How and Why Hollywood Destroyed TV

Hollywood is also destroying movies, but this post is about the destruction of TV.

Disparu is a fan of the Wheel of Time series of books. It was "adapted" for TV. And by adapted I mean it was completely destroyed. I am a fan of Lord of the Rings. That was also adapted for TV, and while I haven't read the Wheel of Time books, I can tell you that what they did to Lord of the Rings in The Rings of Prime series was a crime against art.

They didn't take liberties with the lore of LotR. They tore it up and set it on fire. Some of the characters in that show had the same names as characters written by Tolkien, but they are not the same characters; it wasn't even close. They don't have the character traits described by Tolkien. They don't even have the same backstory/personal history that he wrote. Calling a character Galadriel doesn't mean that she is Tolkien's character. As a result of all of that, people who like Tolkien's work stopped watching Rings of Prime a long way back. And the generally bad writing means that everyone else stopped watching as well.

But Hollywood can't admit that it is them. "Fantasy is too expensive." A convenient excuse, but they should go back and look at Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and Xena: Warrior Princess. Those were two, low-budget, fantasy TV shows that ran for multiple seasons each. Highlander: The Series also comes to mind, though that was a modern fantasy. It still included a sword fight, and minor special effects in every episode.

People did not watch Highlander: The Series for the special effects. The stories kept the show going for 5 seasons. You could say the same about Star Trek the original series, or Babylon 5 or a host of other Sci-Fi shows.

This is the Disparu video Wheel of Time, Rings of Power Murdered For a LIE. He answers the, "Why did they destroy their industry?" question.

They can't even admit the truth about the entire industry. Hollywood is not in a good place right now, at risk of becoming Detroit. TV writing jobs have fallen 42% in the years since the strikes.

Hollywood thought after the strikes everything would bounce back, and it never did. Because why would it? Anyone with business acumen or knowledge of unions in their past would know that they would destroy your industry.

You generally have a choice: destroy the union, or your job. That's why when they asked, "Would you do it again?" a year after the strike, it was described as one of the greatest, self-inflicted wounds in union history.

The video is just under 17 minutes.

I know what some will say. Reacher, and Mobland, and Tulsa King, and Landman, and a handful of others are still good TV shows. Yes they are, though I haven't gotten to all of them yet. But they are good almost in spite of Hollywood. They aren't woke. They aren't trying to "subvert expectations." They are trying to be entertaining, within their respective genres.

And at least in the case of Reacher are staying fairly true to the source material. They are adapting the books for TV. They didn't tear up the books and start fresh. They made changes to the books for the TV show. But the characters are still recognizable from the books. Their motivations are the same. Their backstory is the same. I know because I read the first few books in that series. I had a friend, who recently passed away, who loved the Reacher series of books, and he convinced me to read a few. They were good, for what they were, but I eventually decided that they weren't for me. I have enjoyed the 1st two seasons of the show. I haven't gotten to season 3.