Stuff like Tolkien or C.S. Lewis are obvious, but other authors, movies, music, or entertainment might not be as well known.
So, how about a thread that lists some recommendations for things untouched by modern insanity?
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I'm re-watching Cheers at the moment. If it came out now it would be considered deeply misogynistic and racist. The main thing that Cheers highlights for me is how we went wrong along the way. Dianne, the annoying, liberal, feminist; who's constantly wrong about her opinions, yet never learns from them, is a figure of mockery for everyone in the bar. Not one person takes her seriously, she's constantly ridiculed. Somewhere between now and then people decide to take the Dianne's of the world seriously, and gave them power, leading to society producing many women like her. That decision is one of the many reasons that we are where we are, and that is something which must be remembered is we ever manage to reverse the situation, as it is a mistake that should not be repeated.
Same thing with simpsons. Lisa was obviously insincere in her "activisim" and only wanted attention and aggrandization for herself so she was the butt of a lot of jokes, but in a good natured way. But somewhere along the way that flipped to "lisa is always right".
This is still the highlight of the Simpson’s previous ability to shove Lisa’s BS right back in her face:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fnRt_JEoBRU
The comments to that video are full of quoting Knuckles' feminism potshot at Amy.
Sadly undermined by Knuckles' claim to be a feminist, as if feminism and its obsession with making everything involving an individual woman something that somehow impacts ALL WOMEN isn't the very ideology he's arguing against.
I can't decide if the writers were trying to steal the rational ground and claim it for feminism, or if they were scared and felt that if they didn't have him declare himself a feminst, they'd run the risk of being accused of 'anti-feminism'.
DEFINITELY the latter.
I don't even know what this is from, but I know I have a ton of debt for a stupid degree in a field full of these idiots.
There is no SJW or liberal professor capable of making such a rational critique of their standard operating procedure. They enjoy the smell of their own farts too much.
This is a huge problem that has plagued us for a long time. It's very common to find that historic progressive intellectuals, who are now lauded as saints, were mocked and derided by their contempories. Foucault and Derrida being the most obvious examples. It even applies to the declaration of independence, although I'm still a fan of it as an American.
+1,000,000
Just seeing the thread title I was going to post a rec for Cheers. There are some shows I liked in my youth that have held up like shit, and then on the other end of the spectrum there's Cheers. I think it's gotten better with age, when compared against the crapola on TV these days. The humor - especially in the first 3-4 seasons - is hyper-literate while still being accessible. It's in a completely different universe from whatever today's crop of smirky midwit hipster asshole TV writers are barfing out. I never really thought about the show being especially woke or anti-woke, but it's funny as hell and there's some stuff in it that I'm sure people would get their panties in a wad about today (how homosexuality is dealt with, relatively few black people, etc.). Probably my favorite TV series of all time.
As far as other boomer sitcoms, I'll put in a plug for The Jeffersons and Sanford & Son. Both are basically not a hell of a lot more than insult comedy showcases for their respective stars, but holy shit is it really good insult comedy. Black people ripping on white people, other black people, Latinos, Asians, etc., and we can all laugh about it. Basically how real life should be.
Actually, add "In Living Color" to that list, too. If Fox were to air any Vera De Milo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9pdX_D8eHY) or Men on Films (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4ojGuA33X4) skit in 2021, it would likely end up with their headquarters being burned to the ground, but back in the early '90s this sort of thing was known as "comedy".
As a white person who mocked that BLM Army "bullpup" twat, I dissent. Stupid people of any race/religion/"lifestyle" deserve mockery, and all they can get.
I'd throw Three's Company in as another show that would drive SJWs into a frothing madness, but still holds up in humor and entertainment today.
If you dig fantasy with a comedy/satire bend, I would recommend the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett (RIP GNU TERRY - that'll make sense if you get into the books and his history). Basic upshot is the series starts out as a satire of fantasy tropes in general, but by the third book it starts to take on a life of its own.
It's a world where the land mass is a flat disc, resting on the back of four space-elephants, who are in turn standing on the back of a space sea-turtle that is called The Great A'Tuin. Magic exists (and is very volatile!), and the series opens with us following Rincewind, a middle-aged wizard that effectively failed out of the Unseen University (the wizard's school in Ankh-Morpork, the main city of the region and an analogue for London), inadvertently becoming a guide for the Disc's first tourist. Mayhem ensues.
Other books in the series focus on the guards of the city, the witches that live in the surrounding countryside, the anthropomorphic personification of DEATH (who is looking for an apprentice), and the usual assortment of dwarfs, trolls, vampires, werewolves, and other bits and bobs.
I can't recommend Pratchett's stuff strongly enough. The man had a way with words and a quick wit that will make even a hardened punster groan when they get the jokes.
The Sky Movie adaptations are surprisingly good as well. There's also a few older animations of Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters that might be worth a check, that opening animation is the most 90s thing ever. The Watch was in dev hell for years and came out last month, it's dogshit.
I loved the Sky adaptations, although to me David Jason felt a bit old to be playing Rincewind. Regardless, they were good viewing experiences.
The Watch, on the other hand, can die in a fire. PTerry would be spinning in his grave if he knew what they'd done. As soon as I saw that they were making Cheery non-binary, race-lifting and slimming down Sybil, and generally making a dog's lunch of it, I washed my hands of any interest I previously had in the show.
Seconded. The Discworld books are some of the few that survived various bookshelf cullings in my home. It's easily my favorite book series.
If you think about getting into the series, here's a timeline of books: https://www.discworldemporium.com/content/6-discworld-reading-order
The one-book-stand section for beginners recommends some good ones to get started. Personally I'm partial to Going Postal.
I love that page and the way it breaks down the suggestions! Depending on the person and their tolerance for fantasy tropes, I'll frequently suggest that they skip to Guards! Guards!, and if they like it then they should backtrack and start from The Colour of Magic (with the standard disclaimers of it being not-some-of-his-best-work). I feel that G!G! is early enough in the series that you won't be wondering "who the hell is that person?" when they turn up, but far enough in that they're out of the range of the "ehhhhh"-level writing of the first two books.
One of the things I love about Pratchett is that all his characters are flawed. From the peasants to the gods.It makes for a very relatable and realistic world despite the high fantasy setting.
Also if you like Pratchett you'll probably also like Douglas Adams.
I like the books but they are definitely not "untouched by modern insanity". Each one is full of SJW stuff.
Most movies with Sean Connery or Clint Eastwood.
I'd argue that's a mischaracterization at best.
Will Munny (Eastwood) is a long-ago murderer and outlaw who once again becomes a killer-for-hire on the premise that he's defending the humanity (and not the honor) of a prostitute who had her face ruined by an insulted John, an act that brings her future value as even a prostitute into question.
Because every single character in the story is debased, pernicious or plain murderous in some way, it's an interesting pivot that the prostitute's ruined face is the one value everyone agrees was a wrong that must somehow be righted. Not everyone agrees on how, which is where the central conflict develops.
I watched the Mule the other night and old Clint managed to get away with calling a black couple negros haha.
I only found out a few weeks ago that there was a movie about the Spanish hero, El Cid, who was a great inspiration for people who fought against the Islamic spread in Europe. Heston plays El Cid, and it's supposedly a good movie too, so I really need to get around to watching it.
El Cid is definitely a good movie. Fantastic, even.
Man I'll need to check that out. I member learning about him as a 6 year old when I was playing AoE II. What a chad
Robert Heinlein, any of the nebula/Hugo award winning year end books pre 2013.
If anyone's looking for sci-fi or fantasy literature I'd generally recommend checking out Baen Books' selection. Some literally who tried to cancel them recently so they could use the help, and they have some good stuff. I got the first three Monster Hunter books by Larry Correia from them - haven't read them yet, but I enjoyed his blog in the past.
I just started the 1632 series and it's awesome.
The author made a point that he was sick of authors being grimly cynical and edgy and everyone constantly shitting on blue-collar folks.
I've read dozens of the books they've published, but quality seems to have gone down since Jim Baen died. I'd warn people that if you start any of the older series expect to be disappointed by poor or non-existent conclusions.
Ok thanks! Yes, I meant to bring them up and start supporting them. Why are ether being attacked?
They ran a small internet forum on their site for decades, it had its own small community of regulars and it wasn't very PC - so some nobody, jealous of some of the more accomplished authors published by Baen, tried to cancel them.
This explains what happened: https://monsterhunternation.com/2021/02/16/publishing-house-baen-books-attacked-by-cancel-culture/
This is the whiny bitch that started it: https://www.patreon.com/posts/47582408
And here's some aftermath: https://monsterhunternation.com/2021/02/19/an-open-letter-to-the-old-time-fans-at-worldcon/
Cool. Thanks!
I don't know that Heinlein qualifies for being not woke. I Will Fear No Evil is a tranny fantasy, Friday is pure Girl-Power, the same again for Glory Road. All of his books containing Lazarus Long have enough incest to satisfy G. R. R. M. (Long marries his mother in To Sail Beyond the Sunset.) Beyond This Horizon is a satire of the second amendment and capitalism. Job: A Comedy of Justice is just Atheism+. Heinlein himself toured the USSR during the 60's, and Asimov remarked that Heinlein was a "flaming Liberal" during the 1930's, all of which puts his works in question. That being said, "Inside Intourist", and "Pravda Means "Truth"" are still worth a read, if only to see what is coming for the US. None of this is to say that Heinlein is not one of the Great Science fiction authors, merely that he is not even close to being conservative.
As for the Hugos, don't bother, they have always been woke and they were really bad even before 2013 (John Scalzi was nominated in 2009). I spot checked a few of their earlier years. For example, Ursla K. Le Guin won in 1970 (beating out Larry Nivien), and she is every bit as bad as some of TheImpossible1's "favorite" authors. G. R. R. M. was also getting nominations if not Awards as far back as at least 1975.
If you want fiction that isn't woke, you are gonna have to read stuff that is pre-1960's. Pre-WWII is even better. Some specific examples are Robert E. Howard (Do read his Solomon Kane stories, not just Conan. Don't bother with Conan from other authors.), H. P. Lovecraft, and the greatest science fiction writer: E. E. "Doc." Smith. Read the Lensman series, and the Skylark series for sure.
Yes but A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan are fantastic books. Just don't read any author's notes or forewards
If you don't want to give them any money, there's always a massive collection of sci-fi/fantasy sorted by decade and author on /t/. Think they've finally gotten through the 2000s
I recommend Jeffro's Appendix N series.
http://www.castaliahouse.com/review-the-dying-earth-by-jack-vance/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-three-hearts-and-three-lions-by-poul-anderson/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-high-crusade-by-poul-anderson/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-eyes-of-the-overworld-by-jack-vance/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-a-princess-of-mars-by-edgar-rice-burroughs/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-jack-of-shadows-by-roger-zelazny/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-at-the-earths-core-by-edgar-rice-burroughs/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-pirates-of-venus-by-edgar-rice-burroughs/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-nine-princes-in-amber-by-roger-zelazny/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-coming-of-conan-the-cimmerian-by-robert-e-howard/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-creep-shadow-by-abraham-merritt/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-moon-pool-by-abraham-merritt/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-kothar-barbarian-swordsman-by-gardner-fox/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-changeling-earth-by-fred-saberhagen/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-face-in-the-frost-by-john-bellairs/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-dwellers-in-the-mirage-by-abraham-merritt/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-lest-darkness-fall-by-l-sprague-de-camp/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-blue-star-by-fletcher-pratt/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-kyrik-warlock-warrior-by-gardener-f-fox/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-berserker-by-fred-saberhagen/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-king-of-elflands-daughter-by-lord-dunsany/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-hieros-journey-by-sterling-lanier/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-star-mans-son-by-andre-norton/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-ill-met-in-lankhmar-by-fritz-leiber/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-complete-cthulhu-mythos-tales-by-h-p-lovecraft/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-broken-sword-by-poul-anderson/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-maker-of-worlds-by-philip-jose-farmer/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-sword-of-rhiannon-by-leigh-brackett/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-a-martian-odyssey-and-the-complete-planetary-series-by-stanley-grauman-weinbaum/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-jewel-in-the-skull-by-michael-moorcock/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-trail-of-cthulhu-by-august-derlath/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-swords-against-darkness-iii-edited-by-andrew-j-offut/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-carnelian-cube-by-l-sprague-de-camp-and-fletcher-pratt/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-warrior-of-worlds-end-by-lin-carter/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-shadow-people-by-margaret-st-clair/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-fallible-fiend-by-l-sprague-de-camp/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-stealer-of-souls-by-michael-moorcock/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-legion-of-space-by-jack-williamson/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-sign-of-the-labrys-by-margaret-st-clair/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-best-of-fredric-brown-edited-by-robert-bloch/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-stormbringer-by-michael-moorcock/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-battle-in-the-dawn-by-manly-wade-wellman/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-complete-compleat-enchanter-by-l-sprague-de-camp-and-fletcher-pratt/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/retrospective-the-hobbit-and-the-lord-of-the-rings-by-j-r-r-tolkien/
http://www.castaliahouse.com/appendix-n-matters/
Only if you like subjecting yourself to writing like this:
From The Dispossessed, which won a Hugo over Mote in God's Eye by Niven and Pournelle in 1975.
However, James May already did your research for you, in his (first draft, rambling) essay "The Death of Science Fiction Literature". Unfortunatly his website lapsed or was taken down a few years ago. It is archived here and here.
His essay makes clear that the hate against males and the hate against whites are two prongs of attack from the same cartel. Pay especial attention to the role John Scalzi and GRRM had in the death of Sci-Fi. The only problem with the essay is it still is very much in the DR^3 camp, which is a waste of time.
G. M.
He doesn't deserve the R. R., and no I'm not referencing some stupid ass costume rap battles with derivative writing as bad as his. It's not even part of his real goddamn name and despite saying he's a fan and his work is a response to the imitators...he has gone on to say Tolkien's work has plotholes and asking if Orcs and Elves bang, ok? Seriously Martin is a Hollyweird bitch made twat that keeps pandering to the normies that obsess over his glorified softcore porn.
That's the best thing about The Dispossessed: it unflinchingly shows the poverty and boredom of Communism even if it worked right.
It's right there in the first chapter. https://www.readinggroupguides.com/reviews/dispossessed/excerpt
"Welcome to the party, pal!"
Hornblower is a TV mini-series about a young British officer in the Royal Navy back when Britain had a spine. Each episode is movie length and despite a low budget has very high production value. All eps should be easily found on YT.
Gargoyles is a known forgotten Disney property and at this point that's probably a good thing. It kinda does have a bit of that 90s PC vibe to it with Elisa but she's cute, actually helps out and gets shot in one episode because Brooklyn didn't know what a gun was. Shakespearean themes and continuous Season 2 plot. It's a good watch. Just kind of avoid anything unrelated to the main series and S3 can be ignored as the creator wasn't involved with that.
Metaloclypse is another series that's been abandoned by Adult Swim before it had a proper ending. Still though, blood and guts and the 5 idiots fulfilling the prophecy set before them.
Boondocks is a very funny series to me. Even if you're not into the whole black american culture thing, just it being a self reflection of black culture ~c 2007 is worth a watch. Episodes like dodgeball, Stinkmeiner and Jimmy Rebel (removed because too racist) make it good.
Tintin has always been a favorite of mine and there's 39 animated episodes that covers most of the books.
There's old sci-fi like Stargate and Bablyon 5, not sure how good they are. Also Miami Vice, better than alot of cop shows today.
They both hold up surprisingly well. Sure, the F/X are schlock compared to modern stuff, but you just have to take them as a product of their time. It bears noting that if you're going to watch Stargate then you're going to have to watch SG:Atlantis along with it to get the full story on everything.
It might also be worth a note to suggest checking out syndicated Sci-Fi and Fantasy shows from the late '90s and early '00s. Most of them were non-woke products of their time, and even though they were made for TV they can still be a fun watch. I still get a kick out of rewatching Highlander: The Series, Forever Knight, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., Andromeda, Farscape, and other shows from that era.
The upside being that they don't lean on the effects to hand you 45 minutes of computer generated explosions and skybeams.
Seconding. Watching the phenomonal puppetry of Rigel and Pilot makes pine for the days aliens weren't all generic CG.
Thank you good sir.
I put this list of movies together from suggestions off the ruqqus +UnwokeMovies guild and here: https://cryptpad.fr/sheet/#/2/sheet/view/EbjVPghVcSrLoP-6ASiT-o6g8Gr0NPZ71RZ0npKWnUg/
Pan's Labyrinth?? Isn't the dad a sadistic soldier of Falangist Spain?
I would actually point out the next movie, Barton Fink, as an unwoke movie. Turturro plays a Jewish version of Lefty Eugene O'Neill, full of empty platitudes about the "common man," who is completely undone by messy reality. It is almost Lynchian. Is PL the same?
I would add Terry Gilliam's Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen to your list. The former is anti-government, and the latter is all about the Whole Man, the pre-Enlightenment Man, who takes on gods and monsters with equal élan.
This is the best Predator critique of all time, you may see the movie in a new light: https://pastebin.com/Cqxpih3k
I didn't do any editing on the list, just compiled it from ruqqus and suggestions from here. I can give you the keys to the castle if you want to make changes.
IMO pans labyrinthe is just a GOOD movie. Maybe there is an intent to shit on western civilization with the bad guy's obsession with having a son to carry on his name. But it is subtle enough that it is drowned out by the atmosphere of the rest of the movie.
Hmmm, 'kay.
If you're looking for comedy, a lot of the old British TV comedy classics are on YouTube now: Jeeves and Wooster, Are You Being Served, Dad's Army, Keeping Up Appearances and It Ain't Half Hot Mum are all both hilarious and very un-PC.
Also on YT, you can find all of the old Granada Television Sherlock Holmes serials with Jeremy Brett. They're the best Holmes adaptations that have ever been done.
Upvoted for Brit-coms. Some of the funniest stuff I watched in the early '90s came out of the UK and aired on our local PBS channel during that time period. Are You Being Served? and Keeping Up Appearances are top notch, as is Fawlty Towers, and despite Glinner being involved in both of them Father Ted and The IT Crowd are well worth a watch. Just be sure you dig up torrents of all of the above, so as to avoid missing the episodes that the wokescolds have forced off the air because they're "problematic".
Have to say Black Books as well.
Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes is fantastic. I remember reading the stories after having watched the show and being amazed at how much dialog and plot was specific to the show and how seamlessly they weaved it into the core that came from the original stories.
Don't forget Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, who introduced the concept of the Deep State Civil Service 40 years before we had a name for the term.
Saying the quiet part out loud in 1981.
And again in 1982.
Ah, Yes, Minister on the EU:
"The penalty we pay for pretending to be European".
"Britain has had the same foreign policy for 500 years..."
Everything I knew about the EU I learned from that show and my basic observation that it was following a similar trajectory in terms of centralization and consolidation of power as the US Federal government taking power from the States.
Anime
For detective fiction my favorite is the Nero Wolfe series, the original novels done by Rex Stout in which Archie Goodwin tells you about the cases he works as the field operative and right-hand man for eccentric genius Nero Wolfe. As far as TV versions go, the A&E series (back when "A&E" meant something) with Timothy Hutton is pretty good as well. (I've been told the 1981 Lee Horsley series was decent but I've never seen it and can't even find a torrent. My buddy who did remember it warned I'd probably have whiplash because it was modernized to happen in the 80's, whereas the A&E series locks everything into somewhere just before, during, or after WW2.) It's not a progressive series at all, with modern writers regularly calling Wolfe a misogynist (rather reductive, I think). The most "progressive" the books get would probably be "Too Many Cooks" and "A Right to Die" which both deal with race relations at least partly. (That said, the murderer literally wears blackface in "Too Many Cooks" so I don't know how progressive that'd be considered.) Then again, before his most hardboiled edges got filed off a few books in, Archie was more than willing to use a slur if you got him annoyed.
For pure mindless fluff my favorite SF go-to has always been Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat series. They are formulaic (To summarize: Jim diGriz gets in trouble in such a way that the plot is the only way out. He then proceeds to get out of trouble repeatedly by getting into deeper trouble until the climax when he finally gets out of trouble with no strings attached.) but great fun. My grandfather was apparently a renowned teller of tall tales but died before I was born. I like to think I get a similar experience by having Slippery Jim tell me about his weird adventures. The most progressiveness it shows that I recall is that everyone speaks Esperanto and Jim has to remind himself not to be sexist (well, he uses the word "chauvinist") because his wife is as good a crook as he is. That said, there is one story where he meets a society split by sex and it's stereotypes all the way through: The guys are all testosterone muscle morons and the women talk a good enlightenment game but it turns out are corrupt and manipulative.
Nero Wolfe is pretty good.
If you're into traditional Dungeon & Dragons-style fantasy, the "Heroes" series from the Dragonlance novels of the 90s was pretty good. I enjoyed them a lot.
There are tons more Dragonlance books but I've only read the Heroes series.
The "Twins" series was pretty good too, and focuses on the twins from the original Dragonlance books.
The old G4 show Code Monkeys only had 2 seasons but it’s so wild that it couldn’t be made today and is styled like a ‘80s 8 bit game.
O Brother Where art tho is a retelling of The Oddesey in 1930’s Mississippi that I’ve seen liked by all sorts of viewers
And the original (not the trash tier remake) Red Dawn for campy 80s USA action fighter vibes
The original 70s run of Columbo is one of my favorite shows. Peak race-aware CivNat American TV that arguably takes place in an America just past its peak (which I think is illustrated quite well in the plot of the military academy episode).
Lawrence of Arabia is one of my favorite movies, but at almost 4 hours long I don't know how "accessible" it is.
Gettysburg actually shows the Confederate soldiers as human beings, which is something you'll probably never see again in a mainstream film. But it's 5 hours long, so same "accessible" disclaimer applies.
If you watch this don't watch it on your shitty TV. Don't even watch it on your almost adequate home theater setup since you're le cinema aficionado.
No, none of that will do for this movie.
GO SEE IT IN THE THEATER.
I had the opportunity to do just that in September 2019 and oh man, words cannot do it justice. From the beginning (especially that match cut!!!) to the very end I was absolutely spellbound. Don't bother watching it any other way, it won't do it justice.
Before the Cinerama in Seattle closed I had the chance to see it there, so I was able to experience the film pretty much exactly as it was intended to be viewed back when it was released. Absolutely fantastic experience I'm glad I took advantage of while I still had the chance to do so.
Demolition Man and The Running Man seem to be apocryphal movies at the moment.
Watched both recently and both hold up amazingly well after all this time. So many 90s movies seem terrible now for some reason, but Demolition Man holds up. 80s movies age better, and Running Man is becoming prophetic.
Robocop is also pretty bang on for what's going on now too.
Garth Merehnghi’s Dark Place is a hilarious satire of Stephen King esque horror tropes and 80s tv in general. It’s short and all seven episodes are on YouTube.
I’m not really big on Star Trek, but a friend of mine got me to watch DS9 a while back and I loved it, excellent series and characters with some of the best episodic story telling I’ve ever seen. It’s a shame that the only Star Trek anyone seems to talk about is TNG and all of the shitty new trek, because DS9 seems much more grounded and interesting to me. Plus most of the cast haven’t turned out to be giant pieces of shit as far as I know, Avery Brooks seems to be pretty based.
I’ve been watching classic Unsolved Mysteries with the incredibly badass Robert Stack. There’s like twelve seasons of great stuff, murder mysteries, missing people being reunited with their families, and they even get into crazy shit like aliens and the Loch Ness monster, it’s also kind of nice to look back on a time where the media could be used to actually help people, and it feels good whenever you see that they caught a criminal or found a missing person because of the show. Excellent stuff and again every episode is free on YouTube.
I love eighties action movies, Schwarzenegger, Stallone etc. some real gems that still hold up and you can pop in whenever for a nice pick me up. The Running Man, Total Recall, Robocop and Commando are probably my favorites, along with the first Conan of course.
Some one already mentioned early Simpsons and I would throw in King Of The Hill as well. Excellent show, very funny and with great characters. Hank Hill is probably the last example of a competent, morally sound father figure in tv history.
As for books I’ll always recommend Howard. His stuff is great, it’s hard to believe his fantasy work pre-dates LOTR, and it still absolutely holds up today. Plus they might still make that modern Conan show and you just know it will be pozzed, so it’ll be good to see the real Conan before they pull a Geralt on him.
There’s a YouTube channel I really like called Hats Off Entertainment that talks about a lot of the classic 80s and 90s comedies I really like, he did a series of documentaries in some of my favorites like John Candy, Leslie Nielsen and Gene Wilder, and it’s got some great recommendations of a lot of classic feel-good comedy.
That’s about all I can think of off the top of my head, happy to look at everyone else’s suggestions.
If you like other pulp stuff like Solomon Kane, Kull, The Shadow, The Spider, or things like Lovecraft's writings, I highly recommend checking out Seabury Quinn's tales of Jules de Grandin. They center around a French expat detective/physician and occult expert in the US (circa 1920s and forward) and generally have a "weird tales" bent to them. They're short stories that were written for the pulp magazines of the era, and while the collections are quite massive (Quinn was a prolific writer), they're best read in small doses.
Looks pretty cool, I’ll check it out for sure.
<shakes hand in greeting>
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
I actually have that one in my bookmarks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EkN8WtFTpE&list=PLC046BB28463E1459&index=1
Unfortunately the first episode requires age-verification now. You can try downloading the first episode (just ignore the sketchy WebSecurity add-on ads ;) ) if you don't have a youtube account and watch the rest on Youtube.
For movies, let me recommend Stalag 17 by Otto Preminger. Quite possibly the most realistic war movie ever made.
Daniel Keys Moran:
Also:
Only ever get the subs for the animes.
If you're into action-adventure and the high seas check out the late great Clive Cussler.
Most board games and card games. They're only as infected as the people you play with.
Tabletop RPGs were fun 20 years ago. I really enjoyed D&D 3rd edition ("The d20 System"). Not so sure about the newer versions.
Movies: Any Mel Brooks movie. Almost all of them have offensive, self-aware, and ironic black stereotypes, played smart and to mock racist tropes, but we're not even allowed to have that anymore.
Michael Mann is pretty based. Heat is the greatest movie of all time. Collateral is the only movie where Tom Cruise plays a villain, and he kills it. Thief is the best first-outing of a film director that springs to memory. Great crime stories that humanize all the characters involved.
Where Eagles Dare is a badass WWII movie that also features Clint Eastwood's highest killcount.
Waterloo (1970) I believe still holds the record for largest cast of any movie anywhere. Russia lent a zillion soldiers to the production, and the battles are full scale, fucking amazing, incredible, ball shattering, and nobody's ever heard of it. It will never, ever get made again. Everything will be CG from here on out.
TV:
Becker, with Ted Danson. I've always hated sitcoms but love Becker. Almost every episode he makes fun of a blind black guy.
True Detective season one was pretty based.
Books:
The Complete Works of Plato. About half the Socratic dialogues are transcendentally brilliant, given the time in which they were written, and half are infuriatingly bad (like when he tries to divine the origin of words). Gorgias is probably my favorite dialogue.
Normal Accidents by Charles Perrow is a really fascinating dissection of Three Mile Island, and many preceding complex catastrophes (Apollo 11, Texas City explosion, Teton Dam failure). Probably my favorite book I've ever read.
Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. More than anything I'm just awestruck with his writing. The amount of humility, kindness, and gratitude to his colleagues that resonates from his writing is really rare. Really a remarkable man.
Sir Walter Raleigh's Speech from the Scaffold. He was a spy, an explorer, a diplomatic, philosopher, eventually put to the death for treason. His final speech before execution is well attested and documented, and I hope we can even muster a tenth of his courage and eloquence if we ever face the axe.
C.S. Lewis can fuck right off with his Narnia shit. Now, The Screwtape Letters is an EXCELLENT work, and I grant him a lot of credit for it, but the suck known as Narnia is quite the handicap to overcome.
Why do you think Narnia is bad? Not looking for a fight, genuinely curious.
Read the series when I was 12-13ish and reread them last year, it seems decent for children's fantasy.
It's been a long time since I read them, so I don't remember all the roots of my hate, but what struck me the most as a kid was how hamfisted everything felt. The most egregious example being "Surprise, Aslan is actually JESUS! Don't you want to behave in church now little boys and girls?"
I've grown out of my angry atheist phase, but that one still sticks with me as one reason why I grew into it.
I’m currently watching Barney Miller. Another unsung gem is Duckmab and The Critic. Dilbert as well.
Duckman was awesome.
Foundation trilogy from BBC Is a good one, and there's a few other free things on that site worth downloading.
Dragonball GT was actually quite good, not sure why anyone thinks otherwise.
Go watch Blake's 7
Maybe this is too generic, but 70/80's horror and exploitation is a whole lot of fun! Some are turds of course, but compared to the shit people shovel in their heads now they are like wild horse turds that go unique and interesting places.
If you're looking to have your face totally melted, there's some insane exploitation and horror that came out of Hong Kong in the 80's and 90's. Shaw Brother's examples like Seeding of a Ghost and Boxer's Omen, are chinese black magic movies where people rape ghosts and vomit up live worms and stuff like that!! The 90's had a Category III craze in independent film, most of these are straight garbage but they really earn the highest age classification! Graphic rape, cannibalism, child murder, etc. There are quite a few gems that stick out from the hundreds of movies from this era, check out The Untold Story for an amazing serial killer performance by Anthony Wong, check out Ebola Syndrome for the exact same thing but also with spreading ebola, Dr. Lamb, Run and Kill, Naked Killer, etc.
Diane Wynne Jones. The Howl's series is a lot of fun.
Breaking Bad has no social justice in the show itself. A couple of actors said utterly retarded things afterwards, but the show itself is clean.
Name of the Wind and its sequel by Patrick Rothfuss don't have any obvious social justice in it either.
Remo the Destroyer, by Warren Murphy & Richard Sapir. From #31, The Head Men:
Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. Both are great sci-fi shows which will get you 15 seasons of material plus movies to watch. Ignore Stargate Universe though, that show is crap.
Roku Channel
Night Wolf - 80's show about a sweet helicopter and cheesy stories about its crew
A Team - I don't think I need to explain this one.
Magnum PI - 80s PI in Hawaii. Holds up well to current day PI shows.
There's a streaming channel I can't find the name of. It's basically Nick at Nite but it's free. I only know it because I know that the Roku service ignores it when you search and it has a purple/pink play button for an icon. They have a ton of old Don Knots movies along with westerns. The man with no name trilogy, in particular The Good The Bad and The Ugly is really well done.
Archive.org has old radio shows. I typically listen to X-Minus One and Dragnet but there's plenty of other decent stuff on there. https://archive.org/details/oldtimeradio
Most?? What anime IS woke?
Ok dude.
I heard that show is pretty amazing, so clearly it didn't do much to mess up the show.
I'll add Justified to that list.
Burn Notice
as for debatable Person of Interest and Leverage
Good taste my man
SJWs might actually be able to help you find movies. Just search for "movies that fail the Bechdel test" or something like that. Their shame-list could be your top 10.
I love that tactic. Since I'm in Texas it took them about 30 minutes after learning their precious mask mandate was leaving to make a list of "places that still care about their employees and customers." They are just doing all the legwork for me to find places to go.
Dude what did she do to you