I'm not surprised that so many showrunners and writing staffs were enamored of your Power Rankings. Hollywood is something of a self-contained bubble, with each show a bubble within that bubble where the standard metrics of success are the weekly numbers, as in Neilson Ratings. On the shows I worked, the set would buzz every week when word came down as to how we'd done the week before -- not because the latest aired episode had achieved some lofty level of artistic success, but because the higher the numbers, the greater our chances of getting picked up for the "back nine" or another season. Only hit shows are guaranteed another season, so the rest of us were always flying on a wing and a prayer.
But beyond the basic economic imperative of survival, most of us on the crew hoped that the show would connect with an audience: make them laugh, cry, or feel something strongly enough to take their minds off the humdrum and often depressing realities of modern life. As Preston Sturges pointed out in his wonderful "Sullivan's Travels," that's the point of screened entertainment. We wanted to do a good job, to make a show that mattered somehow -- a show that justified and was worthy of all the sweat and effort we put into it. The old Hollywood cliché "It's just as hard to make a bad movie as a good one -- so let's make a good one" applies just as well in the world of television. It's no mystery that receiving authentic, non -- "I'm-blowing-smoke-up-your-ass-because-I-have-a-script-I-want-you-to-read" validation from an outside observer means so much to those who did the heavy mental lifting of writing and producing a show. It might mean even more nowadays, since the streamers remain largely unwilling to release any numbers beyond their stock price.
Not that any of MY shows ever made your Power Rankings, mind you, but that's a story for another day...
Yes. I am a big fan of “here are a list of shows to check out”!
Paste Magazine is out of Atlanta so I try to click on their links occasionally. There’s no paper magazine anymore (I bought a few when they came with free MP3s, ah those were the days.) They recently did a good thing: they seemed to have bought and saved The AV Club after it suffered under some horrible hedge fund or other. But I admit I am annoyed with Paste for a different reason: they wrote a really nasty “review” of Taylor Swift’s new album. It wasn’t a negative critique; it was a personal attack on her. Completely uncalled for.
So I added another show to my list from this post. I have not seen The Thick of It! It’s on Peacock. I also will be starting Shogun this week.
Honorable mentions: Paste still exists; I still get their emails; their tastes are committee based (camel/horse 100%).
5. It enrages me each time I hold my nose and click Paste’s email link.
4. You spilled a lot of ink underplaying your being pissed off that they stole your idea, without a shout out.
3. I was hesitant to trust you when you replaced the upright but earnest John Carman at the Chronicle, with your upstart swagger and Power Rankings!
2. You however (forever) won undying loyalty by preaching about ‘Arrested Development’, alone in the darkness.
1. Great shows with the ONLY fatal flaw being a confusing title - insert ‘Patriot’ here - might actually get renewed by your reclaiming your brainchild.
Go for it! Who cares? You should!
(More eyeballs, more buzz and more paid Substack subscriptions await. Why not more fully fund your incessant existential quandary regarding your validity in this world, with your feet justifiably propped up on an ottoman more often?)
Settled business - build on your original successful branding:
Bastard Machine - Podcast moniker
Power Rankings! - return of the Slam Dunk.
Obviously, this Substack is an agreeable format to monetize specialized content while you figure out whether AI is going to eat your screenwriting/writing lunch money like a punk in a tattered leather jacket.
The successful balance here, to date, (not meant to box you in), is:
50% Television/Media/Film conversation, current and historic;
20% Dyspeptic philosophical forays into life’s travails; 15% Industry takes about stubbed toes & errant visions;
10% Blatant flailing about for ideas and/or reinforcement, where your readers gets to peak behind the curtain (content not possible with bottom line oriented overlords) 5% Just a dude trying to get something semi coherent out there for consideration.
I just rewatched Atomic Blonde (and I'm pretty sure that Lorraine Broughton could take John Wick). That soundtrack is incredible, I'd totally forgotten how great it is!
Depeche Mode also suggested that we Enjoy the Silence...
Ahhh, the Power Rankings! I surely miss listening to you and Jason…and you and Joe before that…sigh. I found “Magic City” intriguing, but its darkness got me down. Still, it had its moments. I thinking that as summer approaches, you’re nostalgic (ha!) about another season with no Death March. Love to you and Jason and your mothers.
I love the concept art and the hierarchal approach - I vote YES, more please.
Can I also suggest that as we post comments and/or recommendations for other shows to watch, that we try and include the streaming service or platform that said show is on? Think of it as adding a cross- street to a set of directions. It just makes life a little better.
Lautner is a g-d !!! love love love !!! I used to work in the the design industry and Hollywood + surrounding areas were part of my territory and i have a lot of amazing memories of working with the studios ... very fun people and parties in fabulous homes ~ now --- re your pyramid idea --- I like the Maslow hierarchy idea ... you know, kinda based on what the viewer is "needing" ~ you could have some fun with that, maybe ??? but I'm sure whatever you come up with will be fab ...
I worked on a music video that filmed in a Lautner home overlooking Silver Lake -- and it was fantastic. I'm not particularly interested in architecture, but that house was out of this world, and so far ahead of its time. Music videos are typically horror-shows to work -- horrendously long hours, often all night long, working under miserable conditions (no matter how good the tune, hearing it 500 times at ear-splitting volume in a 20 hour period is torture), and although I can't remember the "artist" we were filming that night, I'll never forget that Lautner house.
I'd like to humbly add two series that I watched recently. They're both out of Ireland and they both star the same actress, Siobhan Cullen. The first, Bodkin is dark, funny in deliciously wrong places and just flat out great.
The second, Obituary is so wrong in so many ways that I can't wait for more. The premise is that a young woman works for a local news paper writing obituaries and is informed that due to cost cutting, she's no longer on salary but will only be paid $200 per obit that she writes. Since it's a small town, not that many people die and she's got a father that she's supporting...
...of course she decides that the only logical thing to do is to start killing people.
Both are great and fun series, Cullen is beautiful, quirky, a very smart actress and possesses a kind of wonderful darkness and wry wit. Highly recommend both!
Hey Mark, glad you brought up Obituary. I really enjoyed that one.
Bodkin I ripped through but afterwards, it felt like a decent way to spend my time but I'm not sure I got more out of it than that. But with my heritage, I'll watch almost anything set in Ireland.
As a podcast listener, I loved his voice overs that mimicked true crime podcasting. I kind of wish he did one episode on the show with every podcasting trope, then threw the recorder in the river. I really liked that show and it’s relaxed pace.
Hey, head's up, for those who are interested, the OG Richard Chamberlain, Toshiro Mifune Shogun miniseries is now streaming on Paramount+...
Very interesting what you told us about the Power Rankings!
I must start to watch a few of shows you mention.
I'm not surprised that so many showrunners and writing staffs were enamored of your Power Rankings. Hollywood is something of a self-contained bubble, with each show a bubble within that bubble where the standard metrics of success are the weekly numbers, as in Neilson Ratings. On the shows I worked, the set would buzz every week when word came down as to how we'd done the week before -- not because the latest aired episode had achieved some lofty level of artistic success, but because the higher the numbers, the greater our chances of getting picked up for the "back nine" or another season. Only hit shows are guaranteed another season, so the rest of us were always flying on a wing and a prayer.
But beyond the basic economic imperative of survival, most of us on the crew hoped that the show would connect with an audience: make them laugh, cry, or feel something strongly enough to take their minds off the humdrum and often depressing realities of modern life. As Preston Sturges pointed out in his wonderful "Sullivan's Travels," that's the point of screened entertainment. We wanted to do a good job, to make a show that mattered somehow -- a show that justified and was worthy of all the sweat and effort we put into it. The old Hollywood cliché "It's just as hard to make a bad movie as a good one -- so let's make a good one" applies just as well in the world of television. It's no mystery that receiving authentic, non -- "I'm-blowing-smoke-up-your-ass-because-I-have-a-script-I-want-you-to-read" validation from an outside observer means so much to those who did the heavy mental lifting of writing and producing a show. It might mean even more nowadays, since the streamers remain largely unwilling to release any numbers beyond their stock price.
Not that any of MY shows ever made your Power Rankings, mind you, but that's a story for another day...
Yes. I am a big fan of “here are a list of shows to check out”!
Paste Magazine is out of Atlanta so I try to click on their links occasionally. There’s no paper magazine anymore (I bought a few when they came with free MP3s, ah those were the days.) They recently did a good thing: they seemed to have bought and saved The AV Club after it suffered under some horrible hedge fund or other. But I admit I am annoyed with Paste for a different reason: they wrote a really nasty “review” of Taylor Swift’s new album. It wasn’t a negative critique; it was a personal attack on her. Completely uncalled for.
So I added another show to my list from this post. I have not seen The Thick of It! It’s on Peacock. I also will be starting Shogun this week.
Reasons to reclaim Power Rankings:
Honorable mentions: Paste still exists; I still get their emails; their tastes are committee based (camel/horse 100%).
5. It enrages me each time I hold my nose and click Paste’s email link.
4. You spilled a lot of ink underplaying your being pissed off that they stole your idea, without a shout out.
3. I was hesitant to trust you when you replaced the upright but earnest John Carman at the Chronicle, with your upstart swagger and Power Rankings!
2. You however (forever) won undying loyalty by preaching about ‘Arrested Development’, alone in the darkness.
1. Great shows with the ONLY fatal flaw being a confusing title - insert ‘Patriot’ here - might actually get renewed by your reclaiming your brainchild.
Go for it! Who cares? You should!
(More eyeballs, more buzz and more paid Substack subscriptions await. Why not more fully fund your incessant existential quandary regarding your validity in this world, with your feet justifiably propped up on an ottoman more often?)
So much to love and laugh about here, Paul. Well played b
Settled business - build on your original successful branding:
Bastard Machine - Podcast moniker
Power Rankings! - return of the Slam Dunk.
Obviously, this Substack is an agreeable format to monetize specialized content while you figure out whether AI is going to eat your screenwriting/writing lunch money like a punk in a tattered leather jacket.
The successful balance here, to date, (not meant to box you in), is:
50% Television/Media/Film conversation, current and historic;
20% Dyspeptic philosophical forays into life’s travails; 15% Industry takes about stubbed toes & errant visions;
10% Blatant flailing about for ideas and/or reinforcement, where your readers gets to peak behind the curtain (content not possible with bottom line oriented overlords) 5% Just a dude trying to get something semi coherent out there for consideration.
I think any successful business guru and creative brand builder would look at this ratio and say, “This guy is doing it wrong. What a disaster.”
OR, as Mark Eitzel would say, “You were a lamb jumping for the knife.”
Or, and wait while I pull this one out of my 80s hat, it’s like when Depeche Mode pleaded to “Get the Balance Right.”
One day. One day!
I just rewatched Atomic Blonde (and I'm pretty sure that Lorraine Broughton could take John Wick). That soundtrack is incredible, I'd totally forgotten how great it is!
Depeche Mode also suggested that we Enjoy the Silence...
You forgot music references...
This is absolutely masterful, Paul!
…and food and wine and books, all in that cumulative 35% that animates the rest.
Ahhh, the Power Rankings! I surely miss listening to you and Jason…and you and Joe before that…sigh. I found “Magic City” intriguing, but its darkness got me down. Still, it had its moments. I thinking that as summer approaches, you’re nostalgic (ha!) about another season with no Death March. Love to you and Jason and your mothers.
Yes, Timmy & Joe — but never forget Bennie on the Knobs! OG TVTM Forever!
ONE...
Sorry I neglected dear Bennie!
I love the concept art and the hierarchal approach - I vote YES, more please.
Can I also suggest that as we post comments and/or recommendations for other shows to watch, that we try and include the streaming service or platform that said show is on? Think of it as adding a cross- street to a set of directions. It just makes life a little better.
Lautner is a g-d !!! love love love !!! I used to work in the the design industry and Hollywood + surrounding areas were part of my territory and i have a lot of amazing memories of working with the studios ... very fun people and parties in fabulous homes ~ now --- re your pyramid idea --- I like the Maslow hierarchy idea ... you know, kinda based on what the viewer is "needing" ~ you could have some fun with that, maybe ??? but I'm sure whatever you come up with will be fab ...
I worked on a music video that filmed in a Lautner home overlooking Silver Lake -- and it was fantastic. I'm not particularly interested in architecture, but that house was out of this world, and so far ahead of its time. Music videos are typically horror-shows to work -- horrendously long hours, often all night long, working under miserable conditions (no matter how good the tune, hearing it 500 times at ear-splitting volume in a 20 hour period is torture), and although I can't remember the "artist" we were filming that night, I'll never forget that Lautner house.
But but but Frank Lloyd Wright was God. You could've just asked him...
ha ! I've been inside the falling waters house ... give me a Lautner !!!
I have not
Ever been inside Oak Park or the Johnson Wax Building?
I agree with all these I'm looking forward to these being back.... Oh and I miss Jason.
Yes -- it's high time to exhume The TV Talk Machine from its crypt!
I'd be happy with even once a month or 6 times a year having Jason on as a guest PodCast. :)
While I love Jason, I'd kinda rather have Joe...
I'd like to humbly add two series that I watched recently. They're both out of Ireland and they both star the same actress, Siobhan Cullen. The first, Bodkin is dark, funny in deliciously wrong places and just flat out great.
The second, Obituary is so wrong in so many ways that I can't wait for more. The premise is that a young woman works for a local news paper writing obituaries and is informed that due to cost cutting, she's no longer on salary but will only be paid $200 per obit that she writes. Since it's a small town, not that many people die and she's got a father that she's supporting...
...of course she decides that the only logical thing to do is to start killing people.
Both are great and fun series, Cullen is beautiful, quirky, a very smart actress and possesses a kind of wonderful darkness and wry wit. Highly recommend both!
Hey Mark, glad you brought up Obituary. I really enjoyed that one.
Bodkin I ripped through but afterwards, it felt like a decent way to spend my time but I'm not sure I got more out of it than that. But with my heritage, I'll watch almost anything set in Ireland.
As a podcast listener, I loved his voice overs that mimicked true crime podcasting. I kind of wish he did one episode on the show with every podcasting trope, then threw the recorder in the river. I really liked that show and it’s relaxed pace.
I'll be very disappointed in you if you haven't watched Bad Sisters, Joe...
One of these years I'll add Apple but not yet. I was a little surprised Tim didn't give Derby Girls some love but it's been out for a while.
Maybe Tim could do a roundup of shows by country. South Korea would be a good starting point
I think you meant "Derry Girls"? That was a fun show but Obituary and Bad Sisters blew it out of the water.
BTW, Sharon Horgan is working on S2 of Bad Sisters...
That's what I get trying to remember show names while picking up dinner
That's why my Scots forbears and relatives would say that, the denizens of the Emerald Isle just can't hold their liquor.
The Scots are just too cheap NOT to hold their liquor!