Audience-Alienating Premise cleanup

Would this be a better write-up:

• Tulip Fever was a 2017 Period Piece starring Alicia Vikander and ostensibly, the title was about tulip mania, which affected Amsterdam in the time it was set in, but it was a Genre-Busting mixture of Historical Fiction and Romance Drama, but felt like a Lifetime Movie of the Week in production values (on a bigger budget). Historical fans didn't like the extreme Artistic License – History that was taken with the historical aspects of the film, and romance fans were turned off by the Darker and Edgier approach to romance and it becoming about pregnancy and a nunnery despite it being billed as a sex thriller and romance drama, but later billed as a Period Piece. It didn't appeal to either set of fans, making it difficult to market to and a. Aside from the film being sat on The Shelf of Movie Languishment for three years, it was one of 2017's biggest movie flops as Marketwatch.com's movie critic discussed.

Maybe something like...

"Tulip Fever was a 2017 Period Piece starring Alicia Vikander and the premise was tulip mania in 17th-century Amsterdam, but written more like a Lifetime Movie of the Week on a bigger budget. Historical fans didn't like the extreme Artistic License - History that was taken with the historical aspects of the film, and romance fans were turned off by the Darker and Edgier approach to romance as it was more about pregnancy and a nunnery despite it being billed as a sex thriller and romance drama. It ended up becoming one of 2017's biggest movie flops, grossing under $2.5 million on a $25 million budget."

(Never watched the film, so I can't give my view.)

Edit: I fixed your example to better fit the trope.

Edited by Coolnut on Jun 27th 2021 at 1:44:42 PM

YMMV.North

• Audience-Alienating Premise: It's supposed to be a kids' movie with some parental bonuses in there, but the "child-friendly" scenes are too childish for adults and the "adult jokes" are too raunchy for kids... and that's not even getting into the stereotypes. In short, no member of the target audience is pleased.

There's literally tons of films that do what is described in this entry that were better recieved than this film. Not sure what putting this under AAP does, considering that Uncertain Audience is potholed in the entry. Would probably fit this sort of entry better.

The premise of the film isn't what gained backlash, from what I know, but the unfunn execution. So yeah, move to Uncertain Audience.

This is most recent addition to YMMV.Music 2021:

• Audience-Alienating Premise: "Recovering alcoholic taking care of her Inspirationally Disadvantaged autistic sister" is already a tough sell that sounds like an outdated Oscar Bait. And the strong musical elements downright makes everyone doubt that this weird, controversial thing will be something they can like.

The way this is written seems really complain-y.

Wikipedia indicates that the film was a box office bomb (it made $649,719 on a $16 million budget), so it counts for the trope when factoring in the way its premise was received. The writing could be redone to sound more neutral though.

Bringing up the following example from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier:

• Audience-Alienating Premise: The Enterprise crew meeting God or what seemed to be, to such a degree that Gene Roddenberry himself tried to talk William Shatner out of it.

Cut (or comment out) due to lack of context. It simply reads like "an actor didn't like the premise".

Bringing up the following example from Bride Wars:

• Audience-Alienating Premise: A story about two unlikable characters being unlikable to each other because their weddings were booked on the same day. Who is this meant to appeal to exactly?

The reason why Music was so unpopular isn't because of its premise, but because of its ill-informed and possibly harmful portrayal of autism. If Sia had cast an actually autistic actress in the title role, and axed the two scenes celebrating the use of dangerous restraint techniques, it would probably have gotten a much warmer reception, which combined with Sia's star power might have made it much more successful.

No mention of reception, probably just complaining, especially since I can definitely think of people who would enjoy that sort of mean-spirited comedy premise.

Probably would've still sucked, but just not problematic.

Edited by PlasmaPower on Jul 18th 2021 at 12:55:37 PM

Agreed.

Bringing up the following example from America: The Motion Picture:

• Audience-Alienating Premise: Part of the reason the movie didn't sit well with many people is because the movie gives a bastardized version of the American Revolution complete with countless immature comedy.

There needs to be more than that (poor ratings, bad reviews, show got pulled due to angry viewers, etc.). The original poster has to expand on it, or cut.

It’s provocative enough to be a plausible example, but it might be hard to prove if it’s valid without stats to prove one way or another which if I recall isn’t something Netflix likes doing.

You can use critical reception if not viewership ratings.

Can AAP apply to single episodes? I'm asking because there's this on YMMV.Big City Greens:

• Audience-Alienating Premise: The entirety of "Uncaged". The episode has Bill and Gramma completely distrust Nancy for being an ex-convict and display harmful messages about her and not apologize for it. The problem is that Nancy was imprisoned for a non-violent crime and the topic of the law system in the US is a very weighty topic and it's pretty damaging for kids who have a loved one in jail for minor offences to see how despised someone who paid their debt to society is. Needless to say, many people were put off by the premise of that episode.

A requirement of AAP is that the work has to fail to draw viewers. According to a quick look at Wikipedia, that episode had more viewers watching than any other episode of the show.

Critical reception was pretty weak. I think it could safely be counted, but with a rewrite.

I'm not really sure if it can apply to single episodes actually. I did remember Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy examples removed for only being for one episode.

Edited by PlasmaPower on Jul 22nd 2021 at 2:29:00 PM

Personally, I don't like using critical reception to determine if a work has an AAP, because critical reception doesn't always match what audiences think.

Yeah, and here's the thing that really clinches it for me; if people watched it in the first place, the premise wasn't alienating.

Critic-Proof is a YMMV item for a reason.

Edited by PlasmaPower on Jul 22nd 2021 at 4:53:37 PM

Plus Critical Dissonance.

Something can be deeply disliked by critics but adored by the public.