Television...and book recs
Jun. 24th, 2023 09:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Still listening to Burn it Down - good news? Apparently Nancy Drew, Tom Swift and Lucifer had good show-runners who ran non-toxic and collaborative work environments. That allowed a free exchange of ideas, and no egos run amok. Same with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which had daycare. So they do exist.
And Mathew Weiner was kept from doing another series by Marti Noxon and her colleague who filed suit regarding his toxic behavior on Mad Men, and outed him. Also UnReal was listed as a safe and non-toxic work environment.
Ryan details work environments led by good show-runners, who do listen to their writers, and mentor them. Also she states that one of the writers from Lost who went on to run other shows, and learned from Lost's mistakes, has provided a list of things a show-runner should do aka The Eleven Rules of Show-running by Javier Grillo-Marxuach (His first show-running experience was The Middleman).
Javier (one of the writers on Lost who was interviewed by Ryan) provides his final statement on the matter HERE.
Here's a link to the information on Bill Murray and others in Ryan's book - Hollywood's List of Excuses is Endless - Enabling Behavior from Bill Murray to Jeff Garlin by Maureen Ryan
And this is the essay Ryan wrote about Cordelia and Charisma Carpenter in Substack - An Angel in Hell
The man behind Angel, Buffy, The Avengers, and people like him — they just consume so much of the oxygen of the culture, of our minds. I will continue, because I’m a human being who cares about this stuff, to think about what he did, what they did and were everywhere allowed to do, and what effect those patterns continue to have. I will think about why so many reflexively cause pain when they resurface (so often not to make amends but transparently to reclaim what they are “owed”). Whether this particular person causes pain unwittingly, wittingly, obliviously, selfishly or sadistically — I just … I am not going to re-litigate all of that again. I’m tired.
I have more than enough energy for something else, though. I have longed, so longed, to dive into a different topic. In all of the discourses about that man’s complicated legacies and toxicities, one subject has rarely, if ever, come up: How good Charisma Carpenter was at her job.
How tremendously good Charisma Carpenter was at her job.
A job that she did on both Angel and Buffy, key texts for TV critics of my generation. A job that, when she was working on Angel, not many people made easier for her, and any number of people appeared to make much harder.
But Carpenter, for different reasons and at two separate times in my life, was a light, a brilliant light. I needed that light in those unspeakable times.
Lost not an isolated incident - list of shows with hostile workplace allegations also includes cancellation notice of Paramount's Rise of the Pink Ladies
Interesting - Ryan talks around Whedon, and refuses to mention him by name so far in the book or give him any attention. She knew him, and had interviewed him in the past, and was a fan of his series - and enraged by his behavior. So that may well be the reason. I may be wrong about this - I've not finished the book yet.
2. The Diplomat - on Netflix is excellent. It's hilarious. Mother is ripping through it right now. I don't want to spoil folks on it. It's about a career diplomat who is sent to Britain, with her husband, when she'd prefer to be sent to Kabul. Well cast, well written. Has a female show-runner. And possibly one of the more smartly written shows that I've seen.
3. Somebody Somewhere - on Max - is excellent, and a bit of a comfort show. Hyper-realistic. With real people. No pretty people. Takes place in Manhattan, Kansas. The folks are kind to each other for the most part, and it focuses on a forty-six year old woman who is struggling to get over the recent death of her sister. Her friendships, family relationships, etc. It's funny and bittersweet. And the ending of the first episode is beautiful and moved me to tears.
4. Secret Invasion on Disney + - is basically Marvel's sci-fi spy story without superheroes. Focuses on Nick Fury who is kind of on his own here. The first episode has a twist ending, and kills off a major character in the MCU. The death is earned, and it gets across something to Fury - that the bad guy can look like anyone including him.
5. Books
I'm flirting with books, because of reading slump. Currently reading The Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian mainly because I can't focus on The Witch King at the moment. I'm also seriously considering getting Cat's newest novel - We Could be So Good - this is a queer pseudo-contemporary romance that takes place in a 20th Century New York. It's gotten rave reviews.
I may buy both of the new Kate Daniels novels by Illona Andrews. Also flirting with a few other books out there.
I tend to buy books when I get bored and restless about stuff.
And Mathew Weiner was kept from doing another series by Marti Noxon and her colleague who filed suit regarding his toxic behavior on Mad Men, and outed him. Also UnReal was listed as a safe and non-toxic work environment.
Ryan details work environments led by good show-runners, who do listen to their writers, and mentor them. Also she states that one of the writers from Lost who went on to run other shows, and learned from Lost's mistakes, has provided a list of things a show-runner should do aka The Eleven Rules of Show-running by Javier Grillo-Marxuach (His first show-running experience was The Middleman).
Javier (one of the writers on Lost who was interviewed by Ryan) provides his final statement on the matter HERE.
Here's a link to the information on Bill Murray and others in Ryan's book - Hollywood's List of Excuses is Endless - Enabling Behavior from Bill Murray to Jeff Garlin by Maureen Ryan
And this is the essay Ryan wrote about Cordelia and Charisma Carpenter in Substack - An Angel in Hell
The man behind Angel, Buffy, The Avengers, and people like him — they just consume so much of the oxygen of the culture, of our minds. I will continue, because I’m a human being who cares about this stuff, to think about what he did, what they did and were everywhere allowed to do, and what effect those patterns continue to have. I will think about why so many reflexively cause pain when they resurface (so often not to make amends but transparently to reclaim what they are “owed”). Whether this particular person causes pain unwittingly, wittingly, obliviously, selfishly or sadistically — I just … I am not going to re-litigate all of that again. I’m tired.
I have more than enough energy for something else, though. I have longed, so longed, to dive into a different topic. In all of the discourses about that man’s complicated legacies and toxicities, one subject has rarely, if ever, come up: How good Charisma Carpenter was at her job.
How tremendously good Charisma Carpenter was at her job.
A job that she did on both Angel and Buffy, key texts for TV critics of my generation. A job that, when she was working on Angel, not many people made easier for her, and any number of people appeared to make much harder.
But Carpenter, for different reasons and at two separate times in my life, was a light, a brilliant light. I needed that light in those unspeakable times.
Lost not an isolated incident - list of shows with hostile workplace allegations also includes cancellation notice of Paramount's Rise of the Pink Ladies
Interesting - Ryan talks around Whedon, and refuses to mention him by name so far in the book or give him any attention. She knew him, and had interviewed him in the past, and was a fan of his series - and enraged by his behavior. So that may well be the reason. I may be wrong about this - I've not finished the book yet.
2. The Diplomat - on Netflix is excellent. It's hilarious. Mother is ripping through it right now. I don't want to spoil folks on it. It's about a career diplomat who is sent to Britain, with her husband, when she'd prefer to be sent to Kabul. Well cast, well written. Has a female show-runner. And possibly one of the more smartly written shows that I've seen.
3. Somebody Somewhere - on Max - is excellent, and a bit of a comfort show. Hyper-realistic. With real people. No pretty people. Takes place in Manhattan, Kansas. The folks are kind to each other for the most part, and it focuses on a forty-six year old woman who is struggling to get over the recent death of her sister. Her friendships, family relationships, etc. It's funny and bittersweet. And the ending of the first episode is beautiful and moved me to tears.
4. Secret Invasion on Disney + - is basically Marvel's sci-fi spy story without superheroes. Focuses on Nick Fury who is kind of on his own here. The first episode has a twist ending, and kills off a major character in the MCU. The death is earned, and it gets across something to Fury - that the bad guy can look like anyone including him.
5. Books
I'm flirting with books, because of reading slump. Currently reading The Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian mainly because I can't focus on The Witch King at the moment. I'm also seriously considering getting Cat's newest novel - We Could be So Good - this is a queer pseudo-contemporary romance that takes place in a 20th Century New York. It's gotten rave reviews.
I may buy both of the new Kate Daniels novels by Illona Andrews. Also flirting with a few other books out there.
I tend to buy books when I get bored and restless about stuff.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-26 04:38 pm (UTC)Managing people is hard to do, I think. It's easier to manage the work. It's why I prefer writing novels and painting to acting/direction and script writing. Collaborations require too much people work and that can be exhausting.