Whedon was at least well-read, and was capable of making characters talk in more ordinary language during heavier scenes. And he had an exceptional talent for writing the entire ensemble densely interacting with each other in ways that had every character develop.
The imitators are so much worse - they cover all their deficits as storytellers with constant witticisms (increasingly rooted in memes instead of books), and while Whedon sometimes interrupted dramatic moments with comic relief, the imitators are too afraid of even momentary sincerity to ever not do so.
Where Whedon had the problems of liberalism, his imitators are the hollowed-out vapid neoliberal commodity left over.
Whedon was at least well-read, and was capable of making characters talk in more ordinary language during heavier scenes. And he had an exceptional talent for writing the entire ensemble densely interacting with each other in ways that had every character develop.
The imitators are so much worse - they cover all their deficits as storytellers with constant witticisms (increasingly rooted in memes instead of books), and while Whedon sometimes interrupted dramatic moments with comic relief, the imitators are too afraid of even momentary sincerity to ever not do so.
Where Whedon had the problems of liberalism, his imitators are the hollowed-out vapid neoliberal commodity left over.