Topic: Media Research Center
Amelia Hamilton begins her Dec. 10 Media Research Center post by lamenting: "The Ranch is back on Netflix with the second half of season six and, while we used to be able to count on them to represent conservatives in the 'flyover' states, they just couldn't resist getting in a dig at President Trump this time around."
Hamilton vouched for show's alleged conservative bona fides: "The Ranch centers around the Bennett family, trying to make a go of a family ranching business in Colorado. In previous seasons, along with comments peppered in about a love of Reagan and dislike of CNN, they've given the conservative prospective on oil and gas drilling, how protesters forget the real-life consequences of their actions, and everything in between." Indeed, Hamilton has previously touted the show doing those very things.
But, Hamilton sighs, the show has been failing to exploit every possible opportunity to bash liberals:
In the meantime, they've added a new character in his place. Rather than the idiot/slacker character we had in Rooster, they've given us Luke (Dax Shepard), a veteran with PTSD and a disillusionment with military life. While they do manage to convey somewhat the mess that is the VA system, they never take the natural opportunity for Beau to make one of his classic comments about how this would apply to government-run, single-payer healthcare in general. That's a fairly big omission, and it was obvious.
There were still the usual cracks about Reagan (for), lazy Democrats (against), and CNN (fake news), but this season was significantly less in touch with its audience. One of the running themes of the show was a love of Cracker Barrel, something that a lot of middle Americans can relate to. This year, Beau's girlfriend Joanne (Kathy Baker) is fired after years of waiting tables there because a cute millennial named Sunshine comes along. Are we in middle America going to accept this slight on the character of Cracker Barrel? I think not.
Finally, Hamilton gets to her real area of concern: A joke in which one character says to another, "You could be president. I mean, you gotta fuck a couple porn stars, but we'll get you there." She then huffed: "How hard do you suppose they tried to fit that joke in somewhere- anywhere- in this latest release? It was just shoehorned in there, like they wrote the dialogue around trying to make a ham-fisted joke."
Hamilton concluded by complaining that that show much "get their act back together ... because they're set to lose a whole lot of viewers if they stay on this road. Don't build a show to speak to a particular audience and then insult that audience."
Just one Trump joke on a show, and the MRC thinks it might as well be having Jane Fonda on.
