#and full disclosure i'm p sure mike's was sponsored content

[ryssabrin]

last year i decided to stop watching youtube content about media that basically amounted to "reviews" where the creator just makes fun of and dogs on whatever they're reviewing for 20 minutes. i found a new channel called mike's mic (highly recommend) that instead does these light hearted goofy videos going over media he likes that while yes might not be objectively amazing but it's fun! and he can make jokes that feel like he's laughing with and not at the media in question. he talks about things he likes through the frame of their cultural relevance to him and he's a delight to watch.

it just made me realize how much media criticism i was consuming was always more through the frame of "how can i show that i'm better and smarter than this media?" and to a lesser but no less frustrating extent, the lens of "how can my criticism show that i have the Correct Progressive Opinions on this topic?" like watching eddy burback's video on the glee pilot and seeing him lose his mind over how "problematic" it is and scratching my head because yeah? it's campy and over the top on purpose? for comedy? because it's a comedic show?

it also leads to a lot of bad faith reads on media that barely take into account authorial intent at all. all you can focus on is how you would have preferred the story go instead of thinking about why the writer wrote it the way they did and what they wanted to say. i've seen criticisms of dav that are straight up "i just can't wrap my head around this theme" essentially because it wasn't the theme and story they were expecting. and when anyone (gently) tries to explain it to them it becomes "how dare you talk down to me" as if trying to speak up for what the game could actually mean to people is somehow insulting.

social media in general fosters an environment of one-up-manship in trying to having the hottest take possible and i don't think it's actually making media comprehension or criticism any better. you don't have to outsmart the media and you won't go to jail for liking something even if it's not the most clever thing on the planet, it's fine lol.

Watching creators across the internet yap themselves into hating this game for no reason is actually so sad