Should shows have political overtones

I just don't want shows to be turned into US Democratic Party (or other party) advertisements.

Fed, the first part would apply to about 97% of the shows on TV these days promoting some form of a New World Order globalist anti-freedom propaganda and these shows I avoid like Quantico, Designated Survivor, Homeland and Madam Secretary to name a few.

One of the shows that sort of breaks that rule is Tim Allen's Last Man Standing, a big Friday night comedy hit for ABC. The show goes after the left/Democrats and yet I do not hear about many people complaining, unless they are trained to do so by their spiteful professors in college and troll message boards.

Don't watch much TV except for the CW comic shows and any sports that might be on (baseball for this time of year...Yankees for me). And ESPN has gotten political...and aside from the way TV is obtained, it has cost them viewers, millions of dollars and even 100 people had to be laid off.

I grew up in a time without so many cable channels and all the streaming options and things were a little less politically charged. When I speak of comedy I speak of people like Bob Hope and Johnny Carson, two of my idols who went after both parties regardless of who was in the White House and it was done tongue in cheek. When I listen to Bob Hope's radio program on CD I hear those political references and think not much of it because it's part of the nation's history and pop culture. And they weren't meant to force the issue. It was done...FOR LAUGHS.

On LGBT, lots of people 40 years ago were up in arms when Billy Crystal played Jody on Soap, TV's first gay character. Also at the time Three's Company came on where John Ritter (RIP) played Jack Tripper, a man who had to lie about being homosexual so he can stay in the apartment. Both shows I don't think forced the issue. Again, they played for laughs. Then along came Ellen DeGeneres and her coming out which to me changed the game.

Now as an Independent, libertarian, conservative, I do not care if someone is gay. But if you try to force the issue, there's going to be trouble.

We are who we are and we live our lives as we see fit; not to let others in on it.

On Supergirl, the political things were one of the reasons I think this season has been a disappointment for me. Also the focus on relationships outside of Kara and Alex has been detrimental. After the first two episodes, the show began to slip into an abyss. Though shows like Mr and Mrs Mxy, Supergirl Lives, Alex and the first two eps this season focused on adventure and fun and worked for me. Welcome to Earth was far too politically charged regarding immigration. Then I thought, who would believe Supergirl who is from a dead planet would try to harm earth?

To me the showrunners are part of Hollywood's temper tantrum over last Nov. And as far as I go it is petty, childish and must stop. They are whether they know it or not feeding some of the anti-American garbage from groups paid by elites. Memo to Hollywood, watching CNN or reading the NY Times DOES NOT turn you into an expert on everything overnight.

For next season, turn down the politics (not to zero, but a touch here and there) and the soap opera romance, refocus on Alex and Kara as career women. I get too much politics as it is from the corporate news media. Heck I don't even watch that much Fox News Channel either!

It's possible (likely?) I'm just blind to it, but what about this show exactly do people find "political"? Sure, season 1 was heavy on the feminism, season 2 was/is heavy on Sanvers, and there were some not-so-subtle jabs at Trump in Welcome to Earth, but what else?

I think good stories can come from politics. Politics are just part of life. For example, one of my favorite tv shows was Deep Space Nine and some episodes were obviously going for political and historical parallels.

So when they started out this season with aliens being used as a metaphor of immigration, I didn't mind. I think they actually did less with it than they could have. (themes like, okay in an immigration group do some bad apples make everybody look bad, what do you do when people who are also criminals are coming, how much do you fit in or try to fit in, what conflict is there between people who can blend in and those who can't blend in, those are just conflicts that real people have, so why wouldn't it be interesting to have stories about it? same thing with Deep Space Nine and stories about a small country with an unique religion trying to preserve independence while being surrounded by hostile powers, how do you deal with your former oppressors after a violent occupation, how do you deal with former collaborators)

To me those political or historical metaphor storylines are preferable to stories or scenes that directly comment real life politics, simply because they age better. For example, I think Supergirl having to deal with hostile media, with like their version of Fox News or Bill O'Reilly would be an interesting conflict, as long as they set up their own version for it, rather than expecting everybody to get the reference.

I think She Persisted is a good name and if it's gonna reference things that happen in the episode then I don't think that it will age well. If you look at this 5 or 10 years from now you will just think "cool title" without realizing what it references. While something like the make daxam great again joke might sound out of place without the immediate context.

What does speaking out have to do with a tv show? People should speak out, they should get involved in real life politics. By voting, by going to rallies, by becoming politicians themselves in the real and now.

I'm kinda sick of people who act like they are being political when the only thing they do is watch a political tv show.When people spend more time fighting about the characters on a tv show rather than going out and fight the real fight, that always seems embarrassing to me.

TV shows are ersatz activity. You have this people who start like petitions and twitter hashtags on tv shows then they could use the same energy to promote a ballot issue or regional election. But people don't do that, because that's not cool and easy. Real life politics are messy, that's why people run to tv shows and rather argue over fake issues.

And there is nothing wrong with preferring fake issues over real issues as long as people are honest about that being what they are doing. And don't pretend that by fighting these fake issues, they have done their job, that that is more important than caring about real issues. No, people prefer fake issues, because they are clear and easy with clear badguys and you don't have to interact with real people who might have a different opinion for concrete real life reasons. If somebody is genuinely concerned about them coming for you, they should be out there protesting and being an active voter.

People like to construct tv shows at this fake fight, but they don't want to get involved in real, messy politics. Because real life is hard. Arguing about which fictional characters make out on tv hasn't stopped a guy who many people don't like from being elected. This is the real fight people could be fighting. People pat themselves on the back and act like liking a facebook post or tweeting a progressive thing makes them political. It doesn't. Going out and getting elected, or handing out pamphlets and voting and helping people run campaigns, that is what makes you political. People like to live in this fantasy world of perfect, good characters where if you just whine enough to the god of the fictional universe you get what you want. And that is more fun than living in the real world where real people get harmed and have real problems and creating a hashtag campaign for god doesn't actually make the world better. Real life is hard and messy and not as glossy and fun. Pretending that watching a progressive tv show and rooting for progressive couple is some great feat of resistance while around you people vote for bullshit ballot issues that you don't want to think about because real life politics makes ones brain hurt is just self deluding.

I like tv shows and movies and comics. But I'm fully aware that any time and money I'm spending on them is time and money I'm not spending supporting my local politicians and reforming the party I would like to vote for. Fighting over political ground in fake battle fields like tv shows or message boards is just bullshit. People making themselves feel important and like they are being righteous, while real life harm happens under their noses while they are busy complaining about who gets how much screentime.

Don't get me wrong, I like debating fake issues like Star Trek politics or culpability of characters under mind control or without a soul or from an alien planet. But at least I know it's bullshit and shallow entertainment, no better or worse than let's say bowling. And I'm afraid that there are many people who genuinely think that what they are doing is genuine meaningful political activism. It isn't. It's shallow bullshit and running away from the real world because real life has complicated issues and fewer hot righteous people.

As for the writers, from their POV, I think they have to ask themselves, what is this supposed to be? Entertainment? Art? Propaganda?

Please friend, calm a little.

By the way, just because some talk about a TV show right now, does not mean they don't do anything in reality. And no one is fighting a political battle on the forum of this site. I just asked whether this show should be so political. I've stated where I stand on politics to give a clearer view of my take on this particular question, and some others have done the same, but no one has actually argued politics here. I'd know, because normally I get swarmed as soon as I say I'm socialist, if this was political debate.

And you might have misread what brierrose said.

the original Twilight Zone was hugely colonized with politics, by design, Rod Serling decided it was easier to do "difficult material" thru the medium of witches, martians and time travel. The original Star Trek had a definite political profile and in more recent times "Babylon Five"....even "Xena the Warrior Princess" had something of an agenda. I would argue that the more successful sci-fi fantasy shows in the USA tend to have a sort of agenda going on....

JF