Black Panther 2, Can the Middle Class Become Actors? Netflix Dead Due to Price Hikes?, YouTube Losing Top Content Creators? (The Five for 09/30/22)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
Meant for this to be out Friday.
Oops.
Let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
More and more, the next generation of TV and movie stars are…the children of Hollywood A-Listers, including the likes of Stranger Things Maya Hawke (daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman) and Maude Apatow on Euphoria (daughter of actress Leslie Mann and mega-producer Judd Apatow).
But what if you don’t come from money? How difficult is it to become an actor without wealth and connections?
Sweeney, an actress who grew up in Spokane and lived in a motel with her whole family while trying to make an acting career work, has a very different lifestyle from many of Hollywood's well-known and reserved elite. The actor seems to be everywhere all of the time. From television series to films to ads on Instagram or billboards throughout Los Angeles, Sweeney has had her nose to the grindstone throughout her career.
After working steadily in Hollywood for 10 years, Sweeney isn’t less famous than her legacy peers, yet the Emmy-nominated actress can't afford to take a break like the rest of her costars. Why has the Hollywood industry become impossible for lower-income or middle-class income families to navigate?
“If I wanted to take a six-month break, I don’t have the income to cover that,” Sweeny said. “I don’t have someone supporting me, I don’t have anyone I can turn to, to pay my bills or call for help.”
Sweeney revealed that 20% of her income goes toward paying various people who help her do her job. To pay her bills and pursue her dream of being a mother is almost impossible.
This isn’t the biggest issue facing the world today, but it’s a shame.
One of the things that’s always made America….America is the idea that you can go and be anything with enough talent and luck.
In Hollywood, that’s no longer holding true. Heck, you don’t even need the talent part.
Just parents with a famous last name.
[two]
NOTE: I urge you not to skip over this story… as it could have a significant impact on the products you buy moving forward.
Google is shutting down a major product, which raises bigger questions about the digital products we buy.
Google is shutting down Stadia, its cloud gaming service. The service will remain live for players until January 18th, 2023. Google will be refunding all Stadia hardware purchased through the Google Store as well as all the games and add-on content purchased from the Stadia store. Google expects those refunds will be completed in mid-January.
“A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia,” Stadia vice president and GM Phil Harrison said in a blog post. “And while Stadia’s approach to streaming games for consumers was built on a strong technology foundation, it hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected so we’ve made the difficult decision to begin winding down our Stadia streaming service.” Employees on the Stadia team will be distributed to other parts of the company.
I’ve been a Google Stadia customer for about a year, and I’m pretty sad over the shutdown.
In this case, I’m getting all my money back—roughly $100 in controllers, maybe $150 in games?
But that’s because Google is a giant company, and is doing right by their users.
There’s no guarantee this is what has to happen.
Think about how many digital products you have purchased…if the company was to go out of business, in all likelyhood, you just lose what you bought.
The thing (book, TV show, movie, etc.) just no longer exists in the cloud. Your money evaporated, and there’s nothing to do about it.
In the coming years, this will likely be a big deal as more of our lives, and our memories live online. (
[three]
Netflix is in really bad shape, and may lose 25% of their subscribers.
From reviews.org:
Netflix has had a difficult 2022, losing nearly 1.2 million subscribers in the first two quarters of 2022 and recording subscriber loss for the first time in a decade.1,2 The company hopes to add one million new subscribers in the third quarter, but could they face another loss?
We surveyed 1,000 Americans to gauge their streaming habits in 2022 and found that 1 in 4 are planning to leave Netflix this year. (Where could they go? There are a number of other streaming options available.)
The average American is subscribed to four streaming platforms, so why are so many planning to leave Netflix? And where are they going for streaming content?
Let’s queue up and dive into the upside-down world of streaming in 2022.
In my opinion, it’s a shame…because Netflix seems to finally be navigating away from the bevy of sub-par movies and shows they put out in favor of bigger, Blockbuster style content.
But in such a crowded streaming market, this could be the case of too little, too late.
[four]
Comedian and movie star Russell Brand, who’s pivoted to becoming a YouTube content creator, has announced he’s leaving YouTube behind as his primary channel in favor of upstart competitor Rumble.
The Wrap reports:
In early September, Brand posted a video on YouTube pointing out the shifting narratives around COVID from legacy and government health officials. Zooming in on a screenshot taken from the National Institutes of Health website, Brand said: “Yesterday, the National Institution of Health added Ivermectin to its list of COVID treatments.”
Brand was wrong. The post Brand was referencing said the NIH was “trialing” the legacy malaria treatment, but did not recommend it for anyone outside of those clinical trials. Brand’s followers were quick to point out the error, and he immediately took the video down and posted a mea culpa: “That was wrong,” he said. “We should have done better. We let you down. We will do better in the future.”
YouTube flagged him anyway. Brand said he was sent notice that he had violated “community guidelines” around COVID misinformation, and that the notice would stand as his one “lifetime” warning.
With YouTube’s one-strike policy – and Brand’s tendency to send monologues running down third rails – the “Get Him to the Greek” star swiftly migrated his library of more than 1,400 videos over to Rumble to prevent them from disappearing from the internet forever. Brand says going forward, his videos will appear on Rumble first, but he’ll continue uploading videos to YouTube “as long as they’ll allow us.”
YouTube has become increasingly harsh with content creators as of late…who have really had no other option for video hosting until this year. Now, the censorship may be taking a toll…as Rumble has grown 77% in the last year.
Brand is, so far, the highest profile content creator to willingly defect for a new platform.
[five]
As always, let’s head wrap up the Culture & Commentary issue with a pop culture roundup:
Black Panther 2 trailer dropped! Need I say more?
We’re about to find out of audiences will embrace Will Smith after “the slap” as the historical epic Emancipation is due out on Apple TV+ in December. The excellent Ben Foster (Hell or High Water, Hustle) co-stars.
My favorite sitcom of all time, Community, is returning for a movie nearly a decade after the series ended. The show barely held on at NBC before moving to Yahoo!’s defunct streaming network.
However, since cancellation the beloved story of misfits at a jr. college found a much wider audience.
No release date yet, but this will be streaming on Peacock, the same place the show lives, if you haven’t seen it.
A first look dropped for Extraction 2, the follow up to the Chris Hemsworth (Thor) action vehicle, and one of Netflix’s biggest hits to date.
MUSIC NEWS:
File under “didn’t see that coming.” Foo Fighters played a tribute to their late drummer Taylor Hawkins…and comedian Dave Chappelle jumped in on vocals for a cover of Radiohead’s iconic 90’s single “Creep.”
It’s…weird. And Chappelle can’t really sing…but neither can Bob Dylan, yet his music touches millions deep in their souls.
For some reason, this version hits me hard, just like the Thom York penned original.
Kid Cudi announced that Entergalactic, the soundtrack to the movie of the same name, will be his last album.
Cudi has been building his acting resume with roles in The Harder They Fall, Don’t Look Up and the horror flick X, but appears to be dedicated to writing and directing films rather than focusing on music.
In my opinion, Cudi has done more to shape the sound of pop music over the last decade than anyone else…and as is often the case, the biggest influencers aren’t necessarily the biggest names in the arts space.
If this truly is his last album, it’s a heck of a send off.
NEW MUSIC
Celtic Punk mainstays Dropkick Murphys took a VERY different approach to their latest project, This Machine Still Kills Fascists, which sets the lyrics of Woody Guthrie to new arrangements.
Guthrie was a very (born in 1912) early folk music hero and a huge influence on Bob Dylan. I had never listened to Guthrie and wasn’t familiar with these songs…which makes this album even more of a pleasant surprise.
At first listen, this may be one of my favorite albums of 2022.Apple Music | YouTube Music
Until the next one,-sth