This isn't always the case, but I found that if I'm looking for a serious discussion, I gotta find the sub within the subreddit. For movies, there are a few that communicate they are about serious film discussion. But between the 2 or 3 subs on serious film talk, I found truefilm to be more in-depth than not.

Even for cycling, there are about 8 subs that I'm on, and one out of the bunch is strictly focused on serious fitness & performance discussions, whereas the rest are sort of free-for-alls loosely based on the subreddit's sub-genre.

If there are no subs within the subs, might just gotta suck it up and scroll past the memes. Or start a discussion and find like-minded folks to branch off.