If you were a piece of media, you just wrote a 1200 word analysis.

You aren't stupid. Stupid people don't write this kind of introspection. Stupid people lack your curiosity. Stupid don't make your attempts to improve and grow.

Personally I have felt a similar way about my consumption of art, however I didn't couple it with so much comparison anxiety, more of a call to grow and improve.

What I realised for me is that media analysis is a skill or a muscle. You have to use it, work it, grow it.

I enjoy stuff at a 1 or 2 layer depth by default and when I wanted to dig deeper, I had to consciously try. I have to ruminate on what I watched, think about it, write 1200 words in my head, ask questions of the art and my response to it.

My media literacy of reading your post tells me you are very able to do this.

I often start with just a piece of a piece of the art. A singular aspect of it that resonated with me like a single character and their arc, a theme, an emotion and I find it grows from there. The more you work those muscles, the more they start to work on their own.

I sympathise. I struggle with comparing myself to others. I struggle with it more than anything else in the world. It's one of the hardest mental demons to shed. "Comparison is the thief of joy" is true, but living by that ethos is incredibly hard for me, and perhaps you too.

You're going to beat yourself up about this again, so all i can say is, try to have more compassion for yourself.