Three recs, double strike edition

A podcast about a cult, a retro spy movie, a black comedy thriller series

Happy Bastille Day, kids!

With SAG-AFTRA (the actors’ guild) officially joining the WGA (the writers’ guild) on strike as of midnight, I’m feeling fired up and feisty about labor action, so let’s get into it, shall we?

(As ever, recs below the fold!)

A couple months ago, I wrote about the necessity of the WGA strike. In that, I talked a bit about the insulting offers that the AMPTP (the studios) made to the writers at the negotiating table – and that’s on points they even agreed to discuss, which were shockingly few.

Yesterday, it came out that one of the AMPTP’s offers to SAG was that background actors would be paid for one day of work, during which their image would be “scanned.” After that, the studio would own the image and could use it “in perpetuity” without having to pay the actor again.

Yes, you read that right. The horror of not owning the rights to your own image aside, the AMPTP wants to wipe out low-income actors in one fell swoop. People who use those jobs to pay their bills and build their careers and pay into the union’s pension fund would be forced out of the industry. Not only is that a union-busting move (what happens when SAG-AFTRA loses those pension contributions?), but it’s also kneecapping the future of the acting industry. Where do you think the next generation of actors will come from if they can’t get their start and/or survive between gigs by doing background work?

This is the same thing the AMPTP is trying to do to the writers. They don’t want to pay writers a living wage, they don’t want to hire enough writers to write a good show, they don’t want to train writers to become showrunners, they don’t even want to have human writers on a project if they can help it. And it is all so disgustingly short-sighted.

Sure, maybe you can save a little money now (and by “save” I mean give it to your C-suite execs and shareholders), but what happens in 5, 10, 15 years when there are no writers or actors left? When the biggest names have retired, and everyone else has left the industry because they couldn’t afford it? The industry will be gone. Your company will collapse. And the rest of us will be left with a gaping hole where we once had something of value.

Which is just what Uber has done to taxis, what Zillow and those real estate “disruptors” have done to housing, what Amazon and Walmart have done to local shops, and so on.

Call me naive, but I always thought the point of technology and innovation was to make humans’ lives better. In many ways, I think they do. But isn’t storytelling one of the good things about being human? It just really doesn’t feel like that’s one of those things we should use technology to make obsolete.

If you’re feeling similarly fired up, I recommend watching SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher’s (The Nanny!) barn burner of a speech from the strike announcement.

That’s all for now. If you’d like to support the workers who are on strike, the WGA has some suggestions.

And now: recs!

---

Rec 1
A Very British Cult (pod)

I find cults fascinating, if a bit overdone in the docuseries space, so I’ll admit I went into this BBC investigative podcast prepared to listen to one ep and then make the call. Two days later, I’d binged all 8 half-hour episodes (hallelujah!) and all but become an expert on this almost shockingly banal cult led by a South African guy who claims to have revolutionized life-coaching. (Insert meme here about me listening to one podcast and then starting to “well actually” PhDs.)

While the cult itself is predictably sad – how can cults not be? – the logistics of the life-coaching scheme and how they pull people in are pretty fascinating. And there is the inherently hopeful framing that the whole story is built around someone who got out. It also really digs into how his family behaved in order to help him not get sucked all the way in, which is good info to know in case someone in your life ever starts to get brainwashed or pulled into a cult or anything. (It could happen!) Plus, it’s really good journalism, which is shockingly rare in podcasts these days.

Now, let’s address the elephant in the room: This is a ridiculous title formulation and it needs to be retired. It was used once, quite cleverly, in something that actually felt distinctly British, and now it’s literally on everything. (Not, of course, that Britain has ever seen being overdone as a reason not to do – or eat – something… Sorry, Brits, it was right there.) Besides, I did say the guy was South African, right? He does live in the UK, but come on! Also, this might be the biggest cult in the UK (hard to say), but it’s certainly not all that different from cults in the rest of the world.

Anyway, don’t let the title poison you against the rest of the show, it’s very good.

Where to listen: wherever you listen to podcasts
(Apparently there’s also a TV documentary version on the BBC, if you really want to go all in, but I can’t vouch for it)

Rec 2
Spy Game (film)

There’s this Robert Redford heist film from the 1970s that I have been trying to watch for the last three years. It’s called The Hot Rock, and sounds exactly like my kind of fun, funny caper: Redford and a crew get hired to steal a diamond, only to promptly lose it and spend the rest of the film constantly having to steal it back (only to continually lose it). Delightful. The issue? It’s not available anywhere (legal).

So, in a bid to make myself feel better every time I check and see it’s still not available on one of the 50 streaming platforms I subscribe to, I’ve been going into the vault to watch lots of other fun Redford films. Like most people, I have a bias for the new, which is, frankly, just a bit ridiculous. The man has starred in 60 years worth of heists, crime capers, spy films, and action thrillers (and maybe some other stuff, too), some of which are exceptional and most of which are quite enjoyable.

Which is how I landed on Spy Game, a pre-9/11 (only just) spy thriller where he’s a wise-cracking CIA guy on the verge of retirement when his estranged protégé (Brad Pitt, naturally) lands himself in a Chinese prison. For reasons that don’t really matter, the CIA has no intention of getting Pitt out of before he’s executed in 24 hours, so it’s up to Redford to save him. We’ve got tense and exciting action scenes, Redford and Pitt bantering in scenic and sometimes improbable locations, awkward callbacks to 70s-80s-90s geopolitics, a little heartbreak (mostly for you, the viewer), a little redemption arc, and, of course, the protagonist being just a few steps ahead of the guys trying to thwart him. It’s honestly more fun than most of the recent spy thrillers I’ve seen.

Don’t think about it (or the military industrial complex) too hard – just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Where to watch: Amazon Prime/Freevee (UK), wherever you rent movies (US)

Rec 3
The Tourist (TV)

To continue the theme of action-adventures with a sense of humor, here’s a little legacy rec that I once again had the good fortune of getting to recommend to someone recently. (Does it count as a legacy rec if they’re filming s2 right now? Because they are! Or, at least, they were before SAG went on strike…)

This BBC black comedy action thriller starts with a familiar premise: a man wakes up in a hospital with amnesia, and all he knows is that someone’s trying to kill him. Only, in this case, that man is the eminently watchable Jamie Dornan, who plays a Northern Irish guy who’s somehow ended up in the middle of the Australian outback. I hadn’t seen him in much before, but, after this, I’ll watch him in anything. He’s matched by the equally charismatic Danielle Macdonald, who plays the girl scout of a rookie cop who’s determined to help him figure out who he is – even as more and more people try to kill them.

The story takes some very sharp left turns, and very little goes the way you think it will (which is a good thing). It’s weird and sometimes deeply absurd, it’s dark and twisted and sometimes shocking, it’s laugh-out-loud funny, and, somehow, there’s still a really lovely element of pathos in there. Honestly, one of my favorite new shows to come out of the BBC in recent years, and I can’t wait for s2.

Where to watch: BBC (UK), HBO/Max (US)

---

That’s all for this week! What are you reading/watching/listening to that I should be aware of? Drop me a line (or comment) to let me know if you check out any of my recs and what you think.

Please spread the word and I’ll see you in a couple weeks!

xo
Kate

---

Did someone share this with you?