Last month (?), social media started buzzing about a new site created to help fragile conservatives avoid any media with woke messaging. Afraid of inadvertently watching a show with DEI casting or criticism of western civilization? Is it Woke or Not has you covered!
How it works: The site has 7 different categories and assigns a woke % for each one and an aggregate/overall rating. The lower the %, the better (YMMV). The categories are: Woke representation/casting, woke political dialogue, identity-driven story themes, western institutional/cultural critique, woke character or canon changes, anti-woke backlash and complaints, and creator track record context.
Woke ratings for shows nominated for best comedy, drama, or limited series at this year’s Emmys:
Widow’s Bay – 14% (lowest woke rating among these shows)
Abbott Elementary – 41%
The Bear – 43%
Hacks – 71%
Margo’s Got Money Troubles – 65%
Nobody Wants This – 37%
Only Murders in the Building – 21%
Shrinking – 36%
The Pitt – 78% (highest woke rating among these shows… well played, but still fuck u noah wyle)
The Diplomat – 37%
The Gilded Age – 53%
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms – 37%
Paradise – 43%
Pluribus – 57%
Slow Horses – 38%
Your Friends & Neighbors – 40%
DTF St. Louis – 39%
All Her Fault – 77%
The Beast in Me – 50%
Beef – 39%
Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette – 29%
And now let’s play a game of, can you guess the (non-)woke show/movie??
Movie: 19% woke rating
Anti-woke backlash and complaints: Several X and Reddit users said the movie unfairly attacks men or turns male desire into something evil. One X complaint gained about 780 likes, while most related claims came from small accounts. No major news outlet made these complaints a story of their own. Much louder right-leaning reaction praised the movie as not woke, which does not count as backlash.
[the answer]Obsession
[more guessing this way]Show: 89% woke rating
Woke character or canon changes: The show changes the books by casting [character/family names] as Black. The change affects several major characters and makes the family look different from [character/family name]. The show uses that visible difference when characters question whether [female character]’s sons belong to [male character]. [Showrunnerl said the casting also helped show a more diverse cast.
[the answer]House of the Dragon
Show: 93% woke rating
Western institutional/cultural critique: The story presents [location]’s churches, Republican politics, gun culture, abortion activism, and anti-immigrant talk as parts of a hypocritical public image. The wives preach family values while hiding queer sex, affairs, an abortion, drugs, and crimes. The show often gives women the power and makes husbands and male officials look foolish, weak, or corrupt. The satire is recurring and clear, though the series remains a camp murder soap rather than a detailed attack on every institution.
[the answer]The Hunting Wives
Show: 82% woke rating
Identity-driven story themes: Entire premise and arc revolve around two men discovering and sustaining a secret gay relationship amid rivalry and career demands; queer self-acceptance, secrecy, and love in a masculine environment drive every major plot beat.
[the answer]Heated Rivalry
Show: 31% woke rating
Western institutional/cultural critique: Institutions fail because of corrupt individuals such as dirty cops, crooked mayors, and rogue officers. That is classic pulp anti-corruption storytelling. It is not a modern activist reframe of whiteness, colonial guilt, toxic masculinity as ideology, or Christianity as oppressor. Resistance to bullies and criminals is story-logical, not identity politics.
[the answer]Reacher
Movie: 0% woke rating (!!)
Woke representation/casting: Not present. The cast uses established British and French performers in roles that fit the contemporary London family setting and character logic. No visible patterns of identity-based casting, quota emphasis, or prominent mismatched representation appear in key roles.
[the answer]The Father (2020)
