Media reviewers?
I've had this problem come up so many times. I'll be watching a review on a movie/series and partway through the reviewer will make some rude comment about something they perceived as 'political', or how it was made worse by feminism, or 'woke-ism'. Sometimes it's just a tiny little comment that rubs me the wrong way, and I'll realize: This review is being done by someone with opinions I want nothing to do with. And I especially don't want to further their YouTube career with my watch time. It's become such a pattern at this point that I don't even bother with YouTube media reviews anymore.
I'm not savvy in the landscape of media reviews, I'm relying on what the algorithm serves me, and so far it's only serving up slop. I'm trying to chew through my media backlog and also discover new things, and I'd like to see some perspectives on what's out there. Does anyone here have any recommendations for enthusiastically queer-friendly media review channels? (Not horror focused please, that's not for me.)
I totally get what you mean.
The problem with review channels on YouTube is that most people absolutely suck at reviewing media. There's a reason why professional critics get payed. Sure, it's something everyone can do, but it's something that few people can do well. I've even seen professional critics make misinterpretations of the materials they review. When it comes to YouTube reviewers, well… I think this video probably explains what I feel about them more than I can put into words (and yes, I understand Doug Walker is not the average reviewer). They're entertaining, but they're not dependable when it comes to scratching beneath the surface.
I don't think I have any recommendations for what you're looking for, but instead I would recommend you switch from watching reviews for new stuff and seek out channels of people who cover media they love instead - things that were not recently released. They will always be rosy about the things they review, naturally, but I find that it's a lot harder to get excited about mediocre things, so their recommendations will always be interesting at least.
You might like Contrapoints or Lindsay Ellis on YouTube.
LadyKnightTheBrave does media reviews and is quite LGBT friendly. The review of The Haunting of Bly Manor made me cry. While that one is arguably horror (although it focuses on the love story aspects) most of her videos are not. Maggie Mae Fish also does really in depth pieces that you might enjoy. Big Joel, Jenny Nicjolson and Quinn Curio all do media reviews sometimes, but it's usually pretty niche stuff done in an often off the wall way, so you might enjoy the videos if you aren't looking for a review of a specific piece.
I have not listened to them for probably a year because I have been on a podcast hiatus, but I always enjoyed Struggle Session. I can't recall specifically whether I would call it queer friendly or not , but it's very lefty. Of course that is not automatically automatically queer friendly, but maybe worth taking a chance on.