* If tomatometer & audience score are within 5% of each other, you can trust the ratings to give you a decent indiciation of movie quality.
* If tomatometer is more than 15%+ higher than audience score, it means it's an artsy fartsy movie that critics like and movies don't.
* If audience score is 15%+ higher than tomatometer, it's a fun movie even if it's not oscar worthy. (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/old_school is a perfect example)
The show that always sticks in my mind as an example is HBO’s Watchmen, which has 96% with critics and 56% with the audience.
Eg Captain Marvel or She Hulk being generally disliked compared to Iron Man, Hulk or Captain America, The Last Jedi being disliked in the Star Wars community or in gaming, The Last of Us Part 2 being much more controversial than the original.
Put aside the politics for a bit and actually pay attention to the arguments and it becomes clear that people aren't specifically complaining that Captain Marvel is a woman, but that she isn't interesting or likable. Similarly TLOU2 wasn't controversial primarily because of the trans character, but because it essentially wrecked what people liked so much about the original for seemingly no meaningful reason. When faced with that, it's unsurprising that the conclusion tends to be that the series was sacrificed at the altar of politics.
This is such a common tactic in gaming when a game is controversial, just lean on the claim that gamers are typically bigots and get away with anything because most people don't want to be called bigots. It's why Steam Reviews are preferable to reviews from journalists on whether or not a game is worth playing.
If you don’t change anything, then what’s the point of watching/reading/playing the same thing over and over? Doesn’t any series just get incredibly boring without variation?
Great literature, TV, and films say things. Sometimes you might not agree. But at least it makes you think. Ideally, each entry in a series should say different or evolving things. Just look at how The Wire explores different aspects of Baltimore’s crime epidemic in each season as an example.
And I’m not saying Captain Marvel is great or even good by the way. I thought it was just another boring superhero move, and a D or F tier at that. Same goes for a lot of your other examples.
But I do think even beloved series have to have room for adaptation and experimentation. Because otherwise, they stagnate and can get to a point where they’re no longer worth watching.
Just look at Mission Impossible for example. Each film is well made and has fun action. But do we really ever need another one? Doesn’t essentially the same thing happen every time? Isn’t Ethan Hunt always going to save the day and risk everything for his friends and the mission?
The Rings of Power is a recent example where almost every strong and noble character is either black or a woman or both. It serves no purpose in the story.
Watchmen was a rare example where they actually took on racial issues rather than just pay lip service to them.