TIMING

As of this writing, the strike against the motion picture studios and networks by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild goes on. There is talk of a settlement by Labor Day, though I have personally predicted this could go on through year end. The strike could be over before you read this. So, at the risk of irrelevancy, I make the following presentation:

Barbie aside, we have been told by the major motion picture and television networks that business is not good; that the strain on the industry of competition from streamers such as Netflix and Amazon Prime has produced an economic model that is simply unsustainable.

Actors and writers are pissed that a series such as Suits can become a streaming success, years after its initial run on the USA Network, and they are not being compensated. Understandable. World War II was nearing an end when the musicians union established the principle of payment for the reuse of recorded material. Reimbursement (known as royalties and/or residuals in the entertainment business) for having one’s performance recorded, then repeated, has been established for writers and actors in the industry for more than a half century, albeit never with the clarity and consistency the Guilds would have liked. Now, with streaming… well, suffice to say, things have changed… again.

There are other factors at work here. As in the past, this is seen by management as a terrific opportunity for the major companies to reassess, to clean away so-called “dead wood,” and to take enough time in doing so that labor will “come to its senses,” reduce its demands, and give management the kind of proposal it will approve.

There is little pressure on management to do otherwise. True, you are missing Stephen Colbert’s nightly take down of Donald Trump, but there is plenty else to watch and enjoy on your television. There is, simply put, little motivation to write to your “friendly” corporate executives to pressure them to end this labor dispute.

I mean, have you seen the Korean entry, Extraordinary Attorney Woo on Netflix? Talk about something to do…sixteen episodes of one of the most charming performances you are likely to see in this, or any other season. Ms. Park Eun-bin is simply brilliant as the fledgling lawyer. View this series before Netflix decides to dub it into English. The subtitles more than suffice, although the way these Korean legal eagles go at each other you might wish you had taken that course in speed reading.

And while on the subject of female lawyers, FISK is also a must watch. Sort of the Australian version of my own The Trials of Rosie O’Neill--only funnier. My show, starring Sharon Gless, is now on Amazon Prime while the Kitty Flanagan Aussie comedy may be found on Netflix.

Apple TV’s Silo is a well mounted semi-Sci-Fi dystopian view of the future of planet earth. I have seen enough episodes to make this recommendation. Simply put, it is a good show with a good cast who only require a few episodes to win their audience over.

I am a bit disappointed over the FX reboot of Justified: City Primeval, but that is mostly because of how long I have waited to see Timothy Olyphant recreate his fabulous characterization of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens. It is probably unrealistic to expect that this new incarnation could match the old but get Givens back to Harlan County (producers Andron and Dinner) and I promise faithfully to be there with him.

If you want a stand-alone film, some are praising Holy Spider on Prime Video. I am not one of them, although I concede it is well made and that it has some solid suspenseful moments. The film has a powerful feminist theme with a strong female lead and should be right up my street, but I found the piece less than emotionally satisfying and I would not be surprised if you felt the same.

Painkiller is a Netflix mini-series revolving around Big Pharma and America’s opioid crisis. It is fiction, largely based on fact, and is well worth your time, unless you are addicted to dramas with happy endings.

The point of all this is that there is plenty left to watch. International fare, golden oldies (both of the series and motion picture variety) and… if you insist… even reality TV. The strike by actors and writers, already months along, has failed to touch, let alone impact, an audience of any size… which brings me to the thesis that the Guilds have seriously miscalculated their decision to stage a walk-out. No one in management is going to take the hit that the members of these two unions are going to have to (continue to) endure. Bob Iger will not have to shutter a single one of his homes.

FDR New Deal Democrats raised me. My parents, like their immigrant parents before them, were working class folks. My maternal Grandmother was Shop Steward at a sweatshop in downtown Los Angeles where my Dad’s Mother was employed as well.

I “get” the labor movement. I am an advocate for the working men and women of this country, and I have been known to unmercifully tease my capitalist friends (particularly those in the restaurant business) for not properly compensating their workforce.

I have gone out on strike as a teamster and have changed direction more than once to avoid crossing a picket line. All that said, I think labor has gone out on a  very unstable limb with this strike; not for why they are striking, but when. People are about to lose their homes (in addition to potentially damaging their careers) over a strike that, at best, is ill-timed and, at worst, should never have happened at all.

Let me hasten to add that over my half century in the business I have been lied to, stolen from, cheated, and betrayed multiple times by those in charge at multiple corporations. I have no recollections of any of that ever coming from the labor force. Believe me, I am no stooge for management.

But now? At a time when the business is in the throes of apocalyptic change? When theatres are closing all over the country and the streaming of international TV series and independent motion pictures on Netflix and the like have created an unsustainable model for what was… at least for a time… a significant business? Now is not the time for the industry to turn on itself in the form of a strike.

I get that the writers and actors believe their cause to be righteous. I get the concept that a person should not be put out of work by their own work and that artificial intelligence technology just might make that very possible in the future; but try explaining the concept of residuals to a house painter, or a waitress at Denny’s.

I am more than willing to buy the writers’ and actors’ arguments for more… and better… but (trust me) there is no substitute in show business for … wait for it…

Timing.

 

Barney Rosenzweig