I was reading a recent article about the Netflix series 3 Body Problem, (I’ve probably read every single article in existence about this show) and I discovered that the author of the books from which it is adapted, Cixin Liu, once said, “…people shouldn’t read too much into fiction. (“The whole point is to escape the real world!” This seems to be the exact opposite of what modern Hollywood is doing. They are putting forth every effort to bring our modern issues, and our modern politics, into every show they produce, even if it’s supposed to be a story from a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

Now, there’s nothing particularly wrong with addressing modern issues through the medium of story. The old Star Trek show was genius at doing this. That, however, is not what we are seeing from modern writers. These modern writers, who are really more like activists, have no ability to deftly weave their ideas into a credible narrative, so they just make it blatant. They just slap their ideas right on top of whatever they are working on, and it, thus, feels like we are watching Earth, 2023, even though we’re supposed to be on another planet in the 27th century. There is no more escapism.