media – Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3

The Netflix Paramount Media Money Muddle

Stay tuned

It was quite comedic to watch the reaction to the news at the end of last week that Netflix had won the bidding to take over Warner Brothers. There was indeed much celebrating. There as also quite a bit of consternation. The celebration was primarily because there is an abundant school of thought that no one wanted Paramount, now essentially another tentacle of the Trump administration, to win.

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I didn’t bite on the news celebrations or the consternation being the final chapter then. Of course it wasn’t. The Netflix bid parlayed out to $72 billion. On Monday, Paramount Skydance launched a hostile all cash takeover bid of $77.9 billion.

There’s only a roughly $5-6 billion difference between the two bids, but the Paramount bid seeks to swallow up the pieces of Warner Brothers/Discovery that Netflix apparently wasn’t interested in, including media properties such as CNN, TNT Sports, and Discovery. Netflix’s bid was for Warner’s Studio and HBO’s streaming business only. Note that Warner Brothers had previously announced that it planned to split up the combined businesses in just that vein.

So, what does it all mean?

First, it means a lot of lawyers and lobbyists are going to make a lot of money. There are political, marketplace, and money pieces moving around the board in what looks to be quite a saga that I imagine Hulu will end up making a series about within a couple of years.

Netflix is after the content. And the control. Ben Thompson has an excellent run down on that, and why Netflix’s delivery system makes it make sense. Netflix has created quite a war chest for its bid (which is both cash and stock), by building a relatively slick distribution system to deliver its already abundant content, plus whatever it continues acquiring. (How many TV remotes are there without a Netflix button these days?)

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison’s all cash bid includes quite a few players including his pop, Larry Ellison, both of whom are Trump supporters, as well as outlays from sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, and also Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners. Without those partners Paramount, valued at around $15 billion, would have a hard time competing with Netflix’s roughly $400 billion war chest. (The Wall Street Journal has a decent rundown on more of the money specifics.)

Second, it means what was already a muddle the way most of these kind of things are, will get muddled up even more due to the politics of the moment. I’ll disagree with Ben Thompson’s analysis that points out that the President doesn’t have final say on this. That may have indeed been true in a past we’re no longer living in. Those old rules no longer apply. As we’ve been learning everyday since January 20, 2025.

Third, Hollywood also has its concerns. The traditional studio power structure is not enamored of Netflix and its heretofore disdain for theatrical releases, which also brings movie theatre owners into play. I’m not sure if the Netflix bid means the death of Hollywood as some claim, but it certainly would shift the pieces, the game board, and the power structure as what began as a tech company could end up controlling much of what we see on our smaller silver screens.

Big money is at stake obviously. But when big egos get involved the costs for everyone increase. Including those flipping through content consumption choices with their remotes.

Stay tuned. I’m guessing that Hulu series will be quite a watch when all is said and done.

You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Finishing Ken Burns’ The American Revolution

The series is complete. As a nation the question remains open.

We completed watching Ken Burn’s excellent The American Revolution this week. Thank goodness for streaming, allowing us to view it on our schedule. Two spoiler alerts. First, we won the war. Second, we’re still struggling with many of the differences that made the formation (and perhaps the continuation) of what would become the Untied States such a close thing.

The series is excellent and I highly recommend it. Burns and his team do their expected thorough job of researching and producing the documentary. We’re lucky there were so many letters written by those beneath the status of the cast of characters most of us could identify at a glance, because that material provides much of the content and texture inside the frame.

The production does it’s job so well that my hunch is some will come away learning things they never knew about a period of our history we’ve wrapped in so many myths it would keep troops at Valley Forge warm. I would also guess that in today’s political and social climate there will be far too many who tune out or don’t tune in because they prefer the comfort of the mythology.

Which is a damned shame. As I said in an earlier post about the series:

I’m not hearing things differently, but I’m hearing how folks can take their own meaning out of many of the things written and said during that period that led to this country’s founding. History may indeed rhyme, but it also echoes. Often in strange ways.

If you have followed any of Burns’ work you know his approach to American history is to tell the parts of stories we leave out of the picture. I grew up in a part of the country where you could turn your head left or right, spit, and hit the history of the American Revolution or the Civil War. I count myself lucky that my 10th grade history teacher kept reminding us that there was so much more to discover about our past than he had the time to teach us, planting a seed of curiosity that continues to grow inside of me to this day decades later.

Ken Burns and his team continue to keep that curiosity growing. We should all be grateful and unafraid that they do so.

Watching Ken Burns’ The American Revolution

Context is everything

Started watching Ken Burns’ The American Revolution last night. It sounds almost trite, but it’s typical Ken Burns (and his collaborators) historical documentary excellence.

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What struck me is how I’m hearing things I’ve read and heard over and over again about the period leading up to the American Revolution. So far, (only two episodes in) the history is as I studied it. And by studying it, I mean well below the surface of the myths folks of my generation were taught in school.

I’m not hearing things differently, but I’m hearing how folks can take their own meaning out of many of the things written and said during that period that led to this country’s founding. History may indeed rhyme, but it also echoes. Often in strange ways.

That’s certainly true if all you hang your tri-cornered hat on are the myths.

Death By Lightning: A Mini-Review for a Mini-Success

Music, fighting, sausages

Candace Millard’s excellent non-fiction book Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of the President is often overlooked, though it was well received well when it debuted in 2011. I’m hoping that the new Netflix adaptation titled Death By Lightning will give Millard, her book, and the period of American history it chronicles more well deserved and appropriate notoriety.

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Yes, this is one of those many cases where the original source material far outshines the film/TV version. That said, Death By Lightning is worth a watch, if nothing else for an entertaining opportunity to dip your toes into the historical waters that are still affecting much of what we’re wading through today in an age when those in control are so eager to pour cold water on the pieces of history they don’t like.

More to the point, Death By Lightning touches on a piece of history from a tumultuous time that seems largely forgotten, that we perhaps might have learned better from, even before we got into this current mess. A poignant, late scene sets this up wonderfully.

Created by Mike Makowsy and directed by Matt Ross, Death By Lightning is a limited Netflix series, that chronicles the unlikely rise of James Garfield to the presidency and his assassination by Charles Guiteau. (If you think anything in this brief review is a spoiler it proves my earlier point.)

There are four episodes and in the end that’s part of what weakens the series as it doesn’t allow much time for much of the depth of Millard’s book. Towards the end it feels like it’s rushing to a conclusion, leaving me wondering how much got left on the cutting room floor or chucked away in the C-suite.

An excellent cast largely rises to the occasion featuring Michael Shannon as Garfield and Matthew MacFadyen as an over the top Guiteau. That said, Guiteau was apparently quite over the top in real life according to many accounts, so much so that there are so many accounts. They are well supported by Betty Gilpin, Shea Whigham, Bradley Whitford, and especially Nick Offerman in a scenery and sausage chewing turn as Chester Arthur, who succeeded Garfield.

One of the wonders of Millard’s book is that it featured an intersection of so much of American life at the time following the Civil War, from politics to science and medicine. The battle between the politics of the spoils system and a desire for a less corrupt civil service system is well chronicled in both the book and the series and adds interesting context to our current tariff tangles that I’m guessing most will find surprising.

If you’re frustrated by recent happenings in our current day Congress and politics both the book and the series will add some historical (and often entertaining) context to the mess we’re in.

Less featured in the series are the conflicts in medicine with many American physicians of the day rejecting what had become largely accepted in Europe as a new approach to germs and sanitary surgical practices. Not really a spoiler, Garfield was shot, but it wasn’t the bullet that killed him. He died from sepsis caused by infection due to unsanitary practices in the aftermath. If you’re detecting hints of the medical madness we’ve been living through since the pandemic, you’re not wrong.

Alexander Graham Bell also makes an appearance with a new invention that could possibly detect the bullet lodged in Garfield’s gut, but the fuller story about his scientific advances and entrepreneurship, which runs on an almost parallel path to Garfield and Guiteau’s in the book, is mostly left as a footnote in the Netflix series.

Again, it’s by no means a perfect piece of streaming entertainment. I highly recommend the book on which it is based and I would mildly rate it better than most of the mundanity that fill our screens instead of the lists we curate. The cast and the exposure to a forgotten moment in American history that I’m certain many have no clue about makes it a good candidate for your watch list.

Besides just getting a chance to see Nick Offerman toss out the line, “Music, fighting, and sausages” is worth the time spent.

Review: A House of Dynamite

Shear terror in the face of madness

When you live in Chicago, a city under siege by ICE, I’m not sure, but I guess it a strong bent of masochism to watch a movie where your city gets nuked by an unknown enemy. That’s sorta how I felt when my wife and I cued up the excellent Kathryn Bigelow film, A House of Dynamite over the weekend. We debated back and forth, and decided to give it a go. I’m glad we did.

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It’s certainly not an easy movie to watch, regardless of where you live. Yes, a city gets nuked. But that’s not the strength or the point of this movie. Nor should it be a spoiler at this point. The strength lies in watching otherwise steely individuals wither when their shields of confidence dissolve into vulnerable realizations as a horrible what-if scenario becomes all too real to contemplate, yet alone live through, even though they’ve contemplated them over and over again in training.

We don’t get the disaster movie special effects explosions and carnage. They aren’t necessary for this film to work. What we do get is far more terrifying. We get holes ripped through the souls of the characters we’re allowed to meet as they do their jobs. We get belief in systems and protocols developed by smart people shattered, leaving us all wondering if any of it was worth it in the end. It’s a parable of the moment.

It’s certainly not a Halloween movie, but I can’t think of a scarier film to watch as it strips away every possible security blanket and myth we might have become just too comfortable imagining, and realize just how much we’re in the hands of human beings just like us when horrible things unfold.

That’s more than frighteningly true with an utterly incompetent administration running the U.S at the moment. Noah Oppenheim’s script subtly, deceptively, and brilliantly lays that out as it carries us deeper into unfolding and inevitable danger that may be too horrible to watch, but is certainly more terrifying not to.

Bigelow and Oppenheim’s characters all seem more than capable of the sensitive jobs they hold. The filmmakers dispense with the tropes typical of these kind of disaster flicks that feature the usual array of martinets, incompetent and insufferable fools, and even heroes, sung or unsung. Sure, we see some of the personal traumas and trivia some may be dealing with as they come to work on the morning in question. But we initially watch each of these men and women of strong character knuckle down to perform when the unthinkable moment presents itself.

We then watch as they ultimately come face to face with that horrible moment of realization that there is nothing they can do to stop the inevitable. We watch as the enormous personal toll alters their breathing as they have no choice but to carry on with psychic wounds bigger than any smoldering crater before the missile even hits. Bigelow’s camera work and the cast’s strong acting gives us searing glimpses into those moments of horror and devastation as she catches her characters when each crushing realization occurs.

In three parts and an epilogue, the movie repeats the same horrible 18 minutes or so from missile detection to impact, presenting the scenarios in different government locales and viewpoints. We see a missile interception station in Alaska communicating with the White House Situation Room, the STRATCOM headquarters in Nebraska, FEMA headquarters as they have to pull out the plans for the inevitable, and the president who is attending a basketball camp event and then whisked away, while his aides work to inform him from the White House.

Those parts overlap using much of the same dialogue presented from these different points of view via video or audio conferences as the government tries to formulate its response. The repetition of dialogue serves as a better tension builder and reminder of the time before impact than any of the countdown clocks we might see on the screen. As does the sudden departures of those who need to be taken to secure locations as events unfold.

Bigelow’s cast includes some big name actors in a cast headed by Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson, that also includes Anthony Ramos, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Jason Clarke, Greta Lee, and Tracy Letts among a host of others. Some of that host provides some of the most telling reactions on the periphery of the action as they watch their bosses try to handle the situation.

To my mind, nothing procedural happens that we haven’t seen or read about in countless Cold War thrillers of the past. With one exception. I was left with the same sort of existential dread after viewing A House of Dynamite as I was when I first read Tom Clancy’s Sum of All Fears and realized the weapon was going to explode. The only difference is that there was a hero in the Clancy novel to pick up the pieces and help us move beyond the horror.

In A House of Dynamite there are no heroes. Only humans. Trying to do their best. Not failing. But having to face the reality that sometimes your best is simply not enough in the face of madness.

Final Trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein Released

Looking forward to this

I’m looking forward to the release of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein on Netflix perhaps more than any other film to be released this fall. The movie hits theaters on October 7 and streams on Netflix beginning November 7th. The official trailer has now been released.

Mary Shelly’s tale of the monster who created a monster has been so twisted around in so many different incarnations it’s hard to separate the takes from the original fiction. That’s not a complaint, it’s just what it is. I can imagine this one will offer up a unique twist or two given Guillermo del Toro’s previous films.

I’m really looking forward to this and hope it lives up to its promise.

Jimmy Kimmel’s Return: Grace and Strength

Perhaps a spark

Jimmy Kimmel returned to the air in some places last night. In my opinion, he did so with grace and with strength.

He certainly didn’t give any ground as a comedian, continuing to needle the Trump administration and the two-faced chair of the FCC, Brendan Carr. But he also showed a great deal of grace given the moments he and we have all been through since this episode of life under a crazy emperor with no clothes.

I’m linking to the video above with his opening monologue, because one way on the other the moment is a piece of broadcast and cultural history. The optimist in me hopes it will prove to be bigger than that, perhaps a turning point. The realist in me thinks we’re due for some sequels.

Here’s hoping people and the cowardly CEOs have learned a lesson or two before the next sequel is given a green light. I’m not holding my breath on the latter. I have more hope for the former.

You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Disney Brings Back Jimmy Kimmel On Tuesday

We need a documentary about what happens in the writer’s room

In what seems like a reversal Disney is announcing that Jimmy Kimmel will be returning to the air on Tuesday night. That said, don’t count your resurrected comedians before the reruns are syndicated.

177530 0523. All we know is that there will be a spectacle on Tuesday night and in the run up to it. And certainly after the show is over. I’m sure whatever reactions happen in the next 48 hours or so will equal the polarized reactions we’ve already seen. Celebrities have been signing petitions and urging folks to cancel subscriptions, stay away from the theme parks and off of the cruise ships. Conservative politicians have been saying this is a bridge too far.

Of course the MAGAts have been celebrating in the wake of Kimmel’s suspension and gloating in the thuggish way it was done. I’m sure there will be teeth gnashing and hair pulling in the run up to the show. I’m also sure the writer’s room will be quite a show into and of itself.

No one comes out of this looking like anything other than bad. With the possible exception of Kimmel.

Here’s Disney’s statement:

“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country.

“It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive.

“We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”

Of course all eyes and ears will be on what Kimmel has to say on the show Tuesday. Perhaps he’ll reveal some of the names on the Epstein list.

Whatever happens it is just another page in this dark moment we’re living through. And while the entire episode is certainly serious on many fronts, I’m guessing there are more than a few laughs to be had. The only question in the end is at whose expense.

You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

The Cowards and Greedy Captains of Industry

If you can’t take a joke…

Once upon a time things like free speech, freedom of expression, freedom of the press were considered hallmarks of what America stood for. That feels more and more like a fairy tale. The folks in control of the government keep ripping their claws into social and political fabric and turning America into some weird fascist and cultish state that worships a convicted felon and child rapist.

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The latest outrageous move of the Trump administration is threatening ABC to take late night comedy host Jimmy Kimmel off of the air “indefinitely.” It’s a political move and a business move. It’s also a mob move.

Disney, the pseudo-family corporate parent of ABC, Disney made the move after one of the ABC affiliates, Nexstar Media said it was so offended by Kimmel’s comments about the recent shooting of Charlie Kirk that it would pre-empt the show on its stations.

Here’s the fun part. Nexstar is trying to expand its stable of channels and that requires FCC approval. You don’t need a crayon to draw your own conclusions because the thugs in charge are so transparent with their thuggery.

Day by day we’re watching what used to be called the Captains of Industry, academia, and the media drive their boats into what they presume is the safe harbor under Trump’s protection. That harbor is getting so crowded that no one is going to be able to sail out again. Forget the ship of state, the ships of commerce are running themselves aground. This will continue because once ground is given, the bully keeps taking. It’s a tale told too well.

This feels like a yet another power move and of course it requires power to pull off. But it’s actually the move of cowards who realize they are despised and have skin so thin that they can’t take a punch line from a so-so comic. It also requires what we once thought of strong business leaders to show their true colors as cowards. Captains of Cowardice fits more today than the former sobriquet of Captains of Industry.

Another president in another time, Lyndon Johnson, once said about the comedic and satiric criticism tossed at him by the Smothers Brothers.

“It is part of the price of leadership of this great and free nation to be the target of clever satirists. You have given the gift of laughter to our people. May we never grow so somber or self-important that we fail to appreciate the humor in our lives.”

Don’t get me wrong. LBJ was pissed. But he was man enough to rise above it, at least publicly. Those were tumultuous times then as well. These times are becoming not only tumultuous, but tortuous because of the daily drip of news like this.

Apple TV+ Price Increase and the Dummy Price

Death, taxes, and subscription price increases

Times have changed how money changes hands. Back in the day purchasing a subscription meant you got a deal. It also created a relationship between the customer and the service, that often, but not always, protected subscribers from price increases. At least for a time. That really no longer exists. Sure there are deals and free trials to seduce new customers, but typically those deals are for a period of time and then the price goes up. It’s changed the definition of what we used to call “the dummy price.”

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“The dummy price” was for those who didn’t subscribe, thus paying full price. We used to joke in the theatre biz that “the dummy price” was for the guy who’s wife told him she wanted to see a show, and then he’d have his secretary use his credit card to buy the tickets when he got to the office.

When we had to raise prices we’d do so on single tickets and reward our subscribers by telling them we’d keep their current prices intact, thus increasing their savings and further building trust in relationship. That made it a bit easier sell when we inevitably had to raise subscription prices.

It was similar to buying the newspaper each day, instead of subscribing. A subscription was always cheaper than the newsstand price.

The only thing I think I subscribe to these days that actually offers any type of real savings is an E-ZPass, which in my state cuts the cost you pay at the toll booth by 50%.

Of course those are different markets than streaming entertainment, which didn’t exist when I was setting “dummy prices.” Subscriptions for streaming entertainment only gets you access. Certainly a lot of content is available for the price you pay, but realistically it’s more than anyone could ever consume. But the promise is access. The quantity makes much of the content as disposable as it is available, even if it is cheaper than back in the day when you had to purchase physical or digital media in order to view it at home.

The only thing you’re really buying is the inevitable price increase and a bit more frustration in balancing out your entertainment budget.

The new definition of “the dummy price” is hoping there are enough customers who don’t pay attention and miss the price increase.

Apple announced today it’s increasing its monthly subscription price for its streaming entertainment service, Apple TV+ from $9.99 to $12.99 a month. Other streaming services do the same thing, more frequently than Apple. But every player in the market affects the perception of all the rest.

It’s led to a sort of comedic game for consumers who want to stream from different services. They cancel a service for a period of time, often waiting for new content to become abundantly available or a particularly desired title, and then they’ll resubscribe after canceling another service. Or they’ll just keep creating new email accounts, resubscribing under a new name.

Currently the streaming companies seem to be comfortable enough with this type of customer churn, but it builds more attraction to titles than it does to a service’s brand, which in turn drives up the marketing costs for each new title. I imagine at some point streaming companies will find a way to clamp down and try to minimize that churn, the same way they have done with password sharing.

But the subscription game is not just an entertainment industry business practice. There are quite a few services that want your monthly tithe and offer the same kind of price inducements. But it’s certainly easier to cancel Netflix for a period of time than it is some of these other types of services once the inevitable price increase comes along. It will be interesting to see how the AI market shakes out once the first big company needs to break the $20 a month barrier for general consumers.

Bottom line it’s a shell game for both customers and companies. Death and taxes used to be the only constants in that old axiom about the only things certain in life. That needs to be amended to include price increases for subscription services.

You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.