Everyone here hates everyone here

There aren't many things that people in the entertainment industry like more than making media about the entertainment industry. Almost without exception, these movies and television shows and whatever else are generally about how much the entertainment industry sucks and is impossible and everyone in it is awful. The more optimistic of these works (Babylon, La La Land, Singin' in the Rain, etc.) will arrive at the conclusion of "but we love it anyway because we're artists and that's da magic of da moviez babey," while the more pessimistic entries tend to have more of a "eh, what are you gonna do?" shrug as a resolution.

The irony about all of these entertainment industry products about the entertainment industry being terrible is that, with the exception of extremely independent auteurs on the front end of their career (Living in Oblivion, as one example), they're all made by people who have been successful enough in their careers to get to a point where they can vent about how much they hate the thing that's made them successful. To that end, I'd like to talk about Hacks and The Studio in this newsletter.

Let me pause here just to briefly note that I really love every one of the projects I've listed above. (Well, maybe "really love" is strong for Babylon. But I really appreciate it existing!)

I can tell you from my experience that yes, the entertainment industry sucks. Especially attempting to break into it, and the ineptitude of executives (the people responsible for saying yes or no to which art gets made, despite having little to no interest in art or creating it). And yes, it's the only thing that I have ever really wanted to do, so here I am writing a newsletter about the reflexiveness of the luckiest few of the lucky few who are given a budget to take themselves down a peg.

I guess I'm really just jealous at heart that I'll probably never get to experience an old school Hollywood buffet.

Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, Hacks.