My general approach to entertainment is that I don’t care about the politics of the stars or the writers or even the material itself. Mostly I care about whether the entertainment I’m watching is well-crafted and interesting. And so, there are certain films and music I really enjoy that were created by people who are definitely seeking to make some kind of left-leaning point and for the most part I enjoy it anyway.

For instance, I like John Carpenter’s film They Live which came out in 1988. It’s a science fiction/dystopian story about a guy who discovers aliens have taken over the world and are programming all of the surviving humans with hidden messages. Those messages and the faces of the aliens become visible if you wear a special pair of sunglasses. On the surface it’s just a fun film but beneath the surface Carpenter was commenting about “the decade of greed” and putting out some generally negative views about capitalism, Ronald Reagan, etc.

I still enjoy the movie despite the politics and I enjoy Carpenter’s other movies even more. I’m not one of these people who reacts to politics in art the way Dracula reacts to sunlight. My view of the world isn’t that fragile. Frankly, I think that’s true for a lot of conservatives. We’re used to be made out the bad guys by Hollywood and after a while you just sort of learn to shrug it off.

But there’s still a line between well-crafted entertainment that’s left-leaning and bad entertainment that’s seems to exist for no other purpose but to send a message. And as the woke ideology has spread through Hollywood like everywhere else you sometimes see that craft is taking a backseat to social messaging in a way that just ruins the soup.

For example, Marvel’s Captain Marvel film didn’t work for me. Why? Not because it had a feminist angle. You can make a great genre film with a feminist angle. It Follows, The Terminator and The Entity all come to mind. Captain Marvel simply didn’t work because the heroine wasn’t allowed to be flawed or human. The same could be said for Rey in the Star Wars films. It’s pretty boring to watch a hero who can instantly do everything because girl power must win.

And that brings me to Echo, the new Disney+ superhero show that was released this week. Spoilers ahead so be warned. The main character is a deaf indigenous woman who becomes an enforcer for The Kingpin. The first episode sets all of this up and includes a pretty solid fight scene between her and Daredevil. But also, the episode was heavy on Choctaw myth and the two things didn’t seem to belong to the same story. Don’t take my word for it, here’s the NY Times review:

That Maya, a.k.a. Echo, was conceived — more than 20 years ago — as deaf and Native American (Cheyenne in the comics) means that in the 2020s her story will inevitably be taken as an opportunity for the celebration of identity and heritage.

That’s fine in itself, but within the five relatively short episodes of “Echo” it sets up a tug of war between an action-thriller imperative and a cultural-historical imperative that ends up as a losing battle for both sides. The show’s writers, including the creator and showrunner, Marion Dayre, have failed to braid the two strands in interesting or dramatic ways. (It’s not a good sign that each episode lists from three to seven writing credits.) Instead, what could be — and occasionally is — an entertaining Southwestern noir has its energy sapped by the intrusion of Choctaw history and myth, while the history and myth are devalued by being put at the service of what is mostly a formulaic thriller…

Scenes of a Choctaw creation myth are rendered in an effects-heavy “Avatar”-ethnographic style. A 13th-century ancestor takes part in a high-stakes game of stickball straight out of an inspirational sports movie. A 19th-century ancestor who joins a tribal police force is presented in a thematically appropriate (for the deaf Maya) silent-movie sequence.

The flashback scenes themselves aren’t bad. At first I thought the show was cribbing from the old Kung Fu TV show form the 1970s. Really the best part of that show were the flashbacks where we would see Kwai Chang Caine, aka David Carradine, learning some important lesson or skill that would help him triumph over his enemies in that episode. But in Echo there’s no time for any of that. Mostly the main character thinks she is going crazy until someone explains it to her in the 4th of 5 episodes (or maybe it was the 5th?) that these are her actual ancestors randomly giving her superpowers. And from there she goes straight to fighting an army of villains including the Kingpin. No training. No learning how to use this power she doesn’t understand. In fact no guarantee she’ll have it when she needs it.

But it really fell apart for me in the final episode when the hero is surrounded by 10 bad guys with guns and she does a kind of symbolic move and suddenly all of the historical characters she’s been seeing in visions are in the room with her. It’s meant to be symbolic but it’s the wrong moment for symbolism. And then things get even weirder. Two other characters who have, up until now, been presented as mostly normal humans suddenly also have the powers of the ancestors including super strength. Where did that come from? Doesn’t matter but now the hero’s 70-year-old grandmother can toss Kingpin’s thugs around like paper dolls.

It’s worth noting that Echo’s powers in the comics are completely different from the show. Her name was originally a reference to her ability to copy any fighting style perfectly, meaning she could almost immediately hold her own with other heroes like Daredevil and Captain America. But in the show, that’s never mentioned. Instead, she’s an echo of her powerful ancestors with powers that include super strength and physical and spiritual healing.

As the Times‘ review suggests, there was a conflict between telling a superhero story about a deaf woman who can beat people up really effectively and a sort of progressive lecture about the power of Native American culture. In the final battle the lecture won. Instead of letting the ancestors be a subtext, they just show up in the room like a the Native equivalent of a boy band about to dance/sing their big hit. The fight itself is played almost as a dream sequence. And the final twist is that instead of beating Kingpin to a pulp, the main character uses a power she’s never had before to…I’m not kidding…heal his heart.

Sorry, Marvel but this is not how its done. Consider Ben Hur, which also tells a story of spiritual redemption set against several action set pieces. How does that movie end? With the best damn chariot race ever put on film. It’s ten minutes of perfect action with ups and downs. You’re not sure if the hero is going to live or die much less whether he’ll win. Now imagine the film just tossed that out and substituted a weird montage which ends with the villain’s heart being healed by a glowing light. That’s what you get with Echo. It’s just disappointing. They’ve built up this conflict and then the actual fight is treated like an afterthought where no one is even hurt much less in any real danger.

Again, I’m not criticizing this because it has some obvious woke elements. I can shrug that off if it’s well made and parts of this were. But in the end the messaging seems to have completely taken over a show that should be about a character who beats people up. Instead we get the Native American version of Captain Marvel/girl power. It’s too bad because I’m still rooting for Marvel to make something great again. Unfortunately, this wasn’t it.