Reviews. The art of critiquing and recapping an event, item, or artistic work. They help us know which experiences are worth having, which places are worth visiting, which food is worth eating, and which art is worth engaging with – or, at least, what the individual reviewer thought of them. They aid the consumer in making an informed decision about what to expect in a given scenario. In essence, they are a useful and sometimes entertaining tool for second-hand data collection.
They’re also wildly overused and overpopulated in the modern landscape. Let me explain…
Why Review?
The main benefits of reading or watching a review should be obvious and were basically already discussed above. They help the un or under-informed learn more about something that they have little experience of. In doing so, they help those individuals make decisions about how to best spend their money and time – at least, according to the opinions of the reviewer.
Ostensibly, they are also useful in helping the creator/owner/purveyor in learning about the strengths and weaknesses of those things they are selling – where they shine or where they fall short and how they might be improved. They can be a learning tool. This is because they are, in the best of circumstances, written by “experts” in the field – or at least someone with extensive experience with the subject matter being discussed.
In essence, in a perfect world, reviews are beneficial for both sides of the equation – artist and viewer, business and customer, chef and patron. This is in addition, of course, to the benefit they provide the reviewer themselves – the notoriety, status, and pay.
Why Not.
Of course, we don’t live in a perfect world. While the above factors can certainly play into the creation of modern reviews, they no longer seem to be the primary focus.
For one, the days of the “expert” reviewer are dwindling. While professionals with extensive knowledge of a given field or industry still exist, they are quickly becoming the minority in a sea of amateur reviewers – individuals with little or no knowledge on a subject, purporting to tell others what they should think. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to tell anyone they don’t have a right to an opinion (I have plenty of problems with the elitist attitudes of supposed “professionals”). I’m merely stating that in the world of modern review (particularly on the internet), it can be hard to sift out those with a strong knowledge base and a more well-reasoned background. The literal needle in a haystack – only, in this case, each piece of straw is waving its arms wildly for your attention.
The next reason I have such an issue with modern review culture is its complete saturation of the market. For every movie or TV show that comes out, there are literally hundreds if not thousands of accompanying reviews. YouTube alone is riddled with an ocean of video reviews for every single movie or episode that’s released. While it’s great to talk about art (that is one of its primary functions, after all), very few of these “reviewers” seem to be doing so because they truly have something to say – more often than not, they’re just jumping on the bandwagon and trying to catch a small slice of the momentary popularity for themselves. It all comes across, to me at least, as severely cynical and not particularly helpful. Much akin, in a very different way of course, to the myriad knock-off films that flood the market each and every time a new blockbuster is released – parasites, subsisting on the abundance of goodwill for a different entity.
Now, perhaps this is a bit harsh. Perhaps, I’m not giving these creators their fair shake and I’m being overly aggressive in my stance. And I would be willing to grant you this, but for the following…
All Publicity is Bad Publicity
The public loves a good roasting. They love looking at the hard work of someone else and telling them how it could have been improved – or better yet, telling them why it sucked. Nothing is more fun than watching someone else rant about something that annoys them or that pissed them off. That’s DRAMA. That’s ENGAGING. That puts butts in seats.
And that’s unequivocally the biggest problem with modern review culture. Because people are infinitely more likely to be drawn to the extremes of LOVE or HATE (with a strong bias towards the latter), reviewers are incentivized to magnify or outright alter their feelings on a given piece of media. They can’t merely think something was “okay” – it has to be the “WORST MOVIE EVER MADE” or a “CINEMATIC DISASTER.” Their videos are usually accompanied by zany thumbnails showing the cast or director in ridiculous poses and large text that all but assures you that they are going to spend the next six to thirty minutes ripping the media in question to shreds. Regardless of their actual opinions or tastes, every reviewer feels obligated to tackle every piece of popular media with all the subtlety of a jackhammer. They have to express, in no uncertain terms, why this movie will ruin careers, crash franchises, or be the end of cinema as we know it. They do all this because THAT’S what drives traffic. THAT’S what gets views.
As a result, gone are the days of the viewer getting an unvarnished and honest opinion of the art in question. Also gone is any use that the artist might have found in a clear-headed assessment of their work. This is all replaced with hyperbole and fury – warranted or not. Subtlety doesn’t sell and, as such, has been all but abandoned. Of the three basic functions of reviews – informing the audience, improving the work, and profiting -, only one remains: the one that lines the pockets of the reviewer. In fact, they are completely dis-incentivized from doing anything but causing the greatest spectacle possible.
In effect, modern review culture has ceased to be a method of analyzing the “show” and has decided that it IS the “show” – to the point that there are literally REVIEWS OF OTHER REVIEWS. It’s a level of narcissistic inception that truly boggles the mind.
Conclusion
Despite all the above, I unfortunately don’t have a solution to offer. No way to “course correct” the current ship of modern reviews. While it’s wonderful that everyone has a voice and can express their opinions regardless of barriers to entry, it also means that there is no feasible way to halt or correct the current trends… save one.
The only real way that we, as a society, could attempt to “fix” the problems with “Review Culture” is by dis-incentivizing the type of anger-filled, flash-in-the-pan reviews that currently dominate the market. If we started spending more of our time (and clicks) on honest, well-reasoned content and less of it “feeding the trolls” (as it were), then we might be able to slowly reign in the wild stallion of righteous anger that dominates the current marketplace. We could encourage thoughtful and genuine reviews that provide an actual benefit to both the reader and the artist. We could once again let the art form of review be a beacon in the dark – a guiding light of information on the sea of ignorance and corporate marketing.
Sadly, given the current state of the world, and its ever-growing trend towards polarization, it seems unlikely that such a shift will occur (at least in the short term). That’s not to say that good and useful reviews don’t or won’t exist – it just means that, as a viewer, you’ll have to work that much harder to pan the proverbial river in search of that fleck of gold.
…
That or you could just watch another twenty-minute video on why “*INSERT MOVIE HERE* RUINED THE MCU! COMPLETE FAILURE!”
Your choice.