Consumption, Peacemaking, and Collective Action, Oh My!

One day, I'd like to come back to Fantastic Fest and just work the festival, but that sure as hell wasn't this year. Perhaps what made it worse was that, where in past years I was busy doing my job alongside all of my fest coverage, this one was instead coupled with the desperate search for work. In between watching and reviewing films, I was going through my normal job hunt routine as well as sending unrelated pitches so I didn't entirely miss out on a week of "regular" work.

Reader: I did still miss out on a week of regular work while also hemorrhaging money at the film festival I was covering because no one has budget right now. But hey, I tried, and I'm choosing to believe that's what matters for the time being. I've got that or panic, and for now I'm picking the former.

Still, it was hard to balance searching for work while covering the festival, and difficult to miss out on time with friends in favor of a fruitless search. Despite all that, I still have more than a few reviews published and even more dropping over the next week!

Fantastic Fest Reviews

• The Strangers Chapter 2 (Daily Dead debut)
• Black Phone 2 (my return to Nerdist)
• Appofeniacs
• Coyotes

Stay tuned for an interview write-up and a review of my favorite film of the fest in the next few days 🤫

In the meantime, I do have a touch of good news...

Catch Me At New York Comic-Con

When you work for a major outlet, all of your success gets attributed to that outlet. "Sure, she's a good writer, but she only has access because of where she works," etc. etc. Because of that, it felt real nice to bag this moderating gig all on my own just a month out from my layoff. The fact that it's with one of my favorite casts is most certainly icing on the cake, too. Be sure to catch us on the ✨main stage✨ at the Javits Center on Thursday, and keep your eyes peeled for more NYCC news from me in the coming weeks!

Peacemaker's Practically Perfect Predictability

(No spoilers.)

This week's episode of Peacemaker is a case study on why sometimes predictability doesn't matter. Damn near the entire internet guessed what was going on with the alternate universe Chris ran away to, but because Gunn and co. told a compelling story, it didn't matter that we knew where we were going. Tossing in a surprise cameo — especially given Flagg Sr.'s relationship to the character — certainly didn't hurt, either.

Harcourt's story has been particularly compelling this season, especially as a woman who struggled to grow out of her own toxic masculinity phase in her early 20s. The fact that she's also dealing with losing a job that was pretty central to her personality sure as shit hits home too. (The romance with Peacemaker part, not so much.)

Voting With Your Dollars

Sometimes — though it does feel rarer these days — things work out. The Jimmy Kimmel saga ended up being blessedly short and, while it wasn't really about Kimmel at all, he unwittingly became the center of it for reasons that even executives involved in the ouster couldn't really understand. Still, Disney, Nexstar, and Sinclair felt it necessary to bow before Dear Leader, and everyone from seasoned activists to Disney Adults immediately joined the fray, cancelling their Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ subscriptions at a clip that The Mouse could have never anticipated (let's be honest, we were all pleasantly surprised by the Disney Adults).

Disney first tried to stop the bleeding with a lackluster trailer to The Mandalorian and Grogu, which absolutely did not work but did give me the opportunity to write a tongue-in-cheek article about it all that left people who only read headlines foaming at the mouth. I couldn't even be mad, really. They were at least mad for the right reason, which is a baby step towards achieving media literacy and actually reading what you're pissed off about, I suppose.

Disney caved later that day, agreeing to return Kimmel to the airwaves. Nexstar and Sinclair remained firm, as they hadn't received their pound of flesh (read: a donation and apology from the man who'd said nothing particularly wrong). The two broadcast companies would proceed to miss out on the highest ratings Kimmel had ever pulled, which is where things get very fun.

Activists had already started a boycott campaign, advising subscribers to call the companies that advertised through the broadcasters to tell them that they'd boycott their companies too. This would have eventually worked, but it didn't need to. We might be in a late stage capitalist hellscape but sometimes, very rarely, that late stage capitalist hellscape can work in our favor. When the advertisers saw the numbers of eyes they lost out on in Sinclair and Nexstar regions, they presumably flipped their proverbial lids.

We don't know for sure, of course, but we do know that Sinclair and Nexstar both folded shortly after the news of Kimmel's record ratings started to spread. Correlation might not equal causation, but this one seems pretty transparent.

All of that aside, what matters here is how quickly people came together. The problem was explained in a clear, concise way, and people swiftly acted as a collective for a comedian most regular folks don't even care about (sorry Jimmy, you seem nice). Fellow activists learned how quick a collective response can be when they explain the problem simply. Regular people learned that if they stand together they can win fights.

That might sound trite as hell, but the general public has hid behind "there's no ethical means of consumption under capitalism" for too long. There might be some unavoidable truths under capitalism but, just like with democracy, the people are always in control if we choose to be.

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