I feel bad for people growing up nowadays. It’s like you’re rowing smoothly along in a rowboat on a placid and calm channel then a mega-yacht passes and makes huge wake that leaves you struggling to not capsize. That’s what my impression of being a young person today is.
I just heard recently that some movie company has a sequel to Spaceballs in the works. To which I ask, is nothing sacred?!
Gen Z is facing a really abysmal entertainment landscape. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was extremely fortunate to be a child before sequels and franchises seemed normal. I think the only series I remember from the video store was Police Academy. There was Star Wars, of course, too, but I already saw the three of those, and I had very little interest in re-watching stuff, especially something as “heady” as Star Wars. Also, what’s up with that dude kissing his sister like that? Dude! Get a grip! Oh! Indiana Jones!
But I digress.
The point is I grew up when movie studios were still making movies by unknown names. Nowadays, it’s like spreadsheets are the real arbiters of taste at studios. That’s fuckin bleak. The 1970s are often regarded as a morass: gas prices were extremely high (I think OPEC reduced production or something), the US ….ok, I’ll hold my tongue…. “There was” a military conflict in Vietnam, and I forget — the net effect is commonly referred to as “stagflation.” Yet, the movies made throughout the 1970s were fantastic: Chinatown, Taxi Driver, Eraserhead, The Exorcist, and so so so many more — The Godfather, for crying out loud! Oh! Star Wars! During the 1970s, they were making movies. And now, in 2026, they’re continuing familiar brand franchises that began 50 years ago. It’s depraved. Like remember on “Married with Children,” Al Bundy would tell stories about his glory days playing high school football decades later? This is that IRL. People make a clever movie, and they turn it into a brand franchise. It’s like Garfield the cat-style branding for like _everything_. And we wonder why Gen Z claps so hard. Hmmm I wonder why.🙄