Recently, we asked the BuzzFeed Community what old movies and TV shows don’t hold up AT ALL through a modern lens. Unsurprisingly, people had a lot to say. Here are some of the best responses:
Some responses have been edited for length and clarity.
1. “Beauty and the Beast is basically a story about Stockholm syndrome.”
Buena Vista Pictures / ©Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
2. “Grease ages so badly. There’s a guy trying to look up the girls’ skirts on the bleachers, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
3. “Every movie and show based on The Taming of the Shrew. Yay, humiliating the will out of a strong woman! Oh so entertaining! 🙄”
Buena Vista Pictures / ©Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
4. “I watched Pretty Woman for the first time recently. It was very much giving ‘I need a man to save me,’ including her whole speech about dreaming of a white knight as a little girl. And when Jason Alexander’s character attacks her, she does that thing women in older movies do where she curls up in a little ball instead of whacking him in the jaw.”
5. “Scrubs! I started rewatching the series this summer and forgot that virtually every episode (except the sad ones) has a massive sexual harassment storyline. One surgeon’s entire role on the show is to be a walking, talking HR violation. And the doctor running the hospital dismisses Carla when she says there needs to be some sensitivity training.”
“But I still love the show so much, and will never not ship JD and his ‘Brown Bear’ (a nickname which is also problematic).”
Abc / ©ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection
6. “I attempted to watch The King of Queens, and when Doug tells Carrie she gained weight, I was done. Much like Jay in My Wife and Kids.”
7. “There’s nothing more startling than enjoying a peaceful episode of Gilmore Girls when, all of a sudden, Rory casually drops the r-slur.”
Scott Humbert / ©The CW /Courtesy Everett Collection
8. “Zoey 101. I tried watching a few years ago during the Free Britney era. Zoey was insufferable, and Logan was a walking Title IX case. I wanted nostalgia, but it sucked.”
9. “I love The Golden Girls, but it had that episode berating Robin Givens for speaking out against Mike Tyson for abusing her. No one believed her, and then Mike Tyson bit a man’s ear just because he was losing a fight. It forever shows that she was right about what a horrible person he is.”
Mario Casilli / TV Guide / ©NBC / courtesy Everett Collection
10. “The Disney movie Blank Check. I loved it as a kid, but rewatching it as an adult I was not a fan of the full-grown adult kissing the 10-year-old kid. I am genuinely surprised this movie hasn’t been canceled.”
11. “I just tried to rewatch Lost but had to stop after Dr. Jack kept trying to convince the women that their very real medical conditions (e.g. asthma) were just in their head. He never does this to the male characters.”
12. “I Love Lucy was unspeakably sexist. Ricky put Lucy over his knee to spank her as a punishment. Awful.”
Fathom Events / CBS / courtesy Everett
13. “Anything with John Wayne in it. Literally all his movies are problematic. You can use the old excuse of ‘it was a different time,’ but come on! This guy was an evil, evil dude.”
14. “Sex and the City. The transgender episode and the episode where Charlotte is dating someone she thinks is gay based on stereotypes come to mind.”
Warner Bros / ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection
15. “M*A*S*H is an amazing and well-written show, but the portrayal of women and the unwanted sexual aggression forced on them is frightening. It highlighted how shows that were — and still are — revered deserved their accolades but were also problematic.”
16. “How I Met Your Mother. The characters take no responsibility for their actions, they are terrible to each other, and then there’s the entire Barney character. I don’t see it finding a new audience like a lot of older shows are doing.”
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17. “The IT Crowd. It has so many homophobic and sexist jokes. Plus, there is one whole episode where Chris O’Dowd’s character pretends to be a wheelchair-bound special needs patient. 😬”
18. “I am a diehard Friends fan, but the casual homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, and the fact that the show was SO very white don’t hold up well through a modern lens.”
Andrew Eccles / TV Guide / ©NBC / courtesy Everett Collection
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