The Ups and Downs of Entertainment in 2020

It may seem a bit late for this to come out 3 months after 2020 ended, but this came about after a period of reflection. 2020 may have been the year that shocked the world, but not every result that came out of it was uniformly negative. This is especially apparent in the entertainment industry, where there were some amazing benefits and yet some dreadful lows.

The entertainment scene may have been really whacked in the face by the pandemic (especially in aspects like physical art and comedy), but films, TV and video games all had unique results coming from them. Being mediums can that can generally be done without the huge crews that COVID stymies, they can adapt and remain constant throughout depending on if moneymaking is the key goal of the film. However, this doesn’t mean everything was roses, there were some truly bottom-level lows in 2020, starting with…

Down: The disgusting ethics of the film industry

The major film industry has been utterly raked over the coals in recent years with the MeToo movement and ludicrous amounts of scandal. And of course, 2020 was no different. But this time, it felt like it was on another level.

The remake of Mulan[1], for instance – normally a joyous tale of hope and inspiration – was review-bombed when it was learned that it was shot in the region where Uyghurs are being kept in mass concentration camps (with Disney fully aware and supported by the Chinese government)[2]. Add to that the lead actress supporting police brutality in Hong Kong, and the movie was practically set on fire before it was released.

Or how about Wonder Woman 1984[3], a movie which depicted racism towards Arabic people and a rape scene with almost casual disinterest[4]? Or 365 Days[5], a rape-justifying pile of drivel released by the largest streaming service in the world? Or Ready Player Two[6] (not a movie, but also counting), which contains some of the most disgusting and awkward tokenism in any piece of media[7]?

Perhaps worst of all, Sia’s Music[8] shows that no matter how condescending, cruel, misguided or just wrong a project is, major studios and producers (including the producer of Being John Malkovich and Her) will mindlessly throw money at it. It’s genuinely shaking to see such indifference to how people will react to things, and one thing we must lose from years after 2020.

Down: TV utterly falls over

With shows like Game of Thrones, Fleabag, Veep, Chernobyl and Watchmen ending in 2019, TV had a huge void to fill in 2020. While animated shows like Bojack Horseman, Rick and Morty and others were able to power through the virus and warm up 2020, the results were…mixed, overall.

The Emmys were immediately wrapped in controversy for ignoring many truly great series like Pose, I May Destroy You and Never Have I Ever (which coincidentally star people of colour in the leads…hmm), in favour of some truly odd choices. Additionally, the Golden Globes were widely memed for not only a similar lack of representation, but also for nominated Emily in Paris[9] – a boring, objectively bad show whose cute cultural pretense would immediately drop if it changed setting to an Asian or African country[10].

Beyond that, what TV shows did come out in 2020? You don’t know, because there were barely any that were really widely reported that weren’t massive memes (Emily in Paris, Bridgerton, The Mandalorian) or already established (Ozark, Succession etc.). Aside from animated shows like Bojack Horseman (which were again ignored by major award associations in favour of easy nominations), nothing memorable came out of the year…except for the really bad.

In one of the most uniting moments in internet history, everyone descended onto the new series of Doctor Who to tear apart every aspect of it[11]. And even sadder, it was entirely justified by the terrible quality of the new show, which sucks all the importance about a show that is an inspiration to many children and a mainstay influence on people’s lives.

Down: AAA gaming industry becomes laughing-stock

Oh my god…I’m just gonna dot point this one.

- The Last of Us Part 2[12], already receiving vitriol for the choices taken with the story, took more damage when stories of the toxic crunch culture within Naughty Dog Studios broke (crunch culture is forcing unpaid overtime and overwork to get a product out). This led to the game being review-bombed on MetaCritic (currently at 5.7/10, at one point being 3.0/10[13]), as well as further criticism over the tokenistic and poor way that the game handled transgender characters.

- Doom Eternal[14] – two problems here. First of all, mistreating your composer by not allowing him to mix his tracks, so he publicly leaves your company on Twitter[15]. AND screwing up the Digital Rights Management and leaving players open to security breaches[16].

- Half-Life: Alyx[17] – Despite the game being utterly amazing, Valve was highly flogged for releasing a VR only game despite the huge audience for Half-Life (proven by the massive amount of people playing 2020’s Half-Life remake Black Mesa). The VR-only nature of the game infuriated some fans so much that even Half-Life fans on YouTube (like Bolloxed[18] and GManLives[19]) have high criticism for it.

- Halo Infinite[20] – Alongside creating the best meme of 2020 with “Craig”[21], the upcoming Halo Infinite has now gone through 3 different creative directors, massive reworkings and a lot of criticism from the internet[22]. Projected to be the most expensive game of all time at 500 MILLION DOLLARS, I have no doubt that it will just fail.

- Godfall[23] – An embarrassment of a video game in every way and a humiliation for Sony over PlayStation 5 exclusives[24].

- The PlayStation 5 in general, being sold en masse to scalpers and still being unavailable 6 months after premiering[25].

- Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla[26] – Ubisoft had to completely overwrite the creative direction team of this game after mass allegations of sexual assault towards the company. Even then, those executives removed were paid massive bonuses, and the game still came out awful[27].

- Deadly Premonition 2[28] – A game so bad in presentation and writing (including more mistreatment of trans characters) that completely failed to understand why the first game was so popular.

- Avengers[29] – I’ll leave a link to an hour-long video explaining everything wrong with the game. You’re welcome[30].

- The CEOs of EA and Blizzard firing many of their employees and taking huge pay rises (somehow still not criminal)[31]

- Everything about Cyberpunk 2077[32] – the horrible bugs, the unplayable nature of the game, the poor treatment of trans characters (real motif this year), the crunch culture and assault in CD Projekt Red and ultimately not living up to expectations[33].

Well, at least Spider-Man: Miles Morales[34] and Ghost of Tsushima[35] was good, right?

UpDown: Fans show their influence

The power of the proletariat has always been important in any good study of either capitalist or Marxist philosophies, and 2020 off in a positive way – but also a potentially toxic way.

The confirmation of the Snyder Cut[36] (despite ultimately being a good film) was made as a result of not just fan petitioning, but legitimately toxic harassment and poor behaviour on the part of fans. If this were to happen again, it could ultimately be for a film which forced the director to cut out unsavoury elements which could have serious real-world ramifications, like sexist or racist content. Additionally, studios could be influenced to appease fans with negative content to avoid such a scenario happening again.

But fan influence and perseverance also showed a brighter side with the release of Black Mesa, a remake of 1998’s Half-Life[37]. Made entirely by fans with only devotion and their own time to give, Black Mesa[38] is a remarkable tribute to one of the most influential games of all time, but also a testament to how positive fan behaviour can better a project. This can of course go the other way with terrible fan games (looking at you, Cinematic Mod and Hunt Down the Freeman), but still stands as a mild positive.

UpDown: People adapt to the pandemic – for better and for worse

Filmmakers adapting to awful situations is nothing new, and is normally encouraged. Exploiting that situation for cheap thrills and potentially dangerous consequences is less okay.

Take for instance Songbird[39], a Netflix original written in response to the pandemic showing a dystopian future under COVID lockdown. Beyond being just a terrible film overall, Songbird promotes legitimately dangerous conspiracy theories about COVID-19 (such as that lockdown is pointless as the virus will mutate so quickly, even though that’s scientifically impossible) and has been exploited by several right-wing sites. Same goes for Locked Down[40], a shitty heist movie set during COVID that really messed up its exploration of pandemic angst.

But the fact that some filmmakers have used the pandemic responsibly and just went ahead to make their movies without exploiting it is also heartwarming, as it means that genuinely well-crafted movies can come out of it. Host[41], a movie conceived and shot entirely during COVID, was the highest rated film of 2020 on Rotten Tomatoes (with all 85 reviews being positive), while Malcolm and Marie[42] showed that major studios can make a movie in bad conditions without exploiting anything.

Now for explicit ups…

Up: More films (especially indie films) get more influence

This can be seen by just how many films received Best Picture nominations from critics societies this year. Guess how many?

And many more pages after this one

64. That’s 64 different films (from 66 directors) who get their voices out there and heard, all for catalysing the next great leap forward. By comparison, the next highest amount in recent years was 50 in 2016.

Why is this great? It means that there’s far more variety and entertainment for people to latch onto, and that critics are considering more that just their typical preferences for films. Obscure foreign language movies like About Endlessness[43]standing next to big-budget tentpoles like Soul[44] gives a genuine life and variation to the film industry, and makes it more important for more people.

Even better, many of these are independent films that would not normally be considered by critic’s societies beforehand. It gives more power to unique and varied filmmakers who would not ever get chances like this in previous times. Speaking of which…

Up: More minority groups get their voices heard

Out of those 66 directors I mentioned…

- 24 are non-American (British, Russian, Danish, Swedish, Argentinian, Brazilian, Ivorian, French, Italian, Irish, Romanian, Chinese, Canadian, Mexican, Australian and Guatemalan)

- 17 are women (Emerald Fennell, Bonni Cohen, Melina Leon, Regina King etc.)

- 5 are Asian or Asian-American (Rod Lurie, Chloé Zhao, Ramin Bahrani, Lee Isaac Chung, Andrew Ahn)

- 13 are African, African-American or African-British (Steve McQueen, Phillipe Lacote, Regina King, Spike Lee etc.)

- 5 are South American (Edson Oda, Kleber Mendonca Filho, Juliano Dornelles, Melina Leon, Jayro Bustamante)

- And yes, there are two Australians in there (Leigh Whannel and Kitty Green)

As those stats show, minority groups (and Australians) in Hollywood are becoming more and more prevalent in best-of-year lists. That means that more people are seeing their films, voting for them and actively endorsing their content, leading to a richer tapestry for the industry as it goes forward. The Oscars demonstrate this even more, as we’ve had our first Asian-American acting nominee (Steven Yeun in Minari) and the first all-black produced Best Picture nominee (Judas and the Black Messiah)[45].

Meanwhile, while TV is still struggling with representation as the Emmys and Golden Globes show, indie game developers are really getting their game on and speaking louder than the triple-A gaming industry. Indie game Hades[46] received multiple Game-Of-Year Awards (including being named #1 game of the year by the gospel that is Jim Sterling[47] as well as the BAFTAs[48]), and many other publications have had their GOTY lists stocked with indie titles from non-crunching, non-corrupt, non-abusive developers (is this really our standard now?).]

Up: Both streaming services and cinemas will become better

Out of the 64 films I mentioned earlier, 33 of them were released in the U.S. via streaming platforms like Shudder, Netflix, HBO Max and Amazon. Now that filmmakers are realising the power and efficacy of streaming platforms (with Martin Scorsese transferring all his future projects there), this year is the ultimate proof that streaming is the best way to get content to viewers, especially overseas and in remote areas. This also is advantageous for VPN companies and other providers, and becomes even better if all of these companies choose to use environmentally sound tactics.

As for movie theatres, they’ll still be supported by those who enjoy the traditional movie experience (such as myself). For those in areas without internet, they can be the only way to watch movies, but more importantly, they provide a better experience – more memorable and certainly more social. And now that movies are being put on streaming, theatres can play films more times a day and even put on different indie films and classic films, potentially further promoting artistic merit that wouldn’t be otherwise shown.

It could go in any direction, but I reckon it’s going in a good one.

Well, that was a ludicrously brief summary of entertainment in 2020. It was bad, but it had some pretty neat repercussions. I don’t know what the outcome or response to this would be, but, to quote The Outsider from Dishonoured, I expect a good show.

What did you guys think of this? Leave your comments down below.

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