Beginning to Critically Analyze Media

The media we engage with can impact our opinions, our perceptions of others and of historical events, our ideals and morals. Media exists within our political landscape and is not impervious to the biases we have, but can also influence and change our society - for better or for worse. However, I often find myself unable to articulate why media is “good” or “bad,” and why I like or dislike it. Websites like letterboxd and goodreads allow regular people to catalogue film and literature (respectively) and describe what they like or don’t like about it. Engaging with media more critically than observing it on a surface level and forcing yourself to write about it can be a useful exercise, which is why I made a https://letterboxd.com/brokeing/ to keep track of films I enjoy. Writing reviews is a bit daunting, especially when other people can easily see them. As a result, I decided to write a blog post about movies and shows I enjoy, and why I like them (and why I stopped liking them, in some cases). My goodreads is rather neglected - I haven’t read for leasure

Doctor Who

Doctor who is easily one of my favourite shows that I watched as a teenager. The first “new who” season came out in 2005, but I didn’t begin to watch it until at least a decade after that. Watching a show with 2005 visual effects in 2015 is a bit comical - they’re very obviously not good. What I liked about doctor who was that, for the time, it was very progressive. I watched ten seasons of the show but there are times where it fell off. While I typically rewatch shows, there are entire seasons of Doctor Who I avoid.

Season 1 was really very good, but the actor who played the doctor was changed out too soon. The doctor regularly “regenerates” from one actor into another so the show can continue for years without casting issues. This particular regeneration was supposedly rushed due to differences in opinion of the production team and the actor who played the doctor in season 1 (Christopher Eccleston). I was disappointed by the change, but season 1 was excellent regardless. The doctor shows his new travel companion, Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), completely different eras than the one shes grown up in.

The result is a significant number of episodes that deal with issues we still have in our society now. Issues such as coporate overreach, gender discrimination, anti-immigrant sentiment, and racism are all discussed, but from a perspective that is decoupled from the specific issues we’re dealing with. Why are large coporations and wealthy individuals influencing news and public policy bad for society? If you talk about Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos, or Amazon and health insurance companies, people might have their opinions coloured by public opinion. But in a futuristic setting, where no one in the show is exactly equivalent to our circumstances, it’s much more obvious to see why it’s bad. Being able to make people understand why there are problems with our society in a way thats decoupled from specific people and organizations is really powerful and can genuinely change public opinion for good.

The main issue with the show is it changes writers and producers often - which results in inconsistencies between the characters in some episodes. There are also cases where a writer completely misunderstands the morals and opinions of the doctor and writes episodes that openly contradict previous episodes. This is fine when it’s minor inconsistencies between different doctors with different personalities, but when one doctor is deeply suspicious of corporations claiming to be benevolent and another is celebrating mega-companies, the difference is obvious and off-putting for the audience. Changes in the doctor also are sometimes rushed and the subsequent writing of episodes suffers. This is seen in season 2, where although David Tennant is great as the doctor, the episodes don’t have high rewatch value or really fully feel like they have underlying messages. Some episodes make good character pieces for understanding the morals and values of those in the show, but other than the few episodes that fall into that category the season is dull and lacks the moral dilemmas and difficult decisions seen in season 1. I’m optimistic for the future of the show and where it will lead, despite bad writing in the more recent seasons.