Previous YouTube Spotlights:

1. Hot Ones
2. Reactors

Honestly, I wasn’t sure how to title this one. Because I want to focus on the channels that feature individuals and/or groups/production companies that talk about every popular geek thing that takes the form of movies, TV shows, or video games. Maybe comics and books, too.

I should mention that I won’t be mentioning any individual channels by name because I’m mostly going to complain about these types of YouTube creators, so it would probably be hypocritical of me to say, “Go check these guys out!”

Actually, the hypocritical thing is for me to complain about them and continue watching on a regular basis… So I guess the real reason I don’t want to mention anyone by name is because I don’t want to say something negative about a specific channel and get hate for it. Even though I know the reach of this blog is negligible and the likelihood of a YouTuber with millions of subscribers finding out about it is extremely low.

And I was just struck by the irony that I will be complaining. Because I will be complaining about how much these people complain…

I’m shaking my own head now, feel free to shake yours as well.

All right, you don’t have to go far on the YouTube to find any number of individual content creators or full on companies that make a living by talking about the latest TV show or movie to come along and grab the internet’s attentions. If it’s popular, it’s fair game.

Any snippet of news that comes out of Disney about upcoming Marvel or Star Wars projects… Speculation about the latest Netflix series that no one saw coming… Over analyzation of every movie trailer that might have contained the slightest of Easter eggs… Fair game.

I got into watching these types of channels because of course I would. I don’t have a tight group of friends around here and, even if I did, it’s unlikely they would all be on board to talk about the newest episode of WandaVision (which, if you’re not watching it, ya should… but I say that from the position of someone who’s fully versed in what’s happening in the Marvel Cinematic Universe). Anyway, I watch these YouTube channels because they involve groups of people who like to talk about these geeky pop culture phenomena like I would.

I’ve noticed, more and more lately, that a lot of these individuals and even individuals who represent larger companies spend a great deal of their time complaining about the direction in which some pop culture properties are moving. It could be anything, really… just depends on who’s doing the talking at the moment.

Some continue to complain about the quality of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Some still complain about the prequels. Some complain about the direction of The Mandalorian. Some complain about the fact that the High Republic era is now a thing in Star Wars books and comics. And that’s just Star Wars…

Look, there’s nothing wrong with disliking something. Sticking with the Star Wars of it all, I didn’t much like Rise of Skywalker, the most recent movie in the franchise. But I’m not gonna spend an extraordinary amount of time more than a year after its release trying to convince the people who liked it that they’re wrong and if they can’t be convinced just berate them as stupid with horrible taste in movies. Which really is what it feels like some of these content creators are doing.

They fixate on one little thing… or one big thing… depends on the thing, really… and they beat their viewers over the head with it, over and over again. They shout at their audience in ALL CAPS with attention grabbing, click-bait-y video titles letting everyone know why it’s pointless for HBO Max to finally release Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League.

Again, nothing wrong with sharing an opinion about how you felt about a TV show or a movie. I don’t like everything that’s released by everyone and I don’t pretend to. I’m not a talk show host. But share the opinion and move on. Don’t dredge up your hate for something because you can’t think of anything better to talk about. The people behind all your favorite intellectual properties are constantly coming out with something new for you to speculate on. If you can’t see past how much you hated the last thing they came out with then you need to find a new niche for your YouTube channel.

I know I’ll continue watching most of the channels I’m still following. But I’m getting frustrated by the negativity that seems to permeate these videos that are made by a bunch of angry geeks who wanted things to turn out differently in their favorite film franchise.

You want to keep my attention and keep me coming back to your channel as a subscriber? Keep covering all that pop culture/geek culture stuff. Cover the good and the bad. Cover what you like and what you don’t like. Try to be as objective as possible. And if it’s not possible to be objective, fine… share your opinion. Tell me why you liked or disliked the movie or show you’re discussing. But stop there. I don’t need you to make a dozen videos over the next four months about how you would have it differently or how you think it should have been done.

I know I’m being hypocritical. I’m complaining about people complaining. And if someone were to slide into my comments to tell me to stop complaining about something on my personal blog, I would politely let them know that if they don’t like what they’re reading here they can move on. And I’m sure that’s what I should do with these YouTube channels… If I don’t like what I’m hearing from them, I should unsubscribe.

In fact, I did unsubscribe to a channel the other day when two guys were trashing the Star Wars sequels, again, and insisted that they weren’t interested in anything new coming out of that franchise until Disney decides to erase the sequel trilogy from existence. I didn’t make it through that entire video before unsubscribing to the channel. But while watching the video, I literally yelled at the screen that the movies have been made. They’re part of the Star Wars lore. Get over it.

Ugh… I hate complaining. Even when it’s complaining about complainers. Am I complaining too much? Should I have just kept my mouth shut? Feel free to complain about me in the comments!