You want to call things pretentious without calling them pretentious?
Kind of.
I know what I am watching is "too pretentious" but that word has too many connotations involved to get out the meaning I am going for, as "pretentious" often means "terrible artsy garbage"
But I want to say that something I am watching spends too much time highlighting its premise and themes to the point of becoming trite. It isn't vague but it never says something.
Or rather... A piece of fiction that would be drastically improved if it stopped trying allude and actually just outright said something. That it stopped trying to be vague and actually spelt things out. Not because the audience doesn't know what is happening but because it is so attempting vague and alludes so much that it stops being solid. Vague to the point of being trite.
I need a word that isn't Pretentious for whenever something is "too smart for its own good"
Or rather where it spends far too much time waddling in its "deep surreal storytelling" to the point where it just feels aimless, lost, and sort of bad.
Like... it was all pretense without substance... pretentious one could say.
Navel-gazing.
That works, thanks!
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What I need to attribute this to is.. well...
Basically imagine if I am going to a store and I need to tell you.
Yet I don't say "I am going to the store" I instead say I am going out and I take money... It is kind of obvious I am going to the store because I have a grocery list.
I eventually get to the store but instead of saying it is a store... the angles hide that fact... even though it is obviously a store.
People ask me where I was and I say "Somewhere" while holding a grocery list with items marked off.