition Pestilence card burned his hand with the power of Satan, and oh by the way would you like to come to our study group where we play ping pong and eat pizza, THERE IS NO PIZZA. THE PIZZA IS A LIE.
…I’m still pissed off at that weirdo cult for taking my friend away from me. It’s hard to take someone seriously after you’ve seen him – and a room full of other teenagers – pretend to speak in tongues for half an hour while a keyboard player holds a drone chord in a shitty P&W song.
I am thankful I grew up Jewish. The worst it gets is “our G-d is a mid g-d, but hey it’s the one we got?”
I grew up Catholic and my family was so racist that when I thought Judas was the main figure in Judaism (like how “Christ” is the Main Character in “Christianity”), nobody corrected me for like 3 or 4 years.
It’s almost right—Judas is a romanization of Judah which is a common name because Judah is the patriarch of one of the most important tribes of Judeah and the namesake of Judaism. But that’s actually kind of charming that you thought Judaism was named for the Christian figure of Judas!
I’m glad you were able to overcome your reactionary upbringing. That takes a lot of work and courage.
I mean, I was 5 at the time
Pattern recognition and its consequences
oh that’s even more understandable lol
That’s fair, it’s more that they’re less the focus of the cultural zeitgeist, and Republican Party and their media arms are less focused on them currently like they were around 2000-2008. It makes it feel a bit dated in some ways. I don’t really mind it, it does give it kind of a cool vibe because it feels like a throwback to 2006, while most of the show being very much in the present. The show feels like current me and teenager me brainstorming a show and that’s not really a bad thing. As I said I did enjoy it, and think the first few seasons are great, more got tired of it over time than anything.
Its is exactly that, the comics written by Ennis were his anti bush outlet plus his way of criticizing 00s superhero comics from DC/Marvel via being really edgy
The TV show changed a lot of things in the adaptation (for the better, to be clear, the comics are absolute trash and Garth Ennis is a hack), to the point where I’d say all the social commentary is new. IIRC faux-religious supes aren’t even a thing in the comics, because they’re too busy having two arcs where the entire joke is “Hey Professor X and Batman having all these child sidekicks is kind of weird, huh? What if they were pedophiles?”.
Love Sausage
Also his runs on Hellblazer, Hitman, and Punisher are legitimately great
His stuff for Judge Dredd is fun too, like having the Irish mob have guns that shoot potatoes at lethal velocities
I’m on season 2. I’ve heard they get crazy ham fisted with it because the creators wanted to give an emphatic fuck you to incels who think that Homlander is cool and good.
I thought it was pretty hilarious when they did that, but also when the incels still didn’t get the hint after being beaten over the head with it. I have at least two techbro coworkers like this.
Maybe you could do some story time posts? People like that can’t exist without being entertaining.
I telecommute whenever possible specifically to avoid those dipshits. One in particular is a chronic crop-duster and will stand there and spew Trump-isms while smelling like he shat his pants. Instead of “power-cycling a server” or “restarting a webservice,” it’s “draining the swamp.” He ends every thought with “Right? …Right?” like he’s a late night talkshow host and we’re supposed to cue up a laugh track and clap like seals after he just rambled incoherently for 7 minutes on a Zoom call. What takes it from “eyeroll-worthy” to “I hope you buy a Tesla and it takes you on a swift trip to Valhalla” is the casual and not-so-casual misogyny. Main highlights that I can think of off the top of my head are blurting out, “WULL THAT SEEMS ABOUT AS USEFUL AS A DEGREE IN WOMEN’S STUDIES! HAR HAR HAR” and ranting about the corporate dress code being amended to allow women to wear leggings at the office. His take on The Boys, though? Homelander is so cool! He’s the hero!
Uhhgg, cringe.
Yeah, I had the benefit of season 3 not being out, so I just finished all the episodes at the time and never really felt the need to come back for the new seasons. I never finished the Amazon produced seasons of the Expanse, either, so maybe it’s a Bezos channel problem for me lol
Is the fake AOC character funnier or more embarrassing to watch in 2024? I’m genuinely curious
I came here to chime in that it gets worse as the show progresses. The good guys need to be the bad guys, which yes in a trope in season 1, becomes too much in the last season.
spoiler
Like how starting in season 2, the CIA becomes the objectively good guys.
There are still good critiques of Amerikan culture at the series progresses. But one must live with that 👆 bullshit in the show.