Your Weekly Watchlist

From the Picket Line

After Hollywood writers settled their 148-day strike against studios and streamers, there were optimists in executive suites who felt picketing actors — who walked out 91 days ago— would scoot in obligingly behind them. Have we forgotten that actors like drama?

Talks have stalled. Actually, they never really budged! SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union, wants to lock in a revenue-sharing agreement for streaming shows (and further AI safeguards). The bosses aren’t having it. They insist the union’s proposal — two percent of revenue from streaming series would go to a show’s cast —is a pipe dream.

The actors, led by La Pasionaria Fran Drescher accuse the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), of “bully tactics” and parsimony. A number of factors contribute to this migraine. SAG-AFTRA has 160,000 members (by contrast, the Writer’s Guild of America has only 5,000) so any agreement has massive implications for the industry. What the actors seek is a model that replaces the residual arrangements of the old network era, which sustained performers financially long after series aired. This has a certain symmetry, but it’s a nonstarter for the AMPTP, which views it as a multi-million buck levy on battered businesses. Studios and streamers opened the door a crack with the WGA by creating a reward structure for writers if a streaming show is a hit. The actors came up with their formula based on outside analytics. Their erstwhile employers won’t touch it.

Things are getting very testy. You're not winning an Oscar for this negotiation Endeavor Mogul Ari Emmanuel sniped from the sidelines. That’s a poke at Drescher, who does love a microphone. She’s not budging, and so far, her union is behind her. “It’s like we should be so lucky to get what they want, because they’re the bosses,” she said after the AMPTP suspended negotiations. “Actually my members are more pumped up than ever. It’s like, Fran, do not cave…the streaming model requires a new form of payment stream.”

So, the pickets continue, alongside dread that a hobbled industry may not survive them. If there’s one thing that both sides agree on, it’s that this flap is existential. — Reuben Warshowsky

Hold the Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs

The Frasier reboot is finally here —wait, don’t call it a reboot! Remember when it was all Wag Jon Lovett could wish for? Well, this is the pop culture equivalent of The Monkey’s Paw. Strip-mining IP has tapped a dreary vein— How I Met Your Father, Fuller House, Bel Air, And Just Like That, etc. (Did anybody long to revisit One Day at a Time?) Frasier, which ran from 1993 to 2004, is a treasure. But it’s also over, gone, a part of the archive. Dr. Crane doesn’t require a third act, he deserves to slumber in peace. The update is inoffensive. But in life and TV, more usually typically adds up to less. — Walter Twitchell

Headliner

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (theaters). So few things bring this fractious society together. But $100 million in advance ticket sales are proof that an authentic pop star can still draw us under a big tent. Dame Taylor Swift runs through 17 years of hits —where did the time go?— with a few songs cut for cinematic economy. (Wildest Dreams didn’t make it, and you won’t notice.) The extravaganza that will blow Barbie out of the water. —Elizabeth Epstein

Secret Recipe

Lessons in Chemistry (Apple TV+). Wag Bonnie Garmus wrote a charming bestseller about a female chemist who triumphs over all sorts of things in the 1950s. It’s a part made for Brie Larson, who is winning as a stiff scientist who becomes a cooking show host and warrior for change. A bit overstretched, but awfully hard not to like. — Harriet Sloane

American Way of Death

The Burial (Prime Video). If this were 1992, The Burial would back ‘em in at the multiplex: A rabble-rousing lawyer (Jamie Foxx) helps a small-time funeral parlor operator (Sir Tommy Lee Jones) who is being muscled out of the ever-after business by a billionaire. However, it is not 1992, so evidence will presented on Prime. Wag Maggie Betts has made a sparky based-on-a-true story number, which sheds light on the rapacious death industrial complex. —Decca Mitford

Bend it Like This Chappy

Beckham (Netflix). Earlier this month, Netflix dropped its doc series about Wag David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE. There are too many episodes, but they are elevated by the presence of a humble fellow who looks back on an extraordinary life with humor and grace. Catch up to it. — Jesminder Bhamra