Television

Honestly, this just kinda helps confirm a suspicion that I've had for a while: that companies intentionally drum up backlash or criticism to boost shows, games and movies which would normally flounder or bomb. While HBO's execs may have been focused on harassing reviewers and random people on the internet, this may just be the tip of the iceberg.

How many people actually cared that Arial was going to be played by a black woman in the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid? I didn't even know they were making one until people started supposedly shitting themselves over the casting choice.

I've heard the Last of Us 2 wasn't very good and had a lot of preachy virtue signalling that came off as ham-fisted pandering. Was it actually bad? Was it good but plagued by totally-real reactionaries? Was it somewhere in between, with a few cringe-inducing scenes but otherwise good gameplay?

How can I know when all the coverage, good and bad, feels uncanny and fake?

How can I trust someone's opinions on something when everything around a piece of media gets blown way out of proportion, with people either hating it with unmatched fury, or sucking it's dick harder than an industrial vacuum chamber?