Yesterday I wrote about Andor, my new favorite show which I adore on so many levels.
I find it very easy to believe that Andor is run by good, hard-working, thoughtful and caring people—which is one of the reasons it has turned out so well.
Of course, there are plenty of happy sets that gave us bad movies...and plenty of chaotic productions that resulted in a work of genius.
The modern-day example of a show (or set of shows) that resulted in all-time masterworks that apparently everybody loved working on: Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul.
It’s very easy to believe, if you’ve seen or read anything about them, that Vince Gilligan, Bryan Cranston and Bob Odenkirk (and all their colleagues) are just fundamentally decent and nice people (not to mention talented).
And then there’s The Idol.
Here is Rolling Stone’s insane exposé of HBO’s The Idol, which seems to be setting a new record for depravity.
Long story short: they filmed almost the entire limited series with one director (going wildly over budget, as they didn’t have finished scripts), and then threw it all out to start over with Sam Levinson (Euphoria)—who turned it from a feminist story to something quite, uh, not that.
I think all I can say—having lived in Los Angeles for almost three decades, and crossed paths with a number of celebrities—is that some people are just crazy.
They’re not very bright or caring to begin with, they get some measure of power, and they just become absolutely insane...and create an orbit of madness that knows no boundaries.
The fact that multinational corporations tolerate their excesses and abuses because they are talented and create popular things—well, in the “me too” era, things are getting better in that criminal behavior is no longer tolerated, but still...wow...
Avoid!