This is also why a lot of recent films have absolutely tanked in viewership lately. Everything just seems like preaching and it can be difficult to watch even if you agree with the message.

I'm getting near middle aged and have started watching more of the 90s scifi (with some good modern shows as well) when I just want to escape for a bit. I just started rewatching Farscape again. What a bizarre/wild ride.

Farscape is on my list. I've watched DS9 and Babylon 5 with my spouse in the last few years, and we both enjoy it very much.

> Everything just seems like preaching and it can be difficult to watch even if you agree with the message.

Maybe this is more accurate to how I feel. DS9 and B5 had a lot of plot lines that would probably be called political, but were abstracted away and never felt like I was being force fed political ideology, it was more of an exploration of those ideas.

Babylon 5 is the best science fiction series ever IMO (if you can make it all the way through). The first season was especially campy, but the world building, geopolitics (not politics, but how the alien species interact), storytelling, and philosophy are all very thought-provoking. Yeah it had amazing space battles, but where it shines the most is in the dialogue. I still get chills to this day from some of the discussions. The show is even better on a second or tenth watch as all the foreshadowing is so apparent.

I thoroughly enjoyed DS9 as well, but outside of some things like Quark and Garrak, I feel it to sometimes be a pale imitation of B5.

Farscape is just freaking weird, but just so much fun. The characters have no restraints on emotion. There is no chain of command.

Stargate SG-1 and all the spin offs are also extremely good and the only science fiction show my wife could really get into. If you haven't watched it yet...well then you have like 18 seasons and a few movies to get through if you count all the TV shows.

The amount of polemic going up is probably because creators are worried with the way things are going that more people just wanting to sit back and not think about the world’s problems.

I don't think that people don't want to think about the world's problems. We get that 24/7 it seems. Rather, people need a way to relax and have normally gotten that through books, TV, movies, and games.

Now all of those formats (ESPECIALLY books) have always had ones that were QUITE political, but there was also a lot of content that was just for relaxing and escaping from the reality of the world which has always sucked. Recently, it seems like they've started really ramping up the political content in many movies, shows, and games and some people certainly enjoy that, but then again...a lot of people don't like being preached to in every aspect of their lives.

I just don't see it. With the exception of children's cartoons/shows, there's just always been political stuff. Any USA show with a black family dealt with racism, and if they were wealthy, not being 'black enough'. Poor families like in Roseanne were dealing with layoffs and hoping that the trickle down effect of Reaganomics would kick in any day now.

Looney tunes, Animaniacs, some SNL skits, Blue's Clues- these all had that lack of present day political stuff, but even something as light as The Drew Carey Show had themes about stuff like political correctness in the office place, and cross-dressing/genderqueer folks.

> I want escapism

I mean going by the highest grossing movies of the year you got plenty to choose from. Other than barbie (which I would argue is not super deep in terms of politics anyway) the rest are all escapism: Super Mario Bros, Fast and furios 10, guardians of the galaxy 3, spiderverse 2, mission impossible, quantumania, little mermaid and elemental are all extremely light in terms of politics.

The three movies with "heaviest" political message are oppenheimer, barbie and even then in case of oppie the message is "mcarthyanism was paranoid and political engagement was stiffled as well as weaponised for personal and selfish goals" certainly not a super crazy political opinion that america's red scare went too far. And in terms of Barbie its mostly surface level "its not easy to be a woman" and capitalism takes advantage of people. But saying "self actualisation is hard with economic forces pushing against you, and some parts of the patriarchy have a compounding effect on women in terms of how difficult it is" is incredibly milktoast feminism even if its pushing the boundries in a movie that is essentially a toy ad that lasts 2 hours.

I don't know what kind of media you think does not allow Escapism and its so absolutely drenched in political content that is impossible to enjoy.

Most emmy noms went to Succession, a shakespearean tale of rich brats picking on each other for father approval and Last of Us, a zombie show about a father daughter found family that shows humans are the worst threat and not the zombies. Neither seems incredibly political.

Videogames this year, top of the crop were Baldur's gate 3, Zelda and Spiderman 2. One is a DnD campaign about power, world domination and brain washing aliens. Another is Ganon is back, you are the hero go make a car and kill him and the last one is Spiderman saves new york from the same guys he has fought since the 1960s.

What is this escapism that existed in the 90s that no longer exist and where is the political undercurrent in all mainstream media that makes it so hard to escape into?