Category: tv & film (page 1 of 1)

A bright yellow poster on a city street pole reads ‘Creators Live Here.’ The background is softly out of focus, showing palm trees, buildings, and passing cars in a sunny urban neighborhood.
Photo by George Pagan III on Unsplash
January 9, 2026 / 0 Comments

Joy is the Signal

Dylan Byers said something on an end-of-2025 episode of The Grill Room that stuck with me (paraphrasing):

The best media story of the year is about people who have created something on their own. I don’t know what their long game is as businesses, but they’re definitely having fun. And it’s joyful. I spend a lot of time in my inbox with people who are very upset at their media organizations. It’s nice to look out and see a younger generation genuinely enjoying themselves.

It crystallized something I’d already been feeling.

I noticed it at Bloomberg ScreenTime in 2024, right after I was laid off from Paramount: the vibes in legacy media were bleak, while the energy around podcasters, independent journalists, and digital studio mini-moguls was fully lit. Those in the Creator Economy were the ones with the glint in their eye, big dreams of making it, and often with impeccable skin.

No one knows the long-term financial viability of going out on your own—or the sustainability of always operating as an individual or a small team—but the joy is unmistakable. The people who leapt look alive.

I remember that feeling from the halcyon days of blogging, when staying up late to post on my little website—or editing LAist back when it was just a city blog—felt more energizing than my very cool TV job. One of the mindfucks of getting older is failing to recognize when those shifts are happening again. Or worse, greeting them with skepticism instead of curiosity.

That might explain why my initial reaction to Evan Shapiro’s rollout of his Attention Economy chart last fall was dismissive. It felt undercooked. Unlike his meticulous maps of legacy media, this one didn’t really show how creator businesses make money. Lumping creators, streamers, influencers, and brands together without distinction doesn’t help those of us trying to navigate what this ecosystem actually is.

Shapiro’s follow-up conversation with his co-host Marion Ranchet was more satisfying. They acknowledged the chart’s limitations and explained why mapping the ecosystem, rather than breaking down the financials, was necessary. Creators aren’t lone wolves. They’re small media companies that rely on platforms, agencies, white-label studios, and contractors to provide their teams.

For legacy media professionals contemplating the jump, that matters. The most abundant opportunities may not be in front of the camera or mic, or even directly with a creator doing those things, but in the infrastructure—joining partner companies or building businesses that serve new creatives in aggregate.

That entrepreneurial leap is the hardest part for those of us raised in corporate systems, where being excellent at a narrow role was enough. Clock in, clock out, collect a paycheck. Creators don’t work that way. They live to work—partly because the competition for attention is ruthless, and also because they love it. They expect collaborators to bring that same energy.

I include myself among those who need to get over themselves—and over our judgments about what “counts” as media in 2026. We’re not going back. I may never fully embrace the pejorative use of “plot-based media,” but I also have to admit: my wife is just as likely to find me watching a reactor video on YouTube as she would find me deeply engaged in a prestige drama on HBO.

What earns my attention is joy. Enthusiasm is infectious. I listen and watch because I can feel that the people making this stuff want to be there.

I still worry about the creator business model—financially and operationally—when you’re the sole proprietor, star, and producer of your own mini-media empire. Not everyone becomes a Joe Rogan, Joe Budden, MrBeast, or Ms. Rachel. But a “Creator Middle Class” is emerging. One that can control its business, build direct relationships with its audience, and sustain a career without celebrity status.

For those of us who love plot-based media and accept how much we’ve grown to enjoy the attention-based kind, the real work is figuring out where we fit in and having the humility to recognize that joy, not legacy, may be the clearest signal of where the future already lies between these two worlds.

Your Event Has Ended graphic from ESPN
April 7, 2025 / 0 Comments

Your Event Has Ended

The South Carolina Gamecocks had just defeated the Texas Longhorns in the first Women’s Final Four game on Friday night. After Holly Rowe completed her post-game interviews, Ryan Ruocco announced that we would be sent to the post-game show with Elle Duncan, Andraya Carter, and Chiney Ogwumike for about 30 minutes while the UCONN Huskies and UCLA Bruins warmed up for the day’s closing semifinal. Instead of smoothly transitioning to that broadcast, which was delivered via the same linear feed, the ESPN app displayed a static image:

There was no on-screen promo pushing me to the next best program, no transition to the next game, and no reduction of the viewing window to show the homepage or a tile pack of suggested titles. As a long-time subscriber of ESPN+ and a user of the ESPN app, I found this experience frustrating. One can only imagine how a new subscriber, attracted to the platform for the first time by the NCAAW tournament, might feel.

I’m not picking on the Worldwide Leader, however. Every Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) service struggles with transitioning from live events to on-demand content.

In recent weeks, I’ve pondered the new sports subscriber experience. I’ve had discussions about a project to understand how to engage new customers of a premium streaming service who signed up during a major sporting event. I proposed a study exploring viewer appetite, interests, and behavioral patterns. This research could inform programming, promotional tactics, and merchandising. My goal was to identify and establish optimal routines for exploration, content diversity, and frequency that could be introduced before these likely single-purpose users canceled or became inactive.


We weren’t on the same page.

“I want to know what they’ll want to watch three months later,” the potential client said.

“You won’t have the opportunity,” I replied.

Netflix might have the “champagne problem” of considering future viewing patterns for new subscribers gained from live events. According to Antenna, although they are relatively new to the live sports arena, its one-month retention for new subscribers from the Mike Tyson/Jake Paul fight night was better than the industry standard. Most of their competition, however, isn’t as fortunate. If your service has not encouraged sports subscribers to sample anything beyond the games or leagues they initially signed up for by the time that event concludes, your chances of re-engaging them later are slim.

These subscribers will likely cancel or disengage from your platform until the next season or event. You might win them back when the event returns, but trying to predict their consumption habits three months later without laying the groundwork during the initial onboarding is unrealistic.

Back to March Madness. ESPN provides at least four different ways to watch the Final Four games. You would only discover this by exploring the app. There was promotion for the Taurasi & Bird alt-cast during event programming and on socials, but not for the other options. I noticed fans on Threads wishing they could watch the game without commentary, just statistics. There was a feed for that, but they didn’t know where to find it, even while watching the game in one of the Disney-owned apps. ESPN never promoted their ongoing shoulder content on other channels after the games ended. ESPN frequently failed to recommend their women’s basketball programming library throughout the season.

No, most frequently, I get “Your Event Has Ended” or “Your Event Will Return Shortly” (and by shortly, they mean 10-15 minutes).

Linear live events pose challenges, but doing nothing shouldn’t be an option.

Do you have an “always-on” channel to transition viewers? What hinders smart switching from one live event to another relevant program in progress? Can you tease clickable alternate programming during events, especially during downtime? Would running house ads instead of the end card be feasible? Could you limit the time of end cards and eventually close the video window, redirecting viewers back to the homepage or displaying recommendations?

A static image or, worse, a complete blackout at the end of the program will not entice most users to continue watching.

You must train your audience to navigate your app and discover its complementary content.

Sports subscribers intentionally come for their favorite sport, team, or a specific game/match/event they find significant. Once that need is satisfied, it’s easy for them to unsubscribe. This is why every broadcast network uses sports to promote its other programming, and the Super Bowl often transitions directly into a show that is expected to appeal to the largest audience.

SVODs continue to neglect this issue at their own risk.

“Your Event Has Ended.”

Yup, and so could my subscription.

October 7, 2024 / 0 Comments

This is It

I did not arrive at the Saban Media Center at the Television Academy in North Hollywood on Saturday expecting to be emotional. The event was a Table Read of the final three episodes of season four of the One Day at a Time revival. COVID-19 shut down production, and the show was canceled, so these episodes never got made, and we were deprived of one of the best traditional sitcoms of the last decade and one most reflective of Norman Lear’s creative principles.

I started crying during the introduction video. 

Lear has long been an inspiration of mine, and that love for humanity, the arts, and civic duty caught me off guard. His words, work, and commitment to ensuring all kinds of families are honored, respected, protected, and seen in this American experiment also matter to me. 

After brief remarks from a representative of The People for the American Way, Mike Royce and Gloria Calderón Kellett explained how the afternoon’s event would go, and then the complete title sequence was presented on screen, performed by Gloria Estefan.

This is it. (oh-oh-oh-oh)
This is life, the one you get
So go and have a ball. 

This is it.
Straight ahead and rest assured
You can’t be sure at all. 

So, while you’re here, enjoy the view
Keep on doing what you do
Hold on tight. We’ll muddle through
One day at a time. 

So up on your feet. (Pa’ arriba!)
Somewhere, there’s music playing.
Don’t you worry none
We’ll just take it like it comes. 

One day at a time! One day at a time!
One day at a time. (Un día a la vez, lo tomas un día a la vez).
One day at a time, one day at a time.
One day at a time!

As the lights came back up, my nose was runny, and I was desperate for a tissue to dab my eyes. We would go on to laugh uproariously for the next two hours as Rita Moreno, Isabella Gomez, Todd Grinnell, Justina Machado, Marcel Ruiz, and Stephen Tobolowsky reminded us how good they are and how funny and poignant this show was and is.

Despite the laughs, I didn’t stop crying until the final ovation. Family had been at the top of my mind all day before we arrived at the show. As I did my Saturday morning ritual of reviewing what music I had been listening to recently, I realized Cleo Sol had returned to the top of my spins. A year before, her album Gold was what I would listen to on my daily commutes to visit my dad in the hospital. Without consciously thinking about it, I had already begun to revisit that series of terrible events that would dominate the final months of 2023.

One of the three episodes the cast performed was titled “Best Birthday Ever!” and featured Rita Moreno’s Lydia uncharacteristically sad and unwilling to celebrate herself. Throughout the episode, we learn that she’s mourning the loss of keepsakes from her childhood in Cuba and the possibility that she will never get to see these images or hear sounds from that time. By the end, she is treated to the experience of hearing her mother’s voice for the first time since her death, and it fills her with joy.

I suspect I will go through similar whirlwinds of emotion over the next few months. I remember last fall viscerally, and if this weekend is any indication, my feelings will be turned all the way on, and that’s fine.

All emotions are welcome. Let’s feel all the feelings. I just don’t want to get lost in the sads. Much like at the Table Read, I want to balance the melancholy with opportunities for joy.

More laughing through the tears, please.

This is it.

December 31, 2017 / 0 Comments

Holidays 2017, Explained (Part One)

“This is the school for fools in love. Did I mention? Pay attention!” —Bootsy Collins, Worth My While (feat. Kali Ulchis)

Last May, I mentioned wanting to get back to New Orleans by the end of this year. Our anniversary had just passed, Robert E. Lee’s statue had been removed from Lee Circle, and I was feeling a lot of wistful love for my second favorite city in the nation.

In August, my mom stated that she wanted to take a family trip this year. We were actively considering Puerto Rico, but then there was Maria and my mother’s broken leg (now healed), and so contiguous options seemed the best choice. Tiffany and I had visited NOLA over the holidays before and enjoyed what had, at the time, been a relatively sleepy week in the city.

Sleepy is not the way I would describe Crescent City this time. There was Christmas Fest and the Sugar Bowl. The Pelicans and Xscape. And a more substantial international tourist body than in 2009. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. First, we went to Greensboro, North Carolina to visit with and my mother-in-law.


Birds love it hereBirds love it here

Birds love it here

Greensboro has a very fancy Whole Foods with an excellent hot bar. We went there the first night. A couple of days later, I made biscuits from scratch to my MIL’s delight. Mostly, though, I sat in her sunroom and caught up on my media consumption. Hulu has all the non-Netflix Marvel shows so I binged Legion and caught up on Runaways and continued to sample The Gifted. I feel a kind of way about Bryan Singer‘s attachment to two of the three but Legion, in particular, was worth the time.

Also, Steven Universe. Mrs. Winners. Greensboro’s changing demographics.

I read Goldie Vance, Volume 1 (very fun!) and A Wrinkle in Time. I stopped reading Wrinkle just before the final action occurs. I didn’t love it. Many elements feel very of the 50s, and I’m curious to see how Ava Duvernay will translate them in her film. I like the bones of the story, though, and think it will likely make a much better movie.

I went through the best end-of-year music lists I could find to see what I was missing. Complex. NPR. NY Times. Pitchfork. KCRW.

KCRW’s DJ lists were the plug in this excursion. Jeremy Sole had the most similar chart to my best-of, and several of the albums from his list fit right in with my sensibilities.

Albums I Missed in 2017

We did leave the house to take in a G-League basketball game. The game was mostly trash until late in the fourth quarter, as were the concessions, but we had great seats.

Then, on Christmas Day, we got on a plane and headed to N’awlins, baby.

To be continued…

 

December 31, 2015 / 0 Comments

Thank You

 “There’s no righteousness in your darkest moment.” — Sleater-Kinney, Sympathy

Thank you, 2015, for pushing me to go beyond what’s comfortable. For giving Tiffany great work opportunities and a shake up to her routine (and mine). For London. For meaningful conversations with loved ones. For Dominique Toney on my tv. For Omaha. For 80 years of Pauline. For successful knee surgeries. For xoxo. For the creative work I was able to do around the GRAMMYs and elsewhere. For getting to highlight my mom in some of those ventures. For DC. For reconnections with old friends and acquaintances. For new friends. For Kendrick, Kamasi, and Kaiyote.  For the Force and Furiosa. And Creed. For Coates and Woodson and James and G. Willow. For being able to see myself and people who look like my friends in the pop culture narrative. For Hamilton. For biscuits. For basketball. For acknowledging the passage of time and being okay with who I am and who I’m not in this moment.

For friends. For family.

For Suzie.

For tomorrow and whatever may come.

November 1, 2015 / 0 Comments

A list of things I’m doing while my wife is away being awesome

 

 “I just can’t wait to get you home with me.” – Tuxedo, Get U Home

Tiffany is off to Washington DC for a few months doing good works. She’s been doing cool shit all year (ed. note: Have you bought CSS Master yet? Stop reading right now and improve your code life) but this is the first time she’s left for an extended period since our union.

It’s only been like three days but dang. The house is too quiet. Time has slowed down. And, I need projects.  

Yesvember

Kid President tweeted this just this morning, and I’m on board.

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  • Say yes to invitations, requests for my company, requests for my service, and the like. When in doubt, Say Yes.

Things to which I have already said yes:

    21 Day Challenge

    I’m focusing on my fitness y’all. The eight or so people that actually watch my snaps with any regularity know I’ve been toying with a fitness challenge. I tried one at the beginning of October: a 30 day commitment that died on day 14 when my legs gave out. This month, I’m going to give it another go.

    • 21 Days of running or biking. At least 20 minutes. Preferably 30. No Days Off.

    I’ve also been wanting to try a meal service. I have proven over 40 years that I don’t really have the personal discipline to manage my own eating in a healthy manner and with Tiffany not here cooking regularly, the risk of lots of Chipotle and Popeye’s runs is high so…

    I just had some breakfast tacos. Not bad. Not bad at all.  


    2015-11-01 10.58.43.jpg2015-11-01 10.58.43.jpg

    Netflix and Clones

    Derrick peeped me to this chronological list for viewing the animated series Star Wars:The Clone Wars which I’ve watched in bits & pieces over the years but never consistently. It’s been much more enjoyable this way.

    I also plan to finish Narcos and finally watch Amazon’s Transparent and then get immersed in Marvel’s Jessica Jones which looks even better than Daredevil which I very much enjoyed  

    Tool Time

    There are projects around the house that need tending. I’m going to make a list of them and…probably send them to our landlord. I’m not Fix-It Felix. I may do some re-organizing, though. Sorry, Tiffany.

    Reading List

    Books and everything in my Pocket. I cleared so much out of my backlog yesterday afternoon. I felt smarter and unburdened.

    Currently Reading

    On Deck

    Blogging

    Oh, and writing right here on this blog. Ideally, every day.

    Hi. 

    February 6, 2015 / 0 Comments

    That Evening with Norman Lear

    “Took a whole lot of tryin’ just to get up that hill.” – Janet Du’Bois, Movin’ On Up

    http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1

    Kenya Barris, creator of Black-ish, and Baratunde Thurston, author of How to Be Black and probably the internet’s favorite negro, were on stage with Touré and the incomparable Norman Lear when Kenya asked a question. “How do you do this?” The this being putting out a comedic show that’s about something while Lear, during the height of his run, had six top shows on the air, all doing exactly that. It takes a while to get there but Touré eventually gets back to this question. Norman, with the cheer, clarity, humanity, and thoughtfulness he had shown all night, immediately responded (and I’m paraphrasing), “Oh, there was stress but I think there’s a kind of joyful stress…You work incredibly hard but at the end there’s great joy. You’ve made something that you can be proud of. You’ve made something that matters.”


    It’s been a little over a week since I had the pleasure of being in the audience for the Television Academy’s An Evening with Norman Lear (thanks, Catherine!) and that’s the part that’s stuck with me. Well, that and Marla Gibbs still being the best thing in the room whenever and wherever she appears.


    My mantra for 2015 is to make good shit. Every day. And this, while I doubt I will ever make work as compelling as Lear’s incredible run of TV series and movies that matter, is what has been motivating me this year. What am I doing on a daily basis that helps me tell the kinds of stories I want to tell? Can I highlight people and ideas and issues that matter? Can I entertain you while I do it? This is the work I like. This is my desired contribution to the people’s history of this planet.

    The GRAMMYs are this weekend. I’m grateful that much of my 2015 so far has been spent in trying to tell interesting and entertaining stories about what it takes to put on the series of events that make up GRAMMY week and why they matter. The stories are for a small audience, at least for now, but I got to interview amazing people that are leading teams doing the hard behind-the-scenes work of putting on these epic concerts and ceremonies. I got to talk to the president of the Academy about Bob Dylan and Jimmy Carter and how MusiCares helps musicians. I got to talk to the people who do the surprisingly hard work of setting up the red carpet for this kind of event. I got to talk to the executive chef behind the food that people will eat in the suites and parties happening at STAPLES Center. I even got to interview my mom about GRAMMY fashion and LA style.


    We turned these conversations into stories. Entertaining ones, I hope. And there was hard work and stress but also, joy. Joy in the making. Joy in the delivering. Joy in the complications and negotiations and consternation. It might not have looked like it at the time. At the time, there was sweat and furrowed brows and even cross words on occasion but at the end of those hard days, I was smiling.

    More days like this. More days like Norman’s.

    And more evening conversations that remind you what life and your role in it can be.

    Those are the good times.

    October 20, 2013 / 0 Comments

    All filled up on Black misery

    “That’s all I have left. Just let me hide” – Joann Garrett, Walk on By

    By all accounts, 12 Years A Slave is a masterful film expertly acted and directed. It’s powerful and moving and meaningful. It’s everything an Important Film should be.

    I probably won’t see it. At least not in the theater.

    I didn’t go see Fruitvale Station this summer, either.

    You see, I’m all filled up on Black misery. I’ve had my fill on dramatic portrayals of true life misery in general but Black misery? My heart won’t take it.

    I hope these films do well. I want them to do well. Hell, I even considered buying tix for Fruitvale Station one weekend and just not going. In fact, I need these films to do well, to be critically acclaimed, for people to be aware of them so that I get more of the stuff I actually find entertaining.

    In the theater, Newlyweeds has been one of my most memorable and enjoyable entertainment experiences this year. I love few film series more than the Fast & Furious franchise. The multicultural cast of Pain & Gain made that strange film mostly work.

    On TV, this season I am mostly watching shows that reflect the diverse world I know in the ways I know it. On Sleepy Hollow, folks of color in good government jobs talk to each other all the time as they try to figure out their newly supernatural world. Subtract the supernatural and you can say the same about Elementary. On Boardwalk Empire, there’s the very white world of 1920s Prohibition America and then there’s the very black world of the Harlem Renaissance and growing discomfort with the status quo. And y’all already know about Scandal.

    These things show me characters that look like me and my friends and the communities I have lived in my entire life. They then put those people I recognize in situations I find compelling and interesting and entertaining. There may be turmoil and pain and heartache but it’s of a fictional nature.

    I tend to bucket films like 12 Years A Slave and Fruitvale Station with Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker. They are war movies and I’ve never been compelled to watch war flicks. I’m not sticking my head in the sand. I know the tales being told. I’ve read them. Over and over again. Just as “multiculti” has been the default status of my personal world, I am all too aware of the world that made it and it’s history.

    I just don’t want to see it re-enacted in high definition on a giant screen in dolby surround sound. At least not this weekend. Not this year. Maybe not next.

    My soul would rather sing than scream.