Back in 2015, when I was in Class 11, I used to be obsessed with Hollywood movies. I would crap on people who loved Bollywood and I compare my taste in movies with theirs. To tell you the truth, I wanted to be superior just because I had watched a few Steven Spielberg or Stanley Kubrick movies.
Little did I know that I was living in an illusion, which soon faded in 2017 when America became divided with its politics. It was around that time when Hollywood celebrities started giving political speeches at award shows.
That is when I realised something — award shows have become something that Hollywood enjoys itself. Oscars and Golden Globes have become self-congratulatory events where Hollywood elites give their poor political opinions that are so out of touch with reality that they only create hostilities amongst the masses.
It’s not surprising that the rating of such award shows is declining. When I found that Hollywood gave a standing ovation (and an Oscar) to Roman Polanski (who fled the country for committing a sexual crime against a minor) or let people like Harvey Weinstein abuse his power and influence, the image of Hollywood in my head shattered and it became an ugly state of cow dung.
My love for Hollywood eventually declined. My distaste for Hollywood has come to a point that I barely watch any of its movies (even if they’re good). Superhero movies that have now become a cash-grab for companies like Disney have become complacent.
Every time a Marvel movie or series is released, it just becomes too boring. Avengers Endgame was one of the few Marvel movies I genuinely liked. In the case of the series, Loki was a great show, but these are just exceptions. Most of them are either stale or just too similar. Marvel (and Star Wars) are now Disney’s piggy bank. They will milk the ever-loving heck out of these IPs even if the product turns out to be bad.
The Star Wars sequel trilogy was an example of Disney being disrespectful towards the IP. Even though the shows, the anthology films and the video games might save the fate of Star Wars, everyone’s mouth will be of bad taste because the main movies sucked hard.
Disney’s wokeness attitude has become more and more morally bankrupt with the aftermath of the Mulan Controversy. It’s the same thing with American companies that claim to be woke and then simp to Beijing.
Star Wars is the only reason why I even have Hotstar because I grew up loving this franchise. Speaking of Hotstar, even the OTT platforms have become bland. When I first subscribed to Netflix, I watched great shows like Narcos, Stranger Things, Breaking Bad, etc. It played a huge role when I started to love anime again. Then Mirzapur and Sacred Games changed the Indian scene of the OTTs.
But ever since lockdown, my interest in OTTs started to die too. Other than Scam 1992, My Hero Academia and others, I’ve got disillusioned with OTT platforms. YouTuber Vedant Rusty expressed his concern about how OTTs are becoming a dumpster fire as the competition increases.
I’ve realised that soon enough when Netflix released its live adaptation of one of the most beloved anime shows of all time — Cowboy Bebop. Back in my first year in college, when I watched this show, I fell in love with it; so much so that some of my earlier drawings were of Spike Spiegel (the main character).
So when I watched its live adaptation on Netflix, I found it mediocre. Except for the actors and the soundtrack, the show was so mediocre that I skipped to the last episode only to find more disappointment (because of that, I watched the original anime show again that took me on a nostalgic drive).
I’ve realised that Netflix is just milking on the already-released movies, shows and anime just to exploit the nostalgia for money. This comes from a platform that released Squid Game. This is the type of stuff that EA would do to get money off the players. And then there’s Alt Balaji with its sexualised version of saas-bahu serials. Twitter’s #Boycott rage and other such idiotic acts make me stick to YouTube now.
I might sound like an old man, but I think the condition of the entertainment industry is just degrading (like that of stand-up comedy). I don’t know what the future will be but if they keep doing this, it’s just TV and Bollywood all over again. That was the reason we want to escape from the degradation of TV and Bollywood. Cheers to capitalism (sarcastically).