Category: media

“Both the power-seeking political couple of House of Cards and the covert Russian spies of The Americans are equal parts business partners and soulmates. Because of each person’s reliance on the other to achieve mutual goals, both couples navigate the marital minefields of betrayal and infidelity in unusual ways. Both are the most fun to watch when they’re being bad together.”

“We’ve got lots of practice criticizing degrading images of black and brown people. Activists know how to gather the news stories, book the media appearances and assemble the petitions to press their case. Advertisers get nervous and programmers think twice. What many forget is that it can be just as easy to stereotype white, working class folks, and just as hard to scrub those stereotypes off your TV screen.”

“The overall growth in home entertainment revenue, following years of decline, has pointed toward more stable performance by entertainment companies.”

“It struck me there is room for an over-the-top service, a Netflix or a Hulu, for documentaries: The services out there are generalists, like the networks before specialty TV. There is room for a service for core documentary fans and specialized audiences who connect with particular subject areas.”

“Having blown his budget and his schedule, Luhrmann was bunkered down in an editing suite in New York late last year while secret final reshoots wrapped up in Sydney. He used Skype to monitor the set.”

I’m So Excited (Spanish title Los amantes pasajeros) is “a screwball comedy set in a transatlantic jet, full of mile-high blow jobs and dancing cabin stewards camping it up to the Pointer Sisters.” Says the filmmaker, “I like the idea of helping people to have fun because the atmosphere [in Spain] right now is so very bleak.”

“The old model of running new material from September to May and then airing repeats and an occasional special in the summer is defunct. As is the model of airing new material from September to May and then airing new reality TV in the summer. So many channels, so many choices have undermined that model.”

“Games today are very, very real. It’s the weapons; it’s the story lines, you know, that people get caught up in — even the optics that are used on the guns, it says L-3 EOTech. It actually has the name of the brand on the side of it so you know which optic, you know, you could go out and buy.”

“What becomes remarkable in retrospect is not just the rise of a new kind of storytelling, but the realization that an entire industry was built and controlled by writer-producers, men who typed for a living.”

“You had this weird moment in history, a confluence of cultural, business and technological circumstances, that allowed writers to be in charge.”