Someone online recently asked me in a forum why I watch Asian movies and series, which I do almost exclusively these days. This is personal preference, something we're all still entitled to (I hope.)
Western movies and shows don't appeal to me. Take all the movies and shows about comic book characters. Everyone loves them, yes? Well, I stopped reading comic books when I was about eight years old. I didn't care for the ridiculous costumes, unlikely powers, misogyny and silly plots. I moved on to real books at the library and never once looked back or missed comic books.
Side note: I have no problem with adults enjoying movies based on their childhood heroes. I did think it was ridiculous when comic books were rebranded as graphic novels, however. I've been writing novels professionally since 1998. Comic books are not novels.
I have watched a couple of the Avenger movies, mostly because everyone else in the family wanted to see them and I couldn't think of an excuse to get out of it. I admit, I was also curious to see if I was wrong in dodging the whole genre. I fell asleep halfway through both.
Any movie or television show that sneers at people who are intellectually disabled isn't funny to me. I've been accused of having no sense of humor because of this, but I have been bullied most of my life by people who do think this kind of humor is funny, so I'm happy to skip it. As someone who has had to treat ER victims of pranks and stunts gone wrong, I also think the movie and TV treatment of intellectually disabled characters is sad, mean, and really repulsive.
I flatly refuse to watch drug-themed TV shows, or any production that features a criminal as a hero or anti-hero or whatever. This also relates to my experiences in the medical field. When you've picked up enough deceased drug addicts and transported them to the morgue, you do not want to cheer on the drug dealers, mobsters or any anti-hero. I don't find their antics entertaining; I think they should go to jail for life.
Some thoughts on what I do like to watch: Say what you will about the quality of Asian movies and shows, but most have intelligent scripts featuring inventive plotlines. There are plenty that I absolutely love and watch over and over: Happiness, Are You Human Too?, Doom at Your Service, Goblin and The King ~ Eternal Monarch to name a few. The romances in particular may seem chaste to Westerners, but the emotional portrayals are off the charts because these shows don't rely on nudity and sex scenes, I think. Once you've become a fan of Asian productions it's very hard to go back to watching Western stuff.
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