Colleague and /Filmcast favorite Myles McNutt has written a reflection on Kurt Sutter’s dismissal of certain TV critics, who have been none-too-pleased with the latest season of Sons of Anarchy (which Sutter currently showruns):
[M]y greater issue is that Sutter seems intent on profiling critical responses, a profile which is bleeding down into the show’s rabid fanbase. I think it’s one thing to dismiss critics entirely: I think it is perfectly reasonable for a creator as admittedly hyper-sensitive as Sutter to stop paying attention to what critics are saying, and I would not be offended if Sutter said he didn’t give a shit what I said about his show. However, instead of fueling a general apathy towards critical responses, Sutter profiles critics as lazy, unoriginal, and reductive; he portrays male critics as linear, incapable of grasping the complexity of the series, instead of simply disagreeing with them. In the process, the real hivemind in this situation is revealed to be those who commented on Sutter’s blog post, spewing back the same rhetoric about lazy critics with very little originality – the most alarming part of Sutter’s piece is not his own comments, but instead the degree to which the dichotomy between critics and “real” fans of the show was picked up by the 50+ comments which followed.
For his part, Sutter has already responded to McNutt via Twitter, saying:
You missed the fucking point. or perhaps the point is that you lean away from the point so you can masturbate all over your blog. To be fair, I only got thru 1/3 of your blog, then I got bored & confused, so I switched to porn and masturbated all over MY blog.
Classy.
Update: The dialogue continues! Here’s a screenshot of further Twitter dialogue between McNutt and Sutter. Sutter has also listed some of his favorite TV critics and bloggers (so we know he doesn’t hate everyone):
