What is HFY, HWTF, HASO and WC?
Well, in my opinion, HFY (Humanity Fuck Yeah) involves stories where humans exhibit admirable strengths like strength, ingenuity, compassion, resilience, diplomacy, etc. Examples are Star Gate, Galaxy Rangers, Star Trek.
The opposite is WC (Walking Clueless). In WC stories, protagonists lack knowledge, rarely learn, overlook things, and get distracted by trivialities and infights instead of focusing on meaningful goals. Examples are Battlestar Galactica, Walking Dead, Star Gate Teen Gate, The X-Files.
In between is HWTF (Humanity? What the Fuck!) where humans are powerful but needlessly choose negative paths paired with poor execution. Examples are Avatar, Jericho, The Boys.
Also in the middle is HASO (Humans Are Space Orks) where humans are evil but for a reason and with depth, like fighting for survival. Examples are Warhammer 40k, Star Wars.
Other genres can be mixed. Hard SciFi can be blend with HFY, WC, HWTF and HASO. Same goes for Isekai, Mysterie, Horror and so on. You can have HFY-Horror, you can have HASO-Isekai. But you can not have HFY-WC.
Premise quality is separate - a story can have an admirable message but still exhibit WC or HASO traits. For example “The Power” has an honorable message (Power corrupts) but still is WC or HWTF (because everyone is an asshole).
Some people don't distinguish between HFY, WC, HWTF and HASO because they don't seriously follow the story. Shouting protagonists are more exciting than solutions for them. If you read this you are not one of them.
Did I miss any important points or do you disagree? Let me know.
I disagree on X-Files and Jericho. Mulder and Scully actually did make progress and Jericho is an apocalyptic survival series where people actually work together at least in their little village.
Is Generation Kill HWTF?
Yeah, sub-par examples but you have to agree that progress in X-Files came at a crawl with Scully and Mulder taking like three seasons to even realise the Cigarette Smoking Man was important. In hindsight I can't remember much about Jericho. I'll just let it stand there.
If Generation Kill is HWTF then NCIS is HFY too 😎 But don't ask me what Seinfeld or Little Britain is.
Seinfeld definitely is HWTF and Little Britain is WC.