Ya know, I was driving around yesterday, and realized I still hadn’t posted West YEAR Ever for 2024. I should probably do that before January ends, so look for that sometime next week. While I don’t necessarily have fond “lookback” memories of the year, I do have some ideas as to where to take things going forward. Should be interesting!
As many of you film buffs already know, the Oscar nominations were announced yesterday. As I’m neither a Film Guy nor an Awards Guy, I didn’t pay too much attention to it, other than the fact that folks really seem to hate Emilia Perez for some reason. I did glance over the list of nominees, though, and found some things of note.
First off, since I’m the one person who hasn’t seen Wicked yet, I was surprised to see Cynthia Erivo nominated for Best Actress, while Ariana Grande was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Now, I know there’s a whole political side to these things, and you lobby to be nominated in the category you think you have the best shot at winning. That said, I always assumed Wicked was something of a “equal billing” sort of deal. I would have thought splitting the stars into different categories would have been akin to splitting up Bill & Ted. Was that an incorrect assessment?
On down the list, I saw something called I Am Ready, Warden nominated for Best Documentary Short. Drawn in by the title, I looked it up and found that it was available on Paramount+, and it was only 37 minutes long. SOLD! Produced by MTV Documentary Films, it followed John Henry Ramirez, a Texas prisoner on death row for a murder he committed in 2004, in the week leading up to his execution. After the murder, he had escaped to Mexico, where he hid for 4 years. At the time of the film, he’s served 14 years, and has exhausted all appeals and three stays of execution. Unless the DA can get the governor to commute the sentence, Ramirez will be put to death.
Meanwhile, the film also checks in on Ramirez’s 16 year old son (born during the Mexico stint), the local church lady whom Ramirez has adopted as his godmother, and the son of the man he killed. There are a lot of moving parts, and the sole reason I chose the film – it’s short runtime – was the main thing to its detriment. There’s a lot of potential there, but they never truly get to delve into the politics of the death penalty. There’s not a lot of fact, but rather observation. They don’t throw a bunch of laws and statutes at the viewer, and instead show the human consequence of all of this. The victim’s son is clearly fucked up, and you can tell losing his father at 14 “did a number on him”. You’re also left to wonder how much of that was the result of the what he had to live through, and how much might have been other factors. Also, Ramirez took away a boy’s father, and as a result, he’s going to be leaving his own son without a father. There’s so much they could have done here, but maybe that would have bogged things down. It’s definitely enough to start a conversation, but I’m not sure that’s the conversation America wants to have right now…
Trailer Park
The Monkey (Theaters, February 21)
This normally isn’t my kind of movie, but it’s so absurd. I felt the same way we all did when we first heard the title “Snakes on a Plane”. If you remember, that was almost one of the first memes, with the internet running away with the premise so much that the actual film couldn’t possibly live up to expectations. Likewise, I’m hoping all the best stuff isn’t in this trailer. I texted my buddy Mike with the link, saying “DAY ONE!” I can’t wait!
The Z-Suite (Tubi, February 6)
For a show that debuts in 2 weeks, it doesn’t bode well that we’re JUST getting a trailer for it. I will say, though, that this looks better than I would have expected for a “Tubi Original” – at least in terms of production. It doesn’t look cheap. I always love Lauren Graham, and it’s nice to see Superstore alums Nico Santos and Mark McKinney. The timing of the premise, however, couldn’t be worse. Industry vet replaced by Gen Z employee who’s good at TikTok? They might as well just air a Neil Gaiman tribute before it! Anyway, I feel I say this a lot lately, but it’s a mistake that streamers keep making: This is a movie, not a show. I don’t care if it’s only 8 episodes. You’re stretching a weak premise to its breaking point.
OPUS (Theaters, March 14)
Yup, that’s an A24 alright. Does it bother anyone that they’re a studio that just gets to coast on that now? Weird shit in every film, and we just go “Oh, A24’s at it again.” They do “weird” well, but I think they’ve gotten too comfortable with their whole gimmick. Anyway, the plot itself feels like I’ve seen it 1,000 times before. No, what I’m impressed by is the casting, which feels spot on. Malkovich as a cult leader rock star is almost a no-brainer. Meanwhile, Ayo Edebiri has quickly occupied a space that was last filled by Jessica Williams, in that both have strong “crossover appeal”. By that, I mean that they’re Strong Black Women, but not seen as adhering to the common stereotypes associated with that. Edebiri’s a nerd, with a background in stand-up. Williams was a Daily Show correspondent. Maybe Comedy is the Great Unifier after all. Anyway, not dying to see it, but still curious.
Will Around The Web
The week kicked off with MLK Day, where I celebrated by joining my pal Keith Chow, founder of The Nerds of Color, to discuss the current situation with Diamond Comic Distributors. I had teased last week that I was working on something about that, and here it is. Keith had reached out to get my perspective, as we’re both former employees of Diamond. In fact, that’s where we met. I feel I’ve written at length about my thoughts on that company, but it was good to be able to bounce them off someone who was there. I’m not writing anything else about it until there are new developments, so if you’re curious about any of that, you should check out this discussion.
Over on Remember That Show?, Adam and I finished our exploration of the Designing Women universe, this time discussing its one-season spinoff, Women of the House. This politics-focused series was the result of a reconciliation between Delta Burke and the show’s creator, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, but the show struggled to match the industry hype surrounding it. Plus, had it been a success, there would have been someone else playing Debra Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond. Maybe then I wouldn’t hate that character so much…Anyway, you know where to find out more about all of that!
Links I Loved
So, Michael has been one of my oldest – and sweetest – online friends, and I always love when she lets us in on her life. You see, she’s not the first trans person to come into my life, but she’s the first who’s let me into theirs. This week, she shared her memories of working at the mall in 2000, and she totally set the scene by her early mention of Amber’s “Sexual”, which was a song SO emblematic of the era. It’s just such a great read!
I don’t do a ton of “bound reading” these days, and by that I mean I don’t get to read published materials, like books. Most of my stuff is online, despite an ever-growing TBR pile. So, I’m trying to do something about that this year. And I’m always inspired by Pax and the rest of the guys at the After Lunch Podcast, as they’re always giving great recommendations on the things they’ve read recently. Hell, even some of the books they didn’t like still sound interesting to me. So, I was glad to see Pax posted his book round-up for 2024.
Now, before we move on, we need to talk. I know last week I gave folks shit for not promoting and sharing my stuff, but this week I’m gonna give folks shit for not promoting their own. Some of y’all are just terrible promoters. Is it an insecurity thing? Do you want to “keep things small”? I can’t read your stuff if I don’t know it’s out there. There are a ton of folks who used to have sites, but after the demise of Google Reader, I didn’t really have an aggregator anymore. When y’all stopped sharing your links, I figured you gave up on your sites. I’m beginning to see that wasn’t the case, but I had no clue you were still at it. Maybe I’m too much of a Digital Narcissist, with the constant links, but I’m following the Field of Dreams logic. As for your sites, I’m using Feedly now so I can stay on top of what you’re writing. Anyway, share your shit!
Things You Might Have Missed This Week
- Pour one out for the shows that were canceled this week, including Teacup (Peacock), the Frasier revival (Paramount+), and The Righteous Gemstones (HBO).
- Following the cancelation trend, the Maximum Effort Channel – the FAST channel created and programmed by Ryan Reynolds – quietly shut down this week, after two years. I hear it mainly aired old episodes of Absolutely Fabulous, Two Guys and a Girl, and a show where Dolph Lundgren flipped a coin 21 times per episode, so is it really a great loss?
- Speaking of dumb streaming decisions, CNN announced yesterday that they’d be creating a new streaming service for their content, as if CNN+ didn’t crash and burn less than 3 years ago. In case you forgot, that venture shut down ONE MONTH AFTER LAUNCH. On top of this, CNN is laying off 200 employees, yet hiring another 100 for the new streamer. Make it make sense!
- As a harbinger of things to come, A&E is reviving the Duck Dynasty franchise, as I’m sure that you, like myself, have been dying to know what those those duck calling rascals have been up to. No? Yeah, me neither.
- In better TV news, The Lincoln Lawyer (Netflix), High Potential (ABC), and Abbott Elementary (ABC) scored renewals for next season.
- Apparently, CBS is developing an FBI spinoff, focused on the CIA. “Next week on FBI:CIA, join special guests M.I.A. and FKA Twigs as they assist the team on a mission at the DMV – Only on CBS!”
- In scheduling news, Family Guy finally returns to the Fox schedule next month, where it will unseat The Simpsons, for 6 weeks, Sundays at 8 PM. I’m glad to have new episodes of Family Guy, but the optics of this are terrible. Plus, it doesn’t really dissuade those rumors that Fox is about to abandon the Animation Domination block, given that both shows – along with Bob’s Burgers – are at the end of their current deals.
If it isn’t apparent, this section is becoming difficult to write. Not to be all negative, but it’s becoming increasingly harder to say anything “won” a particular week – especially after a week like this one. If you never got the reference, this whole thing was inspired by an old VH-1 show called Best Week Ever, where a bunch of stand-up comedians would riff on the week’s events. It was basically a weekly version of the I Love The 80s franchise. It was more of a sarcastic affair, but man did I want to be on that show! To me, that was the epitome of “making it”. I never wanted to be a comedian or a writer or really anything that paid money lol. I wanted to be a “tastemaker”: I wanted people to read my stuff, have a laugh, and reflect on it. Maybe swish it around, and find themselves at “Ya know…he’s right.” But I approached this earnestly. It’s too easy to look at something that was clearly bad and then try to dunk on it. Social media killed dunking, as anyone thinks they can do it, and anyone tries. No, I wanted to discuss the thing that was most prominent that week – hopefully something not evil, as well as something I had thoughts on. Some weeks, though… Maybe I’ve got to get by groove back, but right now I just want to use this space to talk about what’s been on my mind.
Last Friday, *NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” turned 25 years old, and I am not well. I never really thought much about aging, until I woke up one day, and I was OLD. Sure, a senior citizen will tell ya “Forty-three is YOUNG!”, but it doesn’t feel like it. I’ve been rediscovering music from the past 2 decades – stuff I loved, yet somehow forgot existed, as life simply moves too fast. And it’s interesting how some of it hits me. I have a lot of trouble with 90s alternative these days, as I haven’t become the Will that 90s Will thought he’d eventually become. There’s something of a sadness there, and I’m not entirely sure why.
Then, you get to the Pop Explosion of 99/00, and everything changes. Going off to Cornell, with some random boyband spinning in my Aiwa CD Player (It was probably 5ive. I never felt they got their due in the US). That era, too, would fade, but its pinnacle was the release of “Bye Bye Bye”. Pop music in the United States would peak in 2000, and this particular song was the beginning of the end. Up to this point in the boyband wars, Backstreet Boys & *NSYNC were neck and neck, but it was a recent development, as *NSYNC had gained on the older group *quickly*. I’ve written about it before, but the main reason we even know the name *NSYNC today is because an overworked BSB bailed on a Disney Channel concert special, which *NSYNC* immediately snatched up. One might say that they would have gotten their shot at some other point, but the entertainment industry is filled with “Right Place, Right Time” serendipity origin stories. And this was theirs.
Growing up without cable, I didn’t understand certain things, including just how much of a phenomenon MTV’s Total Request Live, or TRL, had become. An appearance on TRL could make or break you, and the video itself had become such an important marketing tool that MTV created Making The Video, where you got the behind the scenes info on how a new video was made, capped off with the premiere of the full video. While the singles on their debut album had been “performers”, fans were ready for *NSYNC to have a smash hit. With the announcement of their upcoming album, No Strings Attached, folks were eager to see what the future looked like for the group. But I don’t think they expected anything like what they got.
While Backstreet Boys could get “urban”, it seemed to stop at dance, and always felt forced, or at least “well choreographed”. *NSYNC, however, managed to take it further, as they came off as the boyband that actually had black friends. Britney’s autobiography would later reveal that this was a poorly executed front, which resulted in Justin Timberlake getting himself into some cringe situations. Still, BSB would do a collab with Lionel Richie, while *NSYNC* would go on to collab with Nelly. The line was drawn in the sand, and this opened up *NSYNC to a wider share of potential fans. I’m not saying BSB were racist, but they had no real interest in “going street”. Meanwhile, Timberlake was yelling, “Yo, where the FUBU at?!”
The second episode of the second season of Making The Video, viewers were given a glimpse of the “new” *NSYNC – a group with a new record label and sound, which had cut the strings from their old puppet master Lou Pearlman (with whom they’d settled out of court in order to leave his purview). The music? On point. The choreo? On point. They were still a boyband, with all the treacly tropes, but they were also “mad”. I put that in quotes because they weren’t really mad. Sure, they felt they’d been taken advantage of, but they were still rich and having sex all over the world. No, they were “faux pouting”, like a cute girlfriend does when she wants to get her way. They were saying, “Look at us, ladies. We’re MAD!”
I thought this was the coolest video ever. I’d actually seen cooler videos, and I would later see even cooler videos. But I was drinking the Kool-Aid, and had completely bought in. I wasn’t alone, as No Strings Attached sold 2.4 million copies its first week of release, setting the record for the fastest-selling album on the Billboard 200. It was a huge album that begat a huge tour. Then, of course, all eyes were on BSB. After all, they were the OGs, and they, too, had gone through a bitter divorce with Pearlman. Would they be able to top *NSYNC’s sales? No, they would not. Their next album, Black & Blue, would “only” sell 1.5 million its first week, but it was the first signs that the bloom was off the Pop rose. While the industry never could launch a successful solo white male or a white girl group, the industry cup runneth over with boybands and hot blondes. And folks can only take so much – especially when everyone’s going to the same songwriter for their material. Hard to be “unique” when that happens. Things wouldn’t really recover after that. Still, I was young and fancy free! Now, I’m OLD, thinking about my glory days from 25 years ago. Oh, well. That’s life. I’ll catch y’all next week, and that ain’t no lie!
