Argumentative Penguin
1 min readSep 27, 2021

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Think it will depend on the quality of the writing - if a piece of television or theatre has been made to appease the political views of the current zeitgesit, it won't stand the test of time. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air was on nearly 30 years ago and that centred a black family, the Cosby show some time before that, My Wife and Kids a more recent addition - none of those shows seemed to get much of a backlash.... We had 'Desmonds' here in the 1990s too, an excellent TV show.

The quality of the writing in all those shows was subjectively excellent.... but there has been a recent switch towards agitprop theatre and TV. It arrives with a political agenda and it centres it - the programme then becomes divisive because of the political point it makes and the writing is often cumbersome and aimed at an audience who want to use it politically. Whether or not the show is any good is neither here nor there and eventually fades into obscurity because it becomes incredibly unwatchable.

There's nothing wrong with overt didactic messaging being a part of entertainment, but don't expect those who won't appreciate the message to sit through a filmed school assembly and sermon of a worldview they don't necessarily subscribe to. They'll switch off - and you'll end up with different TV channels for different sensibilities instead of high quality and inclusive drama/comedy for all.

Give me Bridgerton over a re-booted Wonder Years any day. :o)

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Argumentative Penguin
Argumentative Penguin

Written by Argumentative Penguin

Playwright. Screenwriter. Penguin. Fan of rationalism and polite discourse. Find me causing chaos in the comments. Contact: argumentativepenguin@outlook.com

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