True. I had never watched Critical Role streams either, but watching Vox Machina immediately made me feel like I was sitting in a TTRPG game. I trust Gunn's creative instincts enough (from his past work) to give him some flex on the DC universe building; I think he has a great chance to make something wonderful overall, even if some people originally were hoping for a different approach. I mean, this is what they do in comics all the time anyway; the same properties are just handed off to a new visionary for their exploration. It will eventually all be reset again. But just look at what Gunn has done; and his actors love him and are loyal to him; and his works are offbeat, personal, uncompromised, fun, and yet can be incredibly moving. He knows how to write characters and think in terms of character arcs.
Anyway, yeah, Phase 4 is a prime example of packaging. I mean, I support progressive themes and agendas, and I just found it kind of terrible -- I felt like it was issues-driven without having much creativity or skill, and as you said just continued to suggest being supportive of such things while not really offering it in depth. It was one big marketing exercise without much substance. People don't actually give a shit about all that: They want something real, they want to care about the people, they want to experience things through the people, they want the character arcs to mean something and generate real emotion and caring. I didn't give a shit about almost anything in Phase 4, sometimes because the characters and plots were dumb, other times because the actual skillsets needed to create a meaningful story were not there.
