With a week out from everything, this is probably the perfect time to close out this series.
Some final thoughts, then.
1) It was fun, but altogether, kinda… underwhelming? IDK how to put my finger on it, but some kind of magic was missing.
The Olympics were a revelation 10-15 years ago, with the advent of high def TVs. I could actually see what was going on, and that was awesome. Now, since I’ve seen it all already, it’s… kinda, not as impressive? Or maybe not as interesting? I guess? IDK.
But, yeah, something was missing.
2) The commercials were brutally dreadful. Lordy, did I despise them. A week out and I remember none of them fondly, and I hope I never see any of them again. I remember little from them besides the overt, in-your-face NWO politics, the LOUD music, and the withering assault of their awful CGI.
It used to be that commercials tried not to upstage the programs they were situated in. Those days are clearly gone. The spectacle of the Olympics this time paled in comparison to the blistering and ghastly attention whoring of the commercials.
I’ve never in my life given the mute button on a remote the kind of workout that I did this year during the Olympics.
The racial politics, especially, were obvious and angry. I swear at times that these commercials were mad at me, for something. Over half of them seemed to feature snarling, glowering black athletes. It was an ugly, toxic spectacle.
The coverage of the games themselves reflected this. Over and over again, the most important topics discussed were overtly racial ones, with the most important topic by far the status of black American athletes. Literally, over and over again, the same racial stuff just kept getting dredged up, as if to apologize for the fact that countries like Norway were just crushing everyone.
The commercials themselves seemed almost to be embarrassed to be a part of the winter games, and so did too the coverage of everything by NBC and other stations. It’s like… these games are too white, and so we don’t really want anything to do with them, but since we have too…
It was really bizarre, and the entire thing was an uncomfortable watch, even during the best of times. It was good to see the athletes, but man, the rest of it was just painful and weird.
I read online about how the ratings for these games were dreadful, and that doesn’t surprise me.
As for myself, I might skip the NBC stuff next time to focus on other streaming options. Hopefully, not all of them will be as awful and toxic.
3) Not a fan of Eileen Gu.
She bugs me. Whatever her contributions are to her sport, she herself comes across like a spoiled rich kid who just can’t help but look… spoiled.
Her whole thing is very… not grounded. I mean, her approach to everything, including choosing to represent China. She comes across as a brat.
Let’s break that decision down. She said that she chose to represent China for two reasons: 1) to promote winter sports in China, and 2) she wanted to represent her heritage.
Both reasons mark her selfish and spoiled, IMO.
China doesn’t need Eileen Gu to promote the winter games, or winter sports in general. It is sandwiched in between two winter Olympics powerhouses: Russia and Japan. Seriously, it’s not as if China is in South America or something. This explanation from her makes no sense, and she was so obviously lying when talking about it that I felt bad for her. And also a little angry. Seriously, I could not believe the nonsense that she expects people to think.
She’s representing China for selfish reasons. She wants to build her “brand” in some way, and this is part of that plan. Nothing more.
I mean, for fuck’s sake, without Gu, team China would have fielded 175 athletes for the games this year. 175! Out of the 91 countries competing, China had the fourth most athletes. They fielded over twice as many as Norway!
Yeah, she’s just a liar, and she’s a pretty bad one, at that.
Her second explanation is equally as bad: that her choice to represent China to due to her wanting to respect her heritage, as if she doesn’t have any here, in the place where she was born, raised, pampered, and given everything she needed to succeed. The US has given her more than any other country in the world, and she seems to be embarrassed by that on some level, almost as much as the the commercials and the coverage seemed to be embarrassed by the games in general.
She just comes across like a sheltered, spoiled Asian kid. In short, she’s a brat.
4) Kamila got robbed, and Lordy, did I get tired of hearing over and over how she shouldn’t be skating, blah blah blah. Awful, truly.
I mean, fine. Voice your opinion, okay, it’s a free country. And then move on, please. Nobody watches figure skating coverage for political analysis, or for the backroom stuff. We watch it for the spins, jumps, dancing, etc.
Seriously, guys. So annoying.
5) Well… other stuff. It is always fun to watch the athletes and the sports. It’s just… the container is just so bad, sometimes. Not always- in many sports I think the commentary is interesting and I learn a lot from it, probably since many of the commentators are former athletes and even champions themselves.
I think Weir and Lapanski are very good, so long as they keep their yaps quiet about politics and focus on the skating. I mean, seriously.
I watch these games to get away from politics, and then they just keep dragging me back in, lol.
But yes the events themselves are nice, so that’s why I watch.
6) The opening and closing ceremonies are things that I might talk about later. Kind of have something else to do now. But I intend to, at some point. There might be another entry in this series, then.
I do want to expound more upon some of the good things about the games. This post was mostly venting, it looks like.
Well… that’s it for now.