I don’t look at internet comments about shows very much anymore. Certainly not going to the comment sections after every episode.
People equate cynicism with being a smart reviewer. Saying everything sucks all the time doesn’t make you smart and it doesn’t make you a critic. The arts are about expression from the creator. They’re not court jesters who exist to attempt to satisfy whatever your own self determined metric of intelligence is supposed to be. These are not fans, but armchair tyrants who get off on declaring, “off with his head”, at every jester who dares to entertain their couch potato throne.
I agree completely, and I think too many online spaces make room for cynicism not realizing that it contributes nothing, and ruins the experience/eventually pushes out of anyone who isn’t cynical.
When I was a mod on /r/StarTrek we had a rule (it’s also thankfully a rule here) “be constructive” which was basically “Criticism is OK but cynicism is not. If you want to present ‘criticism’ you need to behave like a real critic and cite examples, not just rant”. And let me tell you that rule really upset a lot of folks who felt that had a right to pee in the communal pool.
When it comes to science fiction, the problem of leaking online is now so vast and so pernicious it threatens to ruin everything. And it’s more ferocious than ever with Doctor Who. Every decision we ever made, every single plot twist, every single moment, all the way up to the appearance of Billie in the very last seconds of the last series finale, was leaked. It’s absolutely extraordinary, and I swear it did a lot to destroy the profile of the show. It introduces a cynicism among fans, because they’re not surprised by anything any more. Their response to a leak is weariness, an instant assumption that whatever has been leaked won’t work. They instantly imagine the worst version of it, and then, when they eventually see it, it inevitably confirms their bias.
I feel seen.
