Friday Freaktacular
I'm running out of words that start with F.
As always, this post is meant to be things that didn’t warrant a full post on their own. As it turns out, Substack has created a “Notes” application that in no way is a direct copy of Twitter. Not at all! But so far it seems to be decidedly less toxic, which is quite different than Twitter. Or, as Substack suggested I say to you all:
Notes is a new space on Substack for us to share links, short posts, quotes, photos, and more. I plan to use it for things that don’t fit in the newsletter, like work-in-progress or quick questions.
How to join
Head to substack.com/notes or find the “Notes” tab in the Substack app. As a subscriber to Greebs In Regulation, you’ll automatically see my notes. Feel free to like, reply, or share them around!
You can also share notes of your own. I hope this becomes a space where every reader of Greebs In Regulation can share thoughts, ideas, and interesting quotes from the things we're reading on Substack and beyond.
OK, onto the actual stuff.
One of the things I really like with a lot of quality shows on TV these days - especially those on HBO/HBO Max - is the post-show interviews they have with the cast and crew. Whether its The Last of Us, Succession, Perry Mason, The White Lotus or others, it’s fun to hear about what they were thinking about with the episode we just saw, etc. (This past week’s Succession was, hoo boy, deserving of that discussion.) But what always cracks me up is how many of these actors, who are almost always playing Americans, are English, Welsh or Australian. Realizing that Matthew Rhys (Perry Mason) and Juliet Rylance (Della Street) are Welsh and British is just a crazy moment.
The amount of non-Americans cast as Americans is crazy, and I’m not questioning it, but it’s jarring. Which made it even funnier when I looked up the actor who plays The Armorer on The Mandalorian, because her accent bothered me. It’s SO posh sounding to me that it felt out of place, and I wondered where the actor grew up. Yeah, she grew up in DC and Jacksonville. She’s American! And there are plenty of Mandalorians speaking without an English accent, so what are we doing here? It’s so weird. Also, her name is Emily Swallow, which … man, I might have considered a name change. That sounds like an altogether different kind of actor.
Speaking of HBO Max, this week they announced that in addition to a small price hike for us who prefer no ads, they are changing their name to MAX. This strikes me as the kind of plan an executive makes when he or she wants to make his or her mark, but there’s no other reason to do so. As my friend Heath said:
It’s probably best for them to get rid of the HBO branding given their recent flop of shows like Game of Thrones, True Detective, Boardwalk Empire, Succession, White Lotus, Sopranos, The Wire, Band of Brothers, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Veep, Deadwood and more…Don’t want your name tied to all of that.
Heaven forbid! Time for a rebranding. Also? Now the name is way more similar to Cinemax, aka Skinemax. What are we DOING here?Also, this logo tells you everything you need to know - that MAX is the place you go to watch HBO. Not HBO, mind you. This is so, so stupid.
Finally, it’s notable that HBO Max — sorry, “max” — will now come with a plan that includes ads. Its pretty hard to imagine watching Game of Thrones with a commercial in the middle, but if more people can see it this way, that’s fine. But it just drives home even more to me that advertising is pretty much the only way most companies make money. 90% of the tech startups that professed to be out to change the world? Yeah, they make money by selling ads. And HBO - oops, sorry, MAX - makes money through monthly subscriptions, sure - but there’s only so many folks who are willing to pony up, so … yeah, ads. There’s a bigger question of how effective advertising actually IS, but that’s a conversation for another time.