BLM+Maga+NBA?! Marvel "Body Shaming" Because Actor Joined a Gym? Millennials & Gen Z "Running out of Shows to Stream" (The Five For 10/29/21)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
One note before we begin.
After trying (and trying again) to move to Twitter’s new Revue newsletter platform..I gave up. It’s just too buggy.
Unless you hear different, The Five will continue to send from Substack every Tuesday and Friday at noon CST.
If you read The Five by clicking social media links…you never know when the algorithms will change. Subscribe (for free) below and receive this publication via email.
It’s Friday, so let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
This week, Yahoo completely jumped the shark and went into full blown tin-foil-hat territory:
When you are an NBA star whose season is ripped from ex-President Donald Trump's Jan. 6 playbook, you are doing something wrong. Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving should reconsider the company he is keeping.
In a scene reminiscent of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol nine months earlier, protesters chanting "no vaccine mandate" and "let Kyrie play" pushed past a barricaded Barclays Center entrance before Sunday's game against the Charlotte Hornets, forcing security to lock down the arena. One was armed with a pair of baseball bats. Another sported a swastika. Most were vocally anti-vaccination. No one was hurt, thankfully.
Irving, an opponent of New York City's COVID-19 vaccination requirement to play in Brooklyn, was nowhere to be seen on Sunday, also barred from the premises and mute to his 26 million followers on social media.
Irving claims to be "a voice for the voiceless," or at least that is what anonymous sources close to him had us believe in a story leaked to The Athletic's Shams Charania earlier this month. When Irving has lent his voice, he has spent an inordinate amount of time nonsensically circling a stance sans supporting evidence.
In light of Sunday's events, consider Irving's 25-minute anti-media rant on Instagram Live on Oct. 13. Long after he declared, "I do not talk to pawns," Irving again described the media as "puppets" to his 15.4 million Instagram followers, repeating in one form or another, "Nobody's going to hijack my voice. Nobody's going to take the power away from me that I have for speaking on these things. ... I'm real enough to stand up when I feel like I'm being put in an f'ed up position. ... I'm not going to be used as a person in this agenda."
Too late. Irving's voice was hijacked Sunday and leveraged for an anti-vaccination agenda, like it or not.
Observations:
A. Irving is losing $17 million in salary by sitting out this season, has not spoken negatively of anyone else, and has simply stood by what his principals. This level of rage coming from the media is…completely unreasonable. Whether or not you agree with Kyrie, he’s been nothing but respectful and is living out his values at great personal cost. Throughout this time, detractors have pointed to Irving’s time as a flat-earther (he believed the earth was literally flat) before changing his mind. Stupid? Yes. But neither a history of (one of the more odd) conspiracy theories nor Irving’s decision to peacefully sit out the season justify Yahoo’s libel against the NBA guard..
B. “reminiscent of the the insurrection at the U.S. Capital nine months earlier.” Really? Less than a dozen protestors…pushed on a gate. For less than 60 seconds. Then stopped when they were asked. If anything happened beyond that, I can’t find video evidence. The behavior was inappropriate, and likely intimidated Barclay’s staff, but calling this an “insurrection” is akin to a Karen yelling at a fast food manager over cold fries “an uptick in violence.”
C. “Irving claims to be a ‘voice to the voiceless’ or at least that’s what anonymous sources had us believe in a story leaked..” So, an anonymous comment, in another publication…is now a credible source in the eyes of one of the world’s biggest media outlets? Great. Journalism is going so well in 2021. And even if Irving sees himself this way…who cares?
D. “…voice was hijacked Sunday and leveraged for an anti-vaccine agenda.” Ummm…yup. He gave up $17 million to not get the vaccine. That’s a rather obvious “anti-vaccine” stance.
E. There’s no much “real” news in this story, but perhaps the most noteworthy came from Newsday sports columnist Barbara Barker:
The Kyrie Irving story is significant, not because of Irving. Or basketball. Or the vaccine…but because it’s yet another incident where MAGA and BLM supporters found common cause, in a common space.
Whether or not you agree with that…it is news.
Unlike that absolute garbage Yahoo ran.
As I have stated before, some kind of political realignment is happening. I'm not even going to try to predict what that will look like…I’ll just observe in real time.
And whatever is happening…it happened a little more at the Barclays Center this week.
[two]
One of the largest YouTubers covering film and TV criticized the new Marvel movie Eternals (out Nov. 5) because…she takes issue with the fact that one of the stars hired a trainer and got in good shape could cause “body issues” in the audience.
From Grace Randolph’s YouTube review:
Kumail Nanjani is fantastic.
But there's also the square jawline I the room, and that's that Nanjani looks totally different.
The comedian has been turning himself into an action star. He has a whole new face and body. Now to be fair, some women have basically gotten new bodies for decades thanks to plastic surgery. Two examples are Megan Fox and Kathy Hilton.
It's believed that what Nanjani did was internal. One has to wonder the body image issues and potential harm this could cause for men of all ages because Nanjani was able to do this as a fully formed adult, not something as an adolescent, who see this movie.
He’s a shiny example that's considered by many people of a path not to go down. He could cause significant harm to people as an example.
To get ripped…Nanjani A). got a trainer and worked out four days a week and B). quit eating crap.
I dug a bit deeper, and found out that Nanjani followed an intermittent fasting (IF) plan, where a person eats the same number of calories in a smaller window per day. Randolph, apparently, equates this with anorexia or bulimia.
As with any diet, you’re going to find “experts” for and against IF, just as you’re going to find experts for and against…veganism…paleo…running marathons…Crossfit…pick your “healthy” thing, and somebody online is going to say it’s transformative, and another “expert” is going to tell you it’s bad. If you’re looking for a down-the-middle source, Harvard calls IF “save and effective, but really no more effective than any other diet.”
Randolph has a powerful voice online and, anecdotally, a rather young audience (she mainly covers comic book films and other teen fare), so it’s particularly disturbing to see her attack on…good personal habits.
Raised in a Shia Muslim in Pakistan (where most Muslims are Sunni, making him a religious minority), Nanjani relocated to the U.S. to attend college in Iowa. From there, he was nearly kicked out of his family for marrying a non-Muslim (which is covered in the movie The Big Sick, for which Nanjani earned an Oscar nod for “Best Original Screenplay” and fought his way up through Hollywood, where there’s certainly not an abundance of roles for Arabs.
For all of this personal sacrifice and succeeding against the odds, it’s a sad commentary on America that one of our nation’s biggest movie reviewers puts him in the “oppressor” category…for joining a gym.
For the past few years “speech is violence” is an idea that’s made it’s way into the common lexicon.
I guess the next thing that’s “violence” is…being a person with goals, with a high degree of self discipline to achieve them.
The oppression hierarchy is strange indeed when a minority, immigrant actor who has overcome many difficult circumstances in his life can be demonized, simply for putting in the work.
[three]
Gen Z and Millennials are running out of TV and movies to stream.
As supply chain shortages from pandemic fallout are being felt everywhere, subscribers of streaming services seem to be feeling their own shortages as well. Concerns circulated earlier this year over whether or not streaming services would suffer as the result of the production slowdown in the entertainment industry.
Recent findings from CivicScience found that subscribers of streaming platforms may still be feeling the effects. In a survey of more than 1,380 streaming subscribers, nearly 30% of people who stream content feel they are frequently running out of content to watch, while more than 30% report they sometimes run out of content.
The study also found that people don’t want to go to the movie theater any more, with top-tier films hitting services like HBO Max.
With more than 500 new scripted shows released per year (this doesn’t include reality TV, movies and documentaries), I found this study to be baffling. I’d like to watch a lot more shows and movies than I get to (including many covered in The Five), but most of my time is spent working day job, side hustle, tech startup, writing, doing family stuff and that general bucket of adult crap that’s necessary (like planting grass in the back yard).
The average Millennial spends 18 hours per week watching TV.
Excessive screen time is tied to chronic pain, depression and lower functional IQ.
TV is great…in moderation.
Not sure I’ve met a happy, fulfilled person consuming a part time job’s worth of screen time per week.
[four]
The World Series between the Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves is currently tied 1-1, with game 3 at 7pm tonight, and both teams are seen by “evil” as one faction of the public.
The Astros have a nasty habit of…cheating…in the modern era. The Braves are located in Atlanta (obviously) which lost this year’s All Star game due to the MLB pulling the event after a voter law change in the state.
Unfortunately, this continues the trend of “everything being politicized.”
Part of what holds society together are common past times and non-controversial topics of conversation that allow us to build connections with co-workers, neighbors and strangers through casual banter.
College and pro sports…no longer fit into those categories.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup.
Army of Thieves hits Netflix today, a prequel to polarizing Zombie/casino robbery horror/heist mashup Army of the Dead from polarizing director Zack Snyder (300, Justice League). Unlike the shoot-em-up released this spring, Army of Thieves lives in a more traditional heist movie space closer to Oceans 11, albeit this space is filled with the undead bumbling around a bank vault. The Rotten Tomatoes score is currently 73% at the time of this writing, slightly higher than the original film. Nathalie Emmanual (Game of Thrones, Fast & Furious series) and German newcomer Matthais Schweighofer (who also fills the director’s chair) reprise their roles. Trailer here.
The full trailer for The Wheel of Time dropped for Amazon’s big swing into the fantasy genre, and it looks cool (and expensive…and expensively cool). Streaming on Amazon Prime video in November. Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl, Pride & Prejudice) leads the cast.
Not to be outdone, Netflix dropped the trailer for season two of The Witcher, the adaptation of a series of Polish novels that inspired a hit video game franchise. Henry Cavill (Zack Snyder’s Justice League, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) reprises his role as the dual sword wielding monster hunter.
This one’s pretty meta…Disney is doing a movie, about a toy (Buzz Lightyear) in another movie series (Toy Story). Lightyear is the feature film the Buzz Lightyear toy in Toy Story is based on…in Toy Story. Confused yet? Anyway, the trailer looks awesome. Tim Allen (Home Improvement, The Santa Clause) voiced the original Buzz Lightyear, errr, Buzz the Toy…but now Chris Evans (Captain America: the Winter Soldier, Avengers Endgame) takes over the role…but it’s not a “replacement,” because this is movie Buzz. Not toy Buzz. Duh.
(Extremely) long running animated comedy South Park will air a “post-COVID” special on November 25th on Paramount+. The animated series has already been renewed through 2027, which will be the 30th anniversary of the show.
Mega producer Shonda Rhimes (who created Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal before defecting from broadcast TV and launching the streaming hit Bridgerton for Netflix) has announced her next project, Inventing Anna, the true story of a journalist (Anna Chlumsky—Veep, My Girl) investigating German heiress Anna Delvey (Julia Gardner of Ozark fame), who is allegedly sweeping through the New York social scene and allegedly defrauding banks, hotels, and city elites. The miniseries doesn’t hit Netflix until sometime in 2022—but you can expect this one to be a big hit. No trailer yet, but Netflix did release a first photo—featuring Gardner looking unrecognizable from her Ozark character.
MUSIC NEWS: Legendary rapper/iconic producer Dr. Dre is working on new music…that will live inside a Grand Theft Auto video game. The long running game series, based around organized crime, puts the player behind the wheel of various (illegally obtained) vehicles, complete with radio stations. To hear the new music, players will have to collect in-game tokens to play the unreleased songs. Whether that will entice or annoy fans is yet to be seen, but it is a novel approach.
MOVIE PICK: After recommending the Ridley Scott directed medieval epic The Last Duel a week ago…I had to reach back to…my other favorite Ridley Scott directed medieval epic, Kingdom of Heaven. Set during the Crusades, the film is a nearly perfect mix of blockbuster action and a tight script that dives into philosophy and the consequences of virtue (and lack thereof). The cast includes Orlando Bloom (Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean), Eva Green (Casino Royale, 300: Rise of an Empire), Liam Neeson (Taken, Schindler’s List) and Edward Norten (The Italian Job, Birdman). For whatever reason, this movie just didn’t draw at the box office in 2005, but it’s aged well. Go for the director’s cut…yes, it’s 3 hours 10 minutes…but this one is a masterpiece.
MUSIC PICK: Emily Scott Robinson’s sophomore record Traveling Mercies ranked up there with hearing songwriters like Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem, Mat Kearney, Bear Bryant of NEEDTOBREATHE, Patty Griffin, etc. (Start with that one).
Then check out ESR’s new record, American Siren, out today.
Some of the sharpest songwriting I’ve heard in 2021, an opinion shared by Saving Country Music and NPR.
NEW MUSIC: Ed Sheeran goes full pop with his new album = (Equals). The War on Drugs continues their Springsteen meets fuzzed out rock sound on I Don’t Live Here Anymore. The soundtrack to the upcoming Netflix western film The Harder They Fall, out today, features Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Ceelo Green, and several others. 90’s rocker Tori Amos returns with Ocean to Ocean. I’m a week late on this one, but Lan Del Rey’s second album of 2021, Blue Bannisters, is another solid entry into the singer/songwriter’s discography.
Until the next one,
-sth