Where Is The Powerful, Incisive Social Commentary Found In Classic The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits or Gene Roddenberry Original Space Ace, Star Trek? Too Corporate, Too Safe or Too Lazy?
I broadly agree with you, Will... the risk taking has been bred out of television production, and this for a number of reasons. Science fiction has also suffered in literature because of similar factors. At root are new attempts at enforcing ideological alignment and the associated fear of backlash, which make the media landscape unprecedentedly risk-averse, which paradoxically is more risky in practice than just letting writers explore and experiment.
The political polarisation in the United States has many casualties. Even those shows that are deemed edgy make vague feints at abstract bugbears like 'capitalism', and its easy to score hits when you aren't grappling with issues very deeply. The shows you mention here had the potential to take risks because at the time less attention to ideological conformity was at work in the corridors of network power. Today, everything is a result of layers of approval that stifle innovation.
But to fix this, we have to get to the place whereby we can actually talk about things. As long as the risk of cancellation (in the new sense, not the old network sense!) lingers, we will not see a sci-fi revival.
With respect, I disagree. Shows such as Apple TV's "Severance" are deeply political. Squid Game may be the most brutally honest depiction about the oppression of poor people by rich corporations I've ever seen. And you, yourself, cited out Black Mirror. Major franchises may be politically correct, but sci fi is still politically edgy. You just have to look a bit deeper.
I broadly agree with you, Will... the risk taking has been bred out of television production, and this for a number of reasons. Science fiction has also suffered in literature because of similar factors. At root are new attempts at enforcing ideological alignment and the associated fear of backlash, which make the media landscape unprecedentedly risk-averse, which paradoxically is more risky in practice than just letting writers explore and experiment.
The political polarisation in the United States has many casualties. Even those shows that are deemed edgy make vague feints at abstract bugbears like 'capitalism', and its easy to score hits when you aren't grappling with issues very deeply. The shows you mention here had the potential to take risks because at the time less attention to ideological conformity was at work in the corridors of network power. Today, everything is a result of layers of approval that stifle innovation.
But to fix this, we have to get to the place whereby we can actually talk about things. As long as the risk of cancellation (in the new sense, not the old network sense!) lingers, we will not see a sci-fi revival.
Happy Gregorian New Year!
With respect, I disagree. Shows such as Apple TV's "Severance" are deeply political. Squid Game may be the most brutally honest depiction about the oppression of poor people by rich corporations I've ever seen. And you, yourself, cited out Black Mirror. Major franchises may be politically correct, but sci fi is still politically edgy. You just have to look a bit deeper.