The Writers' Strike - Over?

It looks like the strike may be over.

I'm just not sure that's a good thing.

Because it looks like there was a long, painful slog that hurt just about everybody and wound up with an only incrementally better deal. It looks like essentially the corporations did exactly what they wanted to do and gave up the tiniest amount because to fight for a truly fair deal is basically impossible against their deep pockets.

I don't think that the arguments for why the WGA should (and probably will) take the deal are wrong, but it's disillusioning at least to see that, in the end, money and greed basically won out over principles and togetherness. (By which I mean the greedy bastards at the AMPTP won out over the WGA, not that the writers have somehow chosen money over principles... because if they were gonna do that, there never would have been a strike.)

I hope I'm just misreading and that the agreement is much better than it looks, but it looks like a lot of people were put out of work, lost their deals, lost months' worth of income for a pittance worth of minimal gains.

Mostly, I just hope it's not a preview of what's going to happen this election season. But with Obama sweeping today's primaries and caucuses, things are looking up. Now I just hope my fellow Texas democrats don't disappoint me.

Hooray Marvel!

Look, I give Marvel a lot of shit on Comic Pants and elsewhere (even while loving some of their output, like The Order and other great books that have *not* been canceled), but you have to give them credit for getting this one right.

Marvel Studios signs Interim deal with WGA

Blog Update for December 2007

This is the latest monthly update to the sidebar of the blog, updating my favorite comics and TV for the previous month. The listings are alphabetical, not by rank of how much I liked them in comparison. My criteria for what makes the list is when I read them, not necessarily when they were published. This is basically also my own records of what I read/liked for the inevitable "End of Year" lists I feel like making.

Turns out December is a busy month when you've got family and own a retail business. I barely had any time to do extra reading this month, and the writer's strike turned out to be a blessing in disguise for my free time, even if it does make all my fears of future corporate domination seem all too real.

It was a pretty good month for comics, and there were a dozen or so books that didn't make my cut-off for best of 20, including, for the second month in a row, issues of Batman and the Outsiders (DC), Angel (IDW), Fearless (Image) and plenty of others. Marvel dominated again, with 10 comics, and two of those had two issues in the month, so technically it's a dozen. Image had 4 (Dynamo 5 plus three promising newcomers), Dark Horse had 2 (although I haven't had the chance to read BPRD or Lobster Johnson, both of which might have made the cut), IDW had 1 (although it was a great one, new Wormwood) and Oni had 1 with their interesting new book Resurrection. DC scores the other 2 with Vertigo, and again the mainstream DC Universe has little to nothing to offer me.

With the Writer's Strike, it looks like I'll just put my Top 10 shows on hold for the time being. In fact, I took the rather shocking (for those who know me) step of dropping my cable down to the very basic minimum this month, and that mostly for my daughter's shows. Honestly, I've got a huge backlog of DVDs to get to, plus a Netflix queue I've been neglecting, plus the XBox with Rock Band and some other games... my free time is more than covered.

And on the lighter side of the news...

Well, lighter if you consider "Corporate America making another naked attempt at squashing workers by applying their giant financial advantage to evil purposes" lighter. Or, in other words, the writer's strike.

But the writers do have a spoof page up for the AMPTP, or NAMBLA (this joke trademark Jon Stewart and the Daily Show), and it's hilarious. Check it out.

Blog Update for November 2007

This is the latest monthly update to the left column of the blog, updating my favorite comics and TV for the previous month. The listings are alphabetical, not by rank of how much I liked them in comparison. My criteria for what makes the list is when I read them, not necessarily when they were published. This is basically also my own records of what I read/liked for the inevitable "End of Year" lists I feel like making.

It's another huge month for comics, and my early cut of "best of the month" ran well over thirty. Cutting it down, I lost promising new first issues of Midknight (Red 5), Batman and the Outsiders (DC), Angel (IDW), Fearless and Hawaiian Dick (Image). Also not quite making the cut were a half-dozen from Marvel (Marvel Adventures Iron Man #7, Criminal #10, Marvel Zombies 2 #2, Daredevil #102, Incredible Hulk #111 and Immortal Iron Fist #10), two from DC (Brave And The Bold #8 and Suicide Squad Raise The Flag #3) and four from other publishers (Hack Slash Series #6, Usagi Yojimbo #107, Umbrella Academy Apocalypse Suite #3 and Invincible #46). As for what did make the cut? 3 DC (the out-of-continuity, consistently late All Star Superman and two Vertigo books, one of which is gone in the new year, not exactly a strong DC showing), a whopping 10 (half the list!) from Marvel (with Abnett & Lanning and Christos Gage both represented on the list with two different books), 1 from Image, 1 from Red 5, 1 from Oni and 4 from Dark Horse, making it the second biggest publisher on my list. Plus two of the books that almost made the cut were Dark Horse, putting them even with DC even if I expanded to a top 30 and included Vertigo in DC's count. Marvel also has my attention, but mostly for books that are on their fringe, with only Captain America in the top 20 sellers.

Didn't do a lot of reading this month, outside of comics issues. Only read a half-dozen graphic novels or so, didn't start on any of the books that I meant to read. But it was a busy month at work and there were a few trips to Dallas for family visits and Wizard World Texas, plus I was getting ready to start up the D&D game again in December, which meant a lot of prep work.

November was also the last real month of new television for the year, and indeed probably for longer. My guess, given the networks' insulting negotiation tactics, is that the strike is going to go on for a while. Which is OK, although I'll probably start missing shows in a couple months. At any rate, there are a few great series, and a couple that have moved from intriguing to solidly good. But first, the disappointments. I killed off Reaper for good because it was getting repetitive and also because I saw what the CW passed on with the Veronica Mars season four pilot, and I think my interests and the interests of whoever made that decision are nowhere near in line. Heroes regained some strength, but then turned in a two-part finale that may have been the worst episodes the series has ever had. I'm not sure I'll be back for season three. Friday Night Lights continues to have moments of greatness and moments of "what the hell?!" And Scrubs... it bums me out that Scrubs was weak last season and weaker this one, and that it's not going to go out as strongly as it could have if they'd ended a couple seasons ago. Still watching, but not enjoying it as much as the rest of the comedy block.

Then there's the good. The Office went dark early thanks to the strike, but before it did, they turned in three pretty strong episodes. 30 Rock was even better, with three new episodes, two of which could be series favorites for me. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia had a great third season, closing out with some hilarious episodes, with the two-part "Gang Gets Whacked," the '70s tinged "Bums" episode and "The Gang Dances Their Asses Off" providing some of the most over-the-top and hilarious moments the show has ever seen. I sincerely hope we see more Rickety Cricket in season four, as every moment with him was gold. Pushing Daisies doesn't quite have its hooks in me the way Fuller's Dead Like Me did, but I love the entire cast and it's definitely my favorite new show of the season. My second favorite, as it turns out, is Chuck, which is like this weirdly perfect blend of McG's Charlie's Angels (in terms of whimsy and action), Alias (in terms of action/soap opera/spy stuff blending) and a few other elements. The music choices and dialogue/characters are strong, and though I never watched it, I'm going to guess those are the hallmarks of The O.C.'s Josh Schwartz.I was also really, really happy with Razor, the Battlestar Galactica movie, which has me wanting to go back and re-watch seasons 1-3 of Galactica. Then there's my favorite show on the air, Dexter, which is having a second season as good or maybe even better than its first. As long as Showtime has Dexter, I will have Showtime. Weeds, too, although Weeds returning next year is kind of bittersweet, as the last few episodes in November really provided a great finale for the series, and I'm wary of them going on too long. And the "good, but not great" sitcoms of How I Met Your Mother and My Name is Earl, both of which have occasional uproariously funny moments (the "writing fantasy" episode of Earl was great, for example) but also occasionally fall into sitcom cliche, continued to be good, occasionally great. Mother was fairly weak in November, so it was number 11 on the top 10 and didn't quite make the cut.

A few new additions to the blogroll this month, mostly a result of the strike. I've added both Deadline Hollywood Daily and United Hollywood, and both have become favorites of mine for their strike coverage. Also added the writer blogs of Ronald D. Moore and Lisa Klink. In non-strike related additions, there was the Flickr blog (semi-daily new pictures), Obama Press (the official newsblog of Barack Obama's campaign), rarely updated blogs from Jenna Fischer (Pam from The Office) and Stan Sakai (creator of Usagi Yojimbo), a new webcomic, Real Life Comics, found from a link on Shortpacked! and the Wizards of the Coast RSS feed.

A Little More On The Strike

I haven't been posting as many links to the strike news as of late, but I have still been following it with a sort of horrified interest. Horrified at how greedy the AMPTP and the studios behind them are being, that is.

So this, from United Hollywood, an open letter to the AMPTP's PR Person of the Hour, just about made me die laughing.

"In the very likely event that you get fired before you finish reading this, I hope you'll be so kind as to mark your place so that your successors can pick up reading where you leave off. Thanks."

Awesome.

The strike is going to take a while, I think, but I fully believe the AMPTP will cave. Because they are losing *huge* right now, in terms of PR and stock prices, which is hitting them where they hurt.

The Daily Show - Still Funny, Even on Strike

Writer's Strike - Ask A Ninja

The Strike Continues...

It's probably an indication of what an entertainment junkie I am (ok, and an RSS junkie) that I'm reading *tons* of stuff about the writers' strike right now. In fact, sad as it may seem, I am probably greatly informed about the writers' strike, the world of comic books, the developments in the upcoming 2008 election and maybe a bit about videogames and very little else. We're not at war with Iran yet, are we? Because I might have missed that.

Kidding! Mostly. I really am paying a lot of attention to this.

And I've realized that I know people affected by this. I mean, not really close friends, although I do have close friends who are writers, but they're generally working in videogames or smaller press comics. I have plenty of friendly acquaintances, though, who are being affected by the strike. It struck me today that the writers' strike for a lot of the gofers and assistants and the others who really make the shows run day-to-day are probably hurting now, and will be more. It would be kind of like if comics' writers struck... the companies and the big name writers could hold out for a while, but I'd be in a panic-spiral without new product to sell to customers, and the guys doing one book a month would be having to take jobs waiting tables.

So while I have great admiration for the writer/producers for turning their back on huge salaries and great deals they've worked their whole lives to get, I think I have even more respect for folks who lost their first big break in a writers' room, or who had to give up a new internship, or did any of the other thousands of jobs that are necessary for TV to work, in order to support the writers.

And that, ultimately, is why the studios are going to lose, and lose huge, here. The reruns are coming sooner than expected (next week is the last new Office, which makes me very sad, and it won't be the first show to get truncated that way), and while it's going to hurt the viewers, most of us who aren't misinformed or selfish about our entertainment realize that it's the least bit of sacrifice we can offer to support the future of writers. And it's clear that, in general, folks have lined up behind the WGA on this. Any hopes of splitting them from the other guilds is weakening by the day. And it makes me glad when I see something like this on United Hollywood, showing that the actors (and SAG) are supporting the WGA.

The Office Writers on the Strike

Wow, Are The Studios Screwed

Really, the best thing they could have hoped for in their greedy attempt to keep the writers from benefiting financially from their work was that the actors, teamsters or writer/producers would have split from the WGA.

That ain't happening. By all accounts, the teamsters are supportive, and if you read this article from Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan, you'll see that the writer/producers and several actors are walking the picket line.

This includes the folks running some of my favorite shows, like Shawn Ryan, Ronald Moore, Tina Fey, Greg Daniels, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. It's always nice to see when creative folks you admire for their creative output turn out to have integrity as well.

This may not be a short strike. The corporations seem pretty dug in. But in the end, I have to believe it's going to work in the writers' favor, because it's going to become quickly apparent which side needs the other more... and it's not the creative people who need the corporations.

Must Reading On The Writers' Strike

Brian Vaughan had a great piece up that was reprinted at the end of this CBR piece. The man walked away from a staff writer/producer job on Lost. A dream job. On principle, on supporting his fellow writers. That is what the strike is about.

But John Rogers really gets to the heart of it, and in a way that is a hilariously funny read. His corporation = tiger metaphor is one that I find heart-breakingly true and side-splittingly funny.

It's a painful, transitional time as entertainment, hell, our entire culture, goes fully from analog to digital. This is probably just one of the many important baby steps that will be taken in transforming the culture.

I said in a previous post that as an entertainment consumer, I don't have any particular emotional investment in this strike. But as someone who follows pop culture, as someone who knows and likes creative people, I am absolutely 100% behind the writers on this one.