Thursday, October 31, 2024
Joker: Folie à Deux Proves Success Can Be the Enemy
consequence.net: Whenever there’s a critical and commercial bomb on the level of this fall’s Joker: Folie à Deux, an inevitable part of the aftermath is articles breaking down the behind-the-scenes drama that led to disaster. “Why No One Will Get Fired Over ‘Joker: Folie à Deux,’” The Hollywood Reporter explained, while Variety offered up “Inside the ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Debacle: Todd Phillips ‘Wanted Nothing to Do’ With DC on the $200 Million Misfire.”
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I think that the general public’s tastes are cyclical, and it must be difficult as a director (and for the producers financing them) to try and pin down what the next best thing is. The original Joker was a huge success, so obviously the studio would try to replicate it, but it failed to a degree that NO ONE could have expected. What makes a good sequel, even? Few franchises are able to one up the original—The Godfather, Home Alone, and Terminator, to name a few, but what did they have that these flops don’t? The article cites four examples of films/shows that have become overindulgent as their popularity grows: Euphoria, Strangers Things, Ted Lasso and Joker 2. Each one grew in run time and budget as audiences demanded more content, but reviews still continued to drop nonetheless. I think that each of these programs brought something new (or at least refreshing) to audiences: Euphoria was a gritty account of high school in America in a way we have never seen, Stranger Things brought us back to the 80s sci-fi aesthetic, and Joker gave the titular character a lot more humanity and depth than we’ve ever seen. However, as they got greenlit and renewed for sequels, producers doubled down on these aspects and prioritized tone over plot. It leaves them feeling like cheap imitations of the originals.
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