tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/disney-78218/articlesDisney+ – The Conversation2024-03-28T12:21:09Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2267682024-03-28T12:21:09Z2024-03-28T12:21:09ZRenegade Nell: Sally Wainwright’s highwaywoman series is a swaggering caper of a show<p>“Little word of warning. You don’t want to mess with me”, Nelly Jackson tells highwayman Isambard Tulley in the opening minutes of Renegade Nell. The Disney+ fantasy adventure series is the latest show from Happy Valley writer, <a href="https://theconversation.com/happy-valley-the-art-of-sally-wainwrights-perfect-tv-ending-199616">Sally Wainwright</a>.</p>
<p>Nell has inadvertently stumbled on Tulley and his gang robbing a group of wealthy travellers in the woods. The date is 1705 and Nell is returning to her family tavern in Tottenham, widowed, after her husband, Captain Jack was “blasted in half at the Battle of Blenheim”. </p>
<p>Despite this horrifying set of circumstances, Nell (or Nelly as her family call her, much to her annoyance), is remarkably upbeat, her cockney wit as quick and cutting as her sword skills.</p>
<p>The series sets up a story world inhabited by characters that are smart, resourceful, camp, canny and highly amusing. While tragedy and greed take up space in the dark edges of the plot and the minds of the show’s villains, it is humour that occupies its centre. </p>
<p>This comes courtesy of both Wainwright’s sharp writing and the performances of Nell, played by Louisa Harland of Derry Girls fame, and Billy Blind, her magical, pint-sized spirit, played by comedian and actor Nick Mohammed. </p>
<p>Mohammed purposefully uses his most famous comedic creation, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofVcaQQJlMc">Mr Swallow</a>, in his role as Billy Blind, drawing on both Mr Swallow’s squeaky voice, and his pattern of biting off more than he can chew. </p>
<p>Harland’s performance as Nell is equally magical, driving the narrative at breakneck speed. Her supernaturally powered fight sequences are something to behold, and she showcases a multitude of accents, from contemporary cockney to “posh” Scottish. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for Renegade Nell.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Sally Wainwright’s safe hands</h2>
<p>Sally Wainright, the creator, executive producer and writer of the first five episodes of the series, is largely considered a safe – and extraordinarily capable – pair of hands. Wainwright is most well-known for Scott & Bailey (2011), Last Tango in Halifax (2012), Happy Valley (2014) and <a href="https://theconversation.com/gentleman-jack-a-gripping-19th-century-tale-of-one-womans-bravery-in-sex-and-politics-116868">Gentleman Jack</a> (2019). </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/happy-valley-the-art-of-sally-wainwrights-perfect-tv-ending-199616">Happy Valley: the art of Sally Wainwright's perfect TV ending</a>
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<p>Renegade Nell sees Wainwright parry with and between genres, themes and styles for which she is less well known. The magic realism and playful spirit that frames Renegade Nell may feel worlds away from Happy Valley, but – as with Wainwright’s indomitable women characters and frequent focus on class inequalities – magic realism does have precedence in her back catalogue. </p>
<p>Wainwright’s reimagination of the three Brontë sisters in the BBC film <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04cf4wv">To Walk Invisible</a> (2016) included scenes of the siblings as children, their heads adorned with <a href="https://images.app.goo.gl/uX6o4CDWUgYzdyaZ6">burning crowns of fire</a>. Renegade Nell has a similar interest in the magical relationship between three extraordinary but very different sisters.</p>
<p>The show is a magical mix of Wainwright’s previous creative expertise. Its adventure is drawn from Jane Hall (2006) and comedy from Bonkers (2007). It has period costume and a musical score reminiscent of Gentleman Jack and magic realism from To Walk Invisible. </p>
<p>Then there’s the determination and resilience from Happy Valley, and the focus on family, care, community and class that was inherent to Wainwright’s soap opera writing for Coronation Street.</p>
<h2>A class act</h2>
<p>Alongside its interest in women and the inequalities they experience and battle to overcome, a theme central to Renegade Nell is <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/978-1-137-55506-9">social class</a>. </p>
<p>With Nell as our guide, the structural inequalities between the wealthy and the poor are aligned directly to power and its abuses. The law, Nell tells us, “is made by the toffs, for the toffs”. Ending up on the wrong side of it, she talks to Billy Blind, joking and lamenting in equal measure: “How come I’ve ended up so far on the wrong side of the law?” </p>
<p>In response, Billy suggests, “Maybe when someone like you ends up on the wrong side of the law … there’s something wrong with the law … and maybe me and you was supposed to do some disruption to redress the balance.”</p>
<p>Their work to redress the balance, alongside an exceptional cast of supporting characters, explores the corruption of government, the control of the news and questions of truthful and objective reporting, poverty and gender-imbalanced opportunities. </p>
<p>Though the setting in 16th century England provides a sense of temporal distance, the contemporary relevance of the issues explored are unlikely to be lost on viewers, who may well be inspired to join Nell in kicking up a rumpus.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beth Johnson is affiliated with the Royal Television Society, as Vice Chair of the Yorkshire RTS branch. </span></em></p>The Disney series is a magical mega-mix of Sally Wainwright’s greatest hits.Beth Johnson, Professor of Television & Media Studies, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2258292024-03-27T13:27:14Z2024-03-27T13:27:14ZIn the fog of the video streaming wars, job losses and business closures are imminent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584019/original/file-20240325-30-zw5640.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1077%2C0%2C4913%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/barcelona-spain-jan-2019-man-holds-1272527956">Ivan Marc/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prussian general and military theorist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carl-von-Clausewitz">Carl von Clausewitz</a> presented the concept of the “fog of war” in 1832. It is a phrase that has become synonymous with the uncertainty and confusion of military battle. </p>
<p>But this expression also acts as a useful metaphor to describe the industry and market dynamics that subscription video-on-demand streaming firms find themselves operating in – that is, uncertainty.</p>
<p>This uncertainty is demonstrated by the performance of American streaming platform Disney+. Since 2019, the platform has received <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/c60bd60b-2a81-43fb-8452-fe3002e5c4cbsource?">US$10 billion</a> (£7.9 billion) of investment. But, over the same period, it has lost roughly <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonifitzgerald/2023/08/09/new-record-for-disney-sheds-117-million-subscribers-password-crackdown-coming/?sh=724e09cc1d7b">12 million customers</a>, and it posted staggering losses of more than <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ec0f7996-fae9-4e80-baa9-020ad470c25a">US$1.6 billion</a> in 2023. </p>
<p>In November, its parent company, Walt Disney, <a href="https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/app/uploads/2023/11/q4-fy23-earnings.pdf">introduced</a> a new “cost-reduction strategy” that will aim to cut 7,000 jobs and save US$7.5 billion in the face of weakening economic conditions and tougher competition.</p>
<p><strong>Five year share price comparison: Walt Disney v New York Stock Exchange</strong></p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584020/original/file-20240325-22-2f15i6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Five year share price comparison between Walt Disney and the New York Stock Exchange." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584020/original/file-20240325-22-2f15i6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584020/original/file-20240325-22-2f15i6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584020/original/file-20240325-22-2f15i6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584020/original/file-20240325-22-2f15i6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584020/original/file-20240325-22-2f15i6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584020/original/file-20240325-22-2f15i6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584020/original/file-20240325-22-2f15i6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Disney+ loses luster as investor optimism wanes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">S&P Capital IQ</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p>The COVID pandemic supercharged the on-demand streaming business as consumers sought to entertain themselves during the numerous lockdowns. The streaming industry experienced a period of rapid growth, attracting a flood of new entrants lured by market growth rates of <a href="https://rm.coe.int/audiovisual-media-services-in-europe-2023-edition-a-schneeberger/1680abc9bc">40% per year</a> and potentially high profits from surging consumer demand.</p>
<p>Companies such as Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ and Apple TV gained millions of customers in a matter of months and invested billions of dollars on new content, infrastructure and marketing. It all seemed too good to be true as the “land grab” for subscriber growth and market share continued into 2022. </p>
<p>However, an easing of lockdown restrictions saw consumers vacate their sofas and give up their binge-watching TV habits, ready to explore the great outdoors again.</p>
<h2>The shakeout</h2>
<p>The streaming industry is currently characterised by an oversupply of service providers. This has led to aggressive competitive pricing where businesses set their prices based on what their competitors are charging. </p>
<p>For example, instead of Netflix basing its subscription price solely on production costs and a desired profit margin, it will consider the prevailing prices offered by its rivals in the market and find a strategic price point that allows it to be competitive while also maintaining profitability.</p>
<p>Platforms with less efficient operations or inferior offerings are starting to struggle and an “industry shakeout” is inevitable. This is where a significant number of businesses are eliminated or acquired through competition in a period of intense consolidation. </p>
<p>Think of it as a metaphorical earthquake. The ground shifts beneath established players, forcing some to adapt, some to crumble, and others to emerge even stronger.</p>
<p>Take, for instance, the Swedish streaming platform, Viaplay. Despite being much smaller than its US counterparts, it adopted an expensive international expansion <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a148bade-3364-43ac-a450-39203919261d">strategy</a> that was fuelled by the pandemic. This strategic approach failed and Viaplay could not expand profitably outside its home market. </p>
<p>The cost of living crisis then resulted in subscriber price increases and higher customer churn as a result. Uncertainty surrounding the firm has also been made worse by the sacking of its CEO and the introduction of a plan to significantly <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/162b0c78-ee3e-4851-9d53-7fb7ce2550a1#post-b522b47e-57da-411c-ba08-6b8d5b44cfb1">cut operating costs</a>. It’s no great surprise then that the company has withdrawn its long-term guidance for sales revenue and its share price has <a href="https://markets.ft.com/data/equities/tearsheet/charts?s=VPLAY%20B:STO">slumped</a> by a remarkable 99% over the past 12 months.</p>
<p>This shakeout phase of industry development will result in job losses and business closures until a situation develops where a smaller number of stronger, more efficient players dominate the industry through “scale advantage”. </p>
<p>A good example of consolidation occurred in the social media industry in the early 2000s. Platforms such as MySpace, Friendster and Friends Reunited gained early popularity with consumers, but then ceased trading or became a competitive insignificance as Facebook emerged as a dominant force. To maintain its market-leading position and access new users, Facebook went on to acquire smaller competitors including <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17658264">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26266689">WhatsApp</a> in 2012 and 2014 respectively.</p>
<p>The benefits of this “scale advantage” are more efficient access to international markets, higher profitability and the ability to deliver lower subscription prices due to the economies of scale. This is particularly beneficial to consumers at a time of inflationary pressure on discretionary spend. </p>
<h2>The outlook</h2>
<p>So, who is at risk on the battlefield of streaming wars? Even household favourites such as Netflix, with a global market share of 24%, 260 million subscribers and best-in-class content are not safe. </p>
<p><strong>Five year share price comparison: Netflix v Nasdaq</strong></p>
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<span class="caption">Netflix loses stream: investor confidence fizzles as growth slows.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">S&P Capital IQ</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p>Given the current focus on corporate profitability in an industry likely to consolidate, Netflix’s ability to produce a <a href="https://s22.q4cdn.com/959853165/files/doc_financials/2023/q4/NEW-FINAL-Q4-23-Shareholder-Letter.pdf">net profit</a> of more than US$5 billion and an impressive operating margin of 21% in 2023 will make it a potential target for acquisition. This is particularly the case given that the size of the company, at US$264 billion, is relatively small compared to larger competitors such as Apple (US$2.75 trillion) and Amazon (US$1.84 trillion).</p>
<p>The “fog of streaming war” will clear and the strategic uncertainty caused by lower market growth rates, inflationary pressure and economic weakness will decrease. As such, competitive industry positions will become more established, normalised and defended. </p>
<p>The key question facing most media companies in the future will be how to make subscription video-on-demand streaming a profitable part of their business.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225829/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John J Oliver does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The video streaming industry has reached a tipping point.John J Oliver, Professor of Strategic Media Management, Bournemouth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2221462024-02-01T19:03:24Z2024-02-01T19:03:24ZBlack comedy, political drama and a documentary about a cult: what we’re streaming this February<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572100/original/file-20240130-15-a46qob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C11%2C3982%2C1982&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Binge/ABC/Paramount+/The Conversation</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the new year gets going and we’re all looking towards evenings on the couch again to unwind after work or school, there is again a glut of shows to choose from. </p>
<p>This month, our academics have suggested everything from a drama exploring the AIDS epidemic, to the latest outing from Marvel, to a documentary about a cult. </p>
<p>If you like your comedy black or romantic, if you want to watch a film or a series, we have you covered for what to stream this February. </p>
<h2>Fellow Travellers</h2>
<p><em>Paramount+ (Australia) and Neon (New Zealand)</em></p>
<p>Fellow Travellers picked up two nominations in the Golden Globes; I would have given it many more. But maybe the combination of political history and hot man-to-man sex was too much for the nominators.</p>
<p>Thomas Mallon’s 2007 novel about two men who fall in love in the homophobic Washington of Senator McCarthy has been expanded to explore racism and the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. But the essential tensions of forbidden love remain, even if the television series takes us into worlds Mallon chose not to explore.</p>
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<p>The performances of the two leading actors Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey are
extraordinary. So too is Jelani Alladin as a black reporter who struggles to balance his racial and sexual identity.</p>
<p>Bomer’s character is the ultimate survivor, who marries for his career and treats all relationships transactionally. Bailey’s is seemingly weaker, a right-wing Catholic who falls completely for Bomer. His transformation at the end into an AIDS activist stretches credulity, but Bailey has the skill to carry it off.</p>
<p>Fellow Travellers is politically more sophisticated than Oppenheimer and more complex in its sexual politics than Barbie. Like them it interrogates the myth of America, which sadly promises to preoccupy us over the coming year.</p>
<p><em>– Dennis Altman</em></p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-kid-called-troy-at-30-this-beautiful-aussie-film-was-one-of-the-most-important-hiv-aids-documentaries-ever-produced-218715">A Kid Called Troy at 30: this beautiful Aussie film was one of the most important HIV/AIDS documentaries ever produced</a>
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<h2>The Curse</h2>
<p><em>Paramount+ (Australia) and Neon (New Zealand)</em></p>
<p>The genre-bending black comedy The Curse is a persistent, excruciating tummy ache of a show – and that’s a recommendation.</p>
<p>Newlywed white liberal do-gooders Whitney (Emma Stone) and Asher (Nathan Fielder) arrive in the socio-economically deprived town of Española, New Mexico, with louche filmmaker Dougie (Benny Safdie) to film an obnoxious HGTV show called Flipanthropy. The wealthy couple will ostensibly “help” the community through their high-end eco-home company, but things do not go to plan.</p>
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<p>The satirical ten-part series, created and written by Safdie and Fielder, defies convention and description. It’s filmed in an uncanny, dissociative style. Very long takes, awkward framing and unsettling points of view marry contemporary surveillance cultures with the dream-like stupor of David Lynch. It’s a Rorschach test for viewers as it takes on a huge range of targets: gentrification, the constructed nature of “reality” television, vanity, racism, class, colonisation, capitalism, power, art, privilege, entertainment, taste, masculinity, loneliness.</p>
<p>The show inflicts a lot of psychic damage on the viewer, but it’s worth making it to the end. The performances are impeccable, and the astonishing finale offers what might be the biggest water cooler moment of television this year.</p>
<p><em>– Erin Harrington</em></p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nathan-fielders-new-comedy-the-rehearsal-will-be-familiar-to-anyone-with-autism-188071">Nathan Fielder's new comedy The Rehearsal will be familiar to anyone with autism</a>
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<h2>Total Control season three</h2>
<p><em>iView (Australia)</em></p>
<p>Two years after First Nations MP Alex Irving (Deborah Mailman) outwitted the major
parties and leveraged the new power of the crossbench to install Paul Murphy
(Wayne Blair) as Australia’s first Indigenous prime minister, the shine has worn off Murphy’s leadership. </p>
<p>In the third season of Total Control, Murphy has sacrificed one social justice commitment after another on the altar of electoral politics and the knives are out between him and Irving.</p>
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<p>Irving is at boiling point, as her commitment to youth justice and to
securing resources for her disaster-struck regional community is constantly thwarted.</p>
<p>Her nemesis, former prime minister Rachel Anderson (Rachel Griffiths) – all
sangfroid and intrigue – has reinvented herself as a warrior for ethical, truly
representative democracy and is attempting to set up a new alliance of independents. The stakes are high, the tension palpable.</p>
<p>Filmed in Parliament House, this final season continues Total Control’s stylish, taut political drama. Consultations with political insiders informed themes of political corruption, dirty money in politics and the reconfiguration of the political landscape with the rise of independents, set against the ongoing neglect of Indigenous communities.</p>
<p>But this is no cynical exercise; there is an optimistic vision here for the real change independents could bring.</p>
<p><em>– Anne Rutherford</em></p>
<h2>Smothered</h2>
<p><em>Binge (Australia) and Neon (New Zealand)</em></p>
<p>Many of us have bemoaned the lack of rom-coms in the cinema, but luckily television is increasingly becoming a space for dynamic and interesting romantic-comedies from You’re the Worst to Everything I Know About Love. </p>
<p>A recent entry into the TV rom-com landscape is the delightful new British series Smothered, created by Monica Heisey. Danielle Vitalis stars as Sammy, a chaotic but fun twenty-something interior designer, who is disillusioned by her current dating (read: sex) life. </p>
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<p>Jon Pointing plays her counterpart Tom, a quiet, lost, old-before-his-years “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/aug/27/four-lads-in-jeans-meme-made-into-statue-in-birmingham">lad in jeans</a>.” In a classic meet-cute conceit, an impossible but alluring deal is struck between our two leads: a hot casual affair, no last names, no details, three weeks and they’re done. But of course life and feelings complicate best laid plans. </p>
<p>Equal parts absurd and sincere, this is the perfect show for those who love Nora Ephron and Sex and the City. Like these predecessors, Smothered is populated by quirky supporting characters who are inexplicably invested in Sammy and Tom’s romance, but it works thanks to hilarious performances by Aisling Bea, Harry Trevaldwyn and Lisa Hammond.</p>
<p>– <em>Jessica Ford</em></p>
<h2>Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God</h2>
<p><em>Binge (Australia) and Neon (New Zealand)</em></p>
<p>Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God charts the life and death of Amy Carlson, who in early adulthood claimed she was a divine being in communication with a host of “Galactics”, including deceased comedian Robin Williams, and built a following of tens of thousands on Facebook and YouTube.</p>
<p>The three-part documentary series begins with the discovery by police in 2021 of the former McDonalds manager’s corpse, blue from ingesting copious amounts of <a href="https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/colloidal-silver-what-you-need-to-know">colloidal silver</a> and attended by her inner circle of devotees in Crestone, Colorado. </p>
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<p>Director and producer Hannah Olsen successfully compiles several key interviews with those closest to the believed 254th reincarnation of Mother God, including testimony from Carlson’s four “Father God” partners and from those who maintained the religious movements’s online presence whilst witnessing her decline first hand.</p>
<p>The eerie use of cloud photography (“starships” coming to ascend Carlson to a higher “5D” dimension) alongside the group’s influencer-style social media livestreams and a <a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/46oBuu2KmtIUsMDFgQP89Z?si=5f34857125db4ccb&nd=1&dlsi=91f9923c750c4896&go=1">soundtrack</a> of atonal electronica makes for a unique post-millennium aesthetic.</p>
<p>Ultimately Love Has Won left me pondering the relationship between the unknowable mysteries of our existence and the myriad mental health effects of trauma.</p>
<p>– <em>Phoebe Hart</em></p>
<h2>Echo</h2>
<p><em>Disney+ (Australia) and Apple TV (New Zealand)</em></p>
<p>Among swathes of Marvel spin-offs, Echo’s bingeable five chapter run caught and kept my interest. Echo spotlights Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox), a deaf assassin who flees New York following deadly conflict with her “uncle”, Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). Fisk is “Kingpin”, a villainous businessman who lacks interstellar prowess but employs monstrous methods of controlling “his” city.</p>
<p>We open on Maya’s childhood within her Choctaw family and heritage. After a targeted tragedy – including the loss of her leg – Maya and her father move to New York where Fisk’s indoctrination begins. Present-day Maya returns home to a wary family and town. Only her cousin, Biscuits (Cody Lightning), leaps to provide support and charmingly obvious comedic relief.</p>
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<p>Kingpin’s shadow – cast by D’Onofrio’s stellar performance – looms, but Cox shines as a tight-lipped young woman at crossroads, determinedly independent, drawn to the past. Maya is a break-out role for Cox, who is herself Native American, deaf, and an amputee. Exposition and relationship-building are communicated through sign language. Sound mediates emotion and action, oscillating between manically heightened music and tense, heart-beating silence.</p>
<p>We soon root for antihero Maya, despite plentiful onscreen violence at her hand. While she debuted in Hawkeye as a heartless killer, Echo goes deeper, exploring inheritance, loss, and betrayal, via a lick of magic and a lot of blood.</p>
<p><em>– Marina Deller</em></p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/marvels-echo-is-a-one-of-a-kind-superhero-and-an-inspiration-to-the-deaf-community-221148">Marvel's Echo is a one-of-a-kind superhero – and an inspiration to the Deaf community</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222146/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This month, our academics have suggested everything from a drama exploring the AIDS epidemic, to the latest outing from Marvel, to a documentary about a cult.Anne Rutherford, Adjunct Associate Professor, Cinema Studies, Western Sydney UniversityDennis Altman, VC Fellow, La Trobe UniversityErin Harrington, Senior Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies, University of CanterburyJessica Ford, Lecturer in Media, University of AdelaideMarina Deller, Casual Academic, Flinders UniversityPhoebe Hart, Associate Professor, Film Screen & Animation, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2211482024-01-16T17:48:05Z2024-01-16T17:48:05ZMarvel’s Echo is a one-of-a-kind superhero – and an inspiration to the Deaf community<p><em>Warning: this article contains spoilers for Echo season one.</em> </p>
<p>Marvel’s latest superhero series, Echo, is now streaming on Disney+. Deaf actress Alaqua Cox plays the eponymous superhero, a character she already portrayed in the Hawkeye series in 2021. Echo, real name Maya Lopez, who is Deaf, is a vengeful and bitter Native American hero with a distinctive fighting ability that allows her to copy her opponent’s moves.</p>
<p>The uppercase “Deaf” refers to deaf people who share a language, identity and culture. It therefore describes Maya Lopez, as she uses ASL (American Sign Language) all the time and hardly speaks.</p>
<p>Historically, Deaf roles in TV have been given to hearing actors and actresses. This is a typical example of ableism – discrimination in favour of able-bodied people. It is important that Deaf actors play Deaf characters in TV and film so that audiences engage with authentic depictions of disability.</p>
<p>In the first episode of Echo, Maya and her hearing cousin Bonnie (Devery Jacobs) are shown to have been raised by their loving parents, William and Taloa Lopez (Zahn McClarnon and Katarina Ziervogel) in Tamaha, Oklahoma. Maya uses ASL to communicate with Bonnie as they argue with each other to decide whether they are cousins or sisters. A beautiful closeup scene shows the silhouettes of young Echo and Bonnie using lively ASL inside a glowing tent.</p>
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<p>Maya’s parents speak in ASL, spoken English and their Native American Choctaw language, as do her grandparents, on her mother’s side, Chula (Tantoo Cardinal) and Skully (Graham Greene). Most Deaf people are <a href="https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-hearing#:%7E:text=About%202%20to%203%20out,in%20one%20or%20both%20ears.&text=More%20than%2090%20percent%20of%20deaf%20children%20are%20born%20to%20hearing%20parents.&text=Approximately%2015%25%20of%20American%20adults,over%20report%20some%20trouble%20hearing.">born to hearing parents</a>. They learn ASL at school or college or through Deaf friends, because visual communication is important for Deaf people’s cognitive and social development.</p>
<p>At one point, Maya asks her mother for hot chocolate. Her mother tells her that it is finished, but if Maya comes to the shops with her, she will buy her more. Maya agrees. As Taloa drives toward a junction, she hits the brakes, but one of her husband’s enemies has tampered with them.</p>
<p>A car crashes into them, killing Taloa instantly. Fortunately, Maya survives, although, as a result of the accident, she has damage to her right leg.</p>
<p>When Maya is taken to the hospital to get her leg amputated, her grandmother blames her father’s criminal background for Taloa’s death. Ashamed, her father takes a job in New York and leaves Oklahoma and Maya’s family, taking Maya with him.</p>
<p>The sequence that follows shows that Maya no longer needs her wheelchair and has become proficient with her prosthetic leg. She has been through a lot of rehabilitation to practice her walking pace. This is a positive example of her fiery independence and determination. Losing her leg in the accident upsets Maya greatly, but it doesn’t damage her strong self-belief.</p>
<p>Once she arrives in New York, Maya is sent to a special school for Deaf pupils. There, she enrols in martial arts classes and begins developing some of the skills that will define her as a superhero. </p>
<p>Moving to New York is a significant turning point in Maya’s story, as here she will become embroiled in the city’s criminal underworld. She joins a gang as an enforcer working for Marvel super villain, Kingpin (Vincent D'Onofrio).</p>
<h2>Nuanced characters</h2>
<p>The character of Echo first appeared in the 1998 Marvel comic Daredevil. Daredevil (who has a Marvel television series of his own) is a blind lawyer and superhero with super-human senses due to an accident involving radioactive chemicals.</p>
<p>In the series, Maya is at one point called on to fight against a rival gang. Unexpectedly, Daredevil (Charlie Cox) intervenes and gets into a fight with Maya. The two are on opposing sides thanks to her connection with Kingpin. The battle is a formidable challenge between two opponents who are equally matched. Deaf hero versus blind hero. Superheroes with a disability are rarely portrayed in comic books and this scene in the series marks a positive step towards inclusive representation. </p>
<p>There are other interesting choices in the show. Although Kingpin is the main antagonist of the show, he has also been Maya’s benefactor and once employed a mysterious and cryptic ASL interpreter to help him communicate with Maya. Quite an unusual niche – an interpreter who works for a crime boss.</p>
<p>Deaf and disabled people are often treated like charity cases because they are patronised, mocked and pitied by an ableist and ignorant society. Echo is important because it positions a Deaf character as a positive and versatile role model. She is an inspiration to the Deaf and disabled community.</p>
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Buckle does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It is important that Deaf actors play Deaf characters in TV and film, so that audiences engage with authentic depictions of disability.Kevin Buckle, Graduate Research Fellow for BSL, Deaf Studies and Linguistics, York St John UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2193532023-12-15T11:02:40Z2023-12-15T11:02:40ZThe Shepherd: Disney’s ghostly new Christmas tale evokes the eerie qualities of Britain’s abandoned second world war airfields<p>From <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/A-Christmas-Carol-novel">Charles Dickens</a> to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/01/collected-ghost-stories-mr-james-review">M.R. James</a>, Christmas has a long association with ghost stories. In The Shepherd – part of Disney+’s festive fare for this year – we have an evocative addition to the genre. </p>
<p>Based on a short story by acclaimed thriller writer, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frederick-Forsyth">Frederick Forsyth</a>, and set in 1957, The Shepherd explores the links between flight and the spectral.</p>
<p>As Forsyth explained in the forward to a <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/350617/the-shepherd-by-forsyth-frederick/9781804943908">new edition of the story</a>, it was written as a gift to his wife “in a single afternoon” on Christmas Eve 1974. It draws on his first-hand experiences as a Royal Air Force (RAF) National Service pilot during which he had flown the <a href="https://www.dehavillandmuseum.co.uk/aircraft/de-havilland-dh100-vampire-fb-6/">Vampire</a>.</p>
<p>The film, which is largely true to Forsyth’s original, sees young RAF pilot Freddie (played by Ben Radcliffe) take-off on Christmas Eve from a British airfield deep in the German countryside bound for England. Freddie’s route should be straight-forward – a direct flight across the North Sea to the RAF base at Lakenheath, in Suffolk in east England.</p>
<p>Not long after he crosses the Dutch coast, however, he runs into problems – his compass fails and his radio malfunctions. With mere minutes of fuel left, salvation arrives. From out of the clouds comes an ageing <a href="https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/collections/de-havilland-mosquito-b35/">Mosquito</a>, a type of fighter-bomber from the second world war, and its pilot “shepherds” him home to a rather eerie and apparently deserted RAF base. </p>
<p>The Shepherd is a ghost story of a sort that became familiar in the post-second world war period. In this time, several storytellers found inspiration in the ghostly old airfields dotted around the UK. Many of these bases, once teaming with action and central to the war effort, had been left to decay – places full of ghosts and memories.</p>
<h2>Abandoned airfields</h2>
<p>The military airfields that were abandoned in the 1940s and 1950s were shaped by one of the most pivotal events of modern history: the second world war. Hundreds were hastily constructed throughout the country in what was one of the largest civil engineering projects in <a href="https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/redirect/15802">British history</a>.</p>
<p>For a few short years, these bases were home to thousands of service men and women. They were places in which life was lived intensely, and which were also marked by tragedy, trauma and death. And then, with the victory of 1945, many became surplus to requirements. Abandoned, they were returned to farming and their buildings were left to moulder.</p>
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<p>It’s not clear when the post-war cultural fascination with ghostly old airfields began, but two early examples are the films <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbjVrazpjzU&ab_channel=slardbigmoney">The Way to the Stars</a> (1945) and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8GRkgb7bfU&ab_channel=JimmyJoseph">Twelve O’Clock High</a> (1949).</p>
<p>The Way to the Stars opens with scenes of an abandoned wartime airfield – the fictional RAF Halfpenny Field – before a flashback returns us to the dark days of 1940. Released in the US under the title Johnny in the Clouds, the film is a celebration of Anglo-American comradeship and common purpose. </p>
<p>Its opening sequence clearly inspired director Henry King as he set about filming Twelve O’Clock High. Starring Gregory Peck as a tough and experienced American air force officer “broken” by the strains of combat command, King’s film is set at another fictional wartime airfield in England, this time Archbury. </p>
<p>Just like The Way to the Stars, Twelve O’Clock High opens with scenes of an abandoned old airfield, lost to the weather and weeds. The runways are cracked and crumbling, the old buildings deserted and derelict. Into the scene walks an American airman who was stationed there during the war and through whose eyes we see the present fall away and the ghostly past return.</p>
<h2>Haunted by history</h2>
<p>By the time Forsyth was writing in 1974, the idea of the abandoned second world war airfield as a ghostly, memory-laden landscape had become firmly established. </p>
<p>Ghostly airfields are powerfully present, for instance, in publications like <a href="https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1500027152">Airfields of the Eighth: Then and Now</a> (1978) which provides an evocative photographic record of wartime airfields reclaimed by nature. Shots of the airfield “back then” are accompanied by those taken in the 1970s and the effect is suggestive of the lingering – if not ghostly – presence of the past.</p>
<p>Similar sentiment is apparent in the series of books written by Bruce Halpenny from the 1980s onwards. Called <a href="http://www.ghoststations.com/">Ghost Stations</a>, these volumes are full of spooky and spectral encounters among the ruined remains of airfields.</p>
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<img alt="An abandoned control tower surrounded by gorse." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565982/original/file-20231215-19-9ky8oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565982/original/file-20231215-19-9ky8oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565982/original/file-20231215-19-9ky8oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565982/original/file-20231215-19-9ky8oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565982/original/file-20231215-19-9ky8oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565982/original/file-20231215-19-9ky8oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565982/original/file-20231215-19-9ky8oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Vegetation has grown around an abandoned control tower on the disused airfield at Winkleigh, Devon in south-west England.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/gorse-surrounding-abandoned-control-tower-on-272590388">Peter Turner Photography/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>I even encountered stories like this when researching the visits to their old bases made in the 1970s and 1980s by many second world war veterans <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/allies-in-memory/05A4421543030D7D1B3BD54AF9D5C27B">Allies in Memory</a>. Stood on the balcony of an old control tower, or walking the concrete runways, more than one veteran experienced the past as a powerful and distinctly ghostly presence. </p>
<p>Indeed, during the dedication of the memorials established on many wartime airfields in the 1990s, this sense that the dead remained present was often remarked upon. </p>
<p>In the ghosts that many have encountered within such landscapes – as well as in evocative productions like The Way to the Stars, Twelve O’Clock High, and now The Shepherd – we can see the profound impact made by airfields on quiet corners of the rural landscape. These are places marked by the life and death of war, and in their ghosts we can see the long shadow of history.</p>
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sam Edwards has previously received funding from the ESRC, the US-UK Fulbright Commission, the US Army Military History Institute, and the US Naval War College. Sam is a Trustee of Sulgrave Manor (Northamptonshire) and of The American Library (Norwich).</span></em></p>Once teeming with life, many of Britain’s wartime airfields are abandoned and full of the ghostly memories.Sam Edwards, Reader in Modern Political History, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2187072023-12-03T19:16:00Z2023-12-03T19:16:00ZClassic Aussie cinema and new twists on old classics: our picks of December streaming<p>At a time when it feels like it can be impossible to keep up with all the different streaming platforms – both in time and in money – the appearance of a new platform that breaks through the noise is something remarkable. </p>
<p>Three of our critics’ picks this month aren’t brand-new releases, but they are new to streaming on <a href="https://www.brollie.com.au/">Brollie</a>, the new platform from Umbrella Films. </p>
<p>Brollie is advertising supported, and so free to watch, and has an emphasis on classic Australian cinema – great to see if that one film you’ve always wanted to see, but found hard to find, has come to streaming at last. </p>
<p>Alongside these classics, we have an extended version of Baz Luhrmann’s Australia, a new twist on Oliver Twist and a couple of psychological dramas dropping week by week – exactly the suspense you need to steer yourself into summer.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-has-announced-plans-to-regulate-smart-tv-home-screens-what-the-new-rules-mean-for-you-218791">The government has announced plans to regulate smart TV home screens: what the new rules mean for you</a>
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<h2>Shame</h2>
<p><em>Brollie, Prime</em></p>
<p>I’ve discovered so many obscure gems alongside well-known classics on Brollie, and the platform’s horror collection is next level.</p>
<p>My pick of the bunch this month is early-’80s Australian feminist thriller Shame, starring a young Deborra-Lee Furness as motorbike-riding, ass-kicking barrister Asta Cadell. On holiday touring rural Australia on her bike, Asta becomes stranded in a small town after a road accident.</p>
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<p>It soon becomes clear there’s a pack of gang rapists terrorising the women of the town, and Asta uses her status as an outsider and barrister to help the women fight back. Furness won Best Actress at the Seattle International Film Festival and Film Critics Circle of Australia for her role as Asta.</p>
<p>A scene of Furness entering a pub full of gawking locals echoes Australian Gothic classic Wake in Fright, and the film creates a similar sense of alienation and isolation in the bush setting. But Shame is firmly rooted in second-wave feminist ideas. It shows violence as systemic and creates a heroic narrative of fighting back. </p>
<p>Asta is an original Aussie “shero” and watching her turn the tables on the violent larrikins is pure joy.</p>
<p><em>– Emma Maguire</em></p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thats-not-us-wake-in-fright-at-50-a-portrait-of-an-ugly-australia-that-became-a-cinema-classic-159221">'That's not us'. Wake in Fright at 50, a portrait of an ugly Australia that became a cinema classic</a>
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<h2>After the Party</h2>
<p><em>TVNZ+</em></p>
<p>After the Party is a morally complex psychological drama about accusations, abuse and accountability that’s quickly become appointment viewing. </p>
<p>Robyn Malcolm is incendiary as Penny, a prickly high school biology teacher who opens the series by giving the boys in her class a frank lecture about the porn she’s finding on their phones. Shots fired. </p>
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<p>Five years ago, at a boozy party, she publicly accused her husband Phil (Peter Mullan) – rightly? wrongly? – of a sex crime against a friend of their teenage daughter. This torpedoed their lives and lost Phil his teaching job, but also exposed the extent to which charismatic men will be given the benefit of the doubt, while women who persistently transgress behavioural norms will instead be punished. </p>
<p>Now Phil is back in town, as charming as ever, sliding back into his roles as teacher and father. Penny’s not letting it go as she pedals furiously around windy, moody Wellington, trying to get anyone to listen to her, no matter the cost. Tense flashbacks and unsettling shifting perspectives slowly flesh out the show’s queasy core, offering a nuanced account of trauma, denial and memory. </p>
<p>This exceptional show has been developed in conjunction with the NZ Film Commission with a strong local voice but international distribution in mind. Global viewers with a love of difficult women have something to seriously look forward to.</p>
<p><em>– Erin Harrington</em></p>
<h2>Love Serenade</h2>
<p><em>Brollie, Netflix, SBS OnDemand</em></p>
<p>Love Serenade is one of my favourite Australian films. Why? It is funny, subversive and made by one of the nation’s most talented, but under-recognised writer directors, the late Shirley Barrett. It has an epic soundtrack, with the likes of Barry White and Dionne Warwick, and it speaks to my adolescent, female self.</p>
<p>When the film was released in 1996, the press revealed that Barrett got the idea from reading her teenage diaries. She realised she had a weakness for the archetypal cad. While the film’s central character, Ken Sherry (George Shevtsov), is an amalgam of the men who did her wrong, she said she based the character on a relationship she had with a teacher shortly after she left school. With hindsight, he was a sleaze!</p>
<p>The film’s story involves the cad (Ken Sherry) arriving in an Australian outback town to take up the role of DJ at the local radio station. He promptly seduces his neighbours – two lonely, glory-box-wielding, romance-addicted sisters.</p>
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<p>The film has a lot of gags about fish, and the central characters, Dimity (Miranda Otto) and Vicki-Ann (Rebecca Frith), are totally hooked by the new DJ. On the radio he plays love songs and reads the kind of platitudes that you find embroidered on cushions: “If you love something, set it free”. </p>
<p>And they both fall for him … until he turns into a fish!</p>
<p><em>– Lisa French</em></p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/remembering-shirley-barrett-an-offbeat-and-generous-australian-director-and-writer-188292">Remembering Shirley Barrett: an offbeat and generous Australian director and writer</a>
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</p>
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<h2>Murder at the End of the World</h2>
<p><em>Disney+</em></p>
<p>Four episodes of Murder at the End of the World have dropped on Disney+ and the show is an intriguing watch so far. Co-created by The OA’s Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling, the thriller has clear influences from the pair’s love of science fiction and Scandi noir. </p>
<p>Darby Hart (Emma Corrin) is a hacker enthusiast and author of a hugely successful debut true-crime novel that details her efforts in tracking down a serial killer with former boyfriend Bill (Harris Dickinson). Handpicked along with other creatives and leaders in technology to discuss contemporary issues that threaten our future, she has been invited to schmooze with billionaire “king of tech” Andy Ronson (Clive Owen) and his legendary coder wife Lee (Brit Marling) at an isolated Icelandic getaway.</p>
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<p>To Darcy’s dismay, this ensemble of hugely successful guests includes Bill, now a famous artist who goes by the pseudonym FANGS.</p>
<p>Darby feels out of place at this gathering and her only companion she can confide in seems to be Ray (Edoardo Ballerini), Andy’s holographic digital assistant. When a guest is found dead, Darby is the only one who believes a murder has been committed. </p>
<p>This series is a fantastic twist on the closed-circle whodunnit, where a murder is committed by someone from an ensemble of idiosyncratic characters at an isolated, grand house. Batmanglij and Marling use these narrative devices to explore the terrifying influence that technology and climate change have on society and our future.</p>
<p><em>–Stuart Richards</em></p>
<h2>The Artful Dodger</h2>
<p><em>Disney+</em></p>
<p>It is 15 years after the end of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist and the Dodger – Jack Dawkins (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) – is in a fictional Australian town where he’s turned his pickpocket’s dexterity to the purpose of surgery.</p>
<p>Jack has fallen into an enormous gambling debt to a local crook (Tim Minchin), who is threatening to collect by taking off one of his precious hands. </p>
<p>At the same time, Fagin (David Thewlis) arrives in town on a convict ship. Thrown into the mix in a meet-cute that takes place over a heinous compound fracture is the Lady Belle Fox (Maia Mitchell), who intends on becoming the colony’s first female surgeon. </p>
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<p>Playing up the spectacle, speed and savagery of surgery before anaesthesia and antibiotics, <a href="https://theconversation.com/spectacle-speed-and-savagery-disneys-the-artful-dodger-comes-down-under-for-a-pop-period-spin-218242">The Artful Dodger</a> presents its public operations as something between pantomime and blood sport. But despite all the viscera and violence, it refuses to double down on Dickensian misery, largely playing its most gruesome elements for laughs.</p>
<p>Taking notes from the recent success of pop period dramas like Bridgerton, the new adaptation is loud, energetic and refreshingly bright. The series slices and amputates and stitches Dickens back together with a welcome revisionism.</p>
<p>If the result is a little uneven, it works well enough. As Victorian surgeons knew, sometimes you have to be brutal to keep things alive.</p>
<p><em>– Megan Nash</em></p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/spectacle-speed-and-savagery-disneys-the-artful-dodger-comes-down-under-for-a-pop-period-spin-218242">Spectacle, speed and savagery: Disney’s The Artful Dodger comes down under for a pop period spin</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>The Hitcher</h2>
<p><em>Brollie</em></p>
<p>Robert Harmon’s debut 1986 film, The Hitcher, is one of the best “old” films to recently come to streaming services in Australia. </p>
<p>The title tells us everything we need to know. The plot, as with many of the most effective road movies, is stunningly simple – Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) is driving through Texas, en route from Chicago to California. He picks up a hitchhiker, John Ryder (Rutger Hauer), who proceeds to terrorise him, attacking him and framing him for the myriad murders he’s leaving in his wake. Some kind of unexplained symbiotic relationship develops between them, with Ryder egging on Halsey to kill him – if he can. </p>
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<p>There are no twists or turns; the whole thing unfolds with the eternal facility of myth amid the well-worn paraphernalia of the American road – diners, cheap motels, gas stations – captured in the stunning cinematography of Australian John Seale and matched perfectly by Mark Isham’s hypnotic electronic score. </p>
<p>Hauer’s delivery as the killer is weirdly ethereal, both poetic and meaningless, with his peculiar focus on Halsey never explained, enhancing the disquieting effect of the whole thing. He seems equally at ease gliding along the twilit, nocturnal roads as in the blistering western sun. There’s no pseudo-psychology or attempts at revealing depth through back story. Ryder is simply a killer incarnate, with virtually no other characteristics, a kind of zero-level embodiment of a serial killer. </p>
<p>The Hitcher is an existentially charged road movie in the tradition of Vanishing Point and Badlands, a perfect nightmare of a film, deftly blending suspense, horror and action, a mesmerising American masterpiece capturing the violence and death underpinning the American Western dream. We drive on the roads, living behind the windscreen, alone, barely human, and death sits beside us. </p>
<p><em>– Ari Mattes</em></p>
<h2>Faraway Downs</h2>
<p><em>Disney+</em></p>
<p>Baz Luhrmann has reorganised his 2008 165-minute epic feature film Australia into the six-part limited series Faraway Downs, adding deleted scenes, a new musical score, opening titles by Aboriginal artists and the sombre ending he had always wanted. </p>
<p>Despite its popular Hollywood stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, Australia is Luhrmann’s least successful American film both critically and commercially. The dynamics between Kidman and Jackman’s Drover maintain an old-fashioned charm, though the performances are so exaggerated to the point of caricature that their chemistry fails to resonate. But with its visually striking exterior landscapes and continual shifts in locations, Faraway Downs stands out amid the commonplace television aesthetics of people talking in rooms. </p>
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<p>The series, seamlessly divided into six chapters of varying lengths, runs around 205 minutes, offering a 40-minute extended exploration on top of the original film. </p>
<p>The pacing and episode breaks seems to work better in this new format rather than the somewhat jarring jumps in genres from the original film. With Luhrmann already talking about giving his previous film, Elvis, a similar long-form treatment, it does make you wonder whether his features are more suited to this format.</p>
<p><em>–Stephen Gaunson</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218707/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Looking for something to dive into summer with? Our critics have you sorted.Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame AustraliaEmma Maguire, Lecturer in English and Writing, James Cook UniversityErin Harrington, Senior Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies, University of CanterburyLisa French, Professor & Dean, School of Media and Communication, RMIT UniversityMegan Nash, Casual Academic, School of Art, Communication and English, University of SydneyStephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT UniversityStuart Richards, Lecturer in Screen Studies, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2182422023-11-28T23:02:43Z2023-11-28T23:02:43ZSpectacle, speed and savagery: Disney’s The Artful Dodger comes down under for a pop period spin<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562036/original/file-20231128-21-1h74ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C0%2C6211%2C4156&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27538007">a 1950 essay on Charles Dickens</a>, literary critic Dorothy Van Ghent suggested the author had an unusual way of writing about the human form. </p>
<p>She identified his “habit of seeing the parts of the body as separable and manipulable” in a descriptive technique of “surgical division”. </p>
<p>While these surgical divisions were often figurative, there were plenty of literal examples in Dickens as well. The most notable sees one of his characters <a href="https://omf.ucsc.edu/london-1865/victorian-city/wooden-legs.html">searching after his own amputated leg</a> in the seedy anatomical emporiums of London.</p>
<p>The new Australian series The Artful Dodger pursues this surgical fascination in a reworking of Oliver Twist. Its irreverent intentions are clearly marked by its substitution of the cheeky but lovable Dodger for the too-good Oliver, who’s summarily dismissed in the first episode as so much “wet lettuce”. </p>
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<h2>Casual brutality</h2>
<p>It is 15 years after the end of the novel and the Dodger – Jack Dawkins (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) – is in a fictional Australian town where he’s turned his pickpocket’s dexterity to the purpose of surgery.</p>
<p>Jack has fallen into an enormous gambling debt to a local crook (Tim Minchin), who is threatening to collect by taking off one of his precious hands. </p>
<p>At the same time, Jack’s old boss and bad father figure, Fagin (David Thewlis), arrives in town on a convict ship. Thrown into the mix in a meet-cute that takes place over a heinous compound fracture is the Lady Belle Fox (Maia Mitchell), who intends on becoming the colony’s first female surgeon. </p>
<p>In the vein of a show like <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/dickensian">Dickensian</a>, the series’ writers stitch together miscellaneous bits and pieces from the author’s canon. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562038/original/file-20231128-26-q1habl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A street scene." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562038/original/file-20231128-26-q1habl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562038/original/file-20231128-26-q1habl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562038/original/file-20231128-26-q1habl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562038/original/file-20231128-26-q1habl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562038/original/file-20231128-26-q1habl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562038/original/file-20231128-26-q1habl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562038/original/file-20231128-26-q1habl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Artful Dodger has found himself in a fictional Australian town.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney</span></span>
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<p>They borrow the Dodger’s naval surgeon training from Bleak House and its kindly love interest, Mr Woodcourt. Rather than hanging, Fagin meets the fate of the transported convict Magwitch of Great Expectations. And in one of the show’s more creative additions, the hospital’s artificial limb maker (Luke Carroll) evokes Dombey and Son’s charming duo Solomon Gills and Captain Cuttle. His complex mechanical arms and wooden legs recall both the scientific instruments manufactured by Gills and the prosthetic hook the captain uses in place of his hand.</p>
<p>Playing up the spectacle, speed and savagery of surgery before anaesthesia and antibiotics, the series presents its public operations as something between pantomime and blood sport. But despite all the viscera and violence, it refuses to double down on Dickensian misery, largely playing its most gruesome elements for laughs.</p>
<hr>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/great-expectations-by-charles-dickens-class-prejudices-the-convict-stain-and-a-corpse-bride-159816">Great Expectations by Charles Dickens: class prejudices, the convict stain and a corpse-bride</a>
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</em>
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<h2>Trading in bleakness</h2>
<p>Bleakness has long been the stock-in-trade of Dickens adaptations. But in the midst of all their Dickensian fog, many forget the fun of the author’s books. </p>
<p>This isn’t true of The Artful Dodger. Taking notes from the recent success of pop period dramas like <a href="https://theconversation.com/netflixs-bridgerton-a-romanticized-portrayal-of-britain-at-the-dawn-of-modernity-152946">Bridgerton</a>, the new adaptation is loud, energetic and refreshingly bright. It’s full of Australian sun and sound, each episode starting off with an Aussie rock track from the likes of Spiderbait and The Cruel Sea. </p>
<p>While these stylistic revisions reinvigorate, the show’s jokes and subplots are more hit and miss. Caricature has always been key to Dickens’s fiction, but the sheer silliness of Lady Belle’s unwanted suitor and her domesticated sister don’t serve the series well. Despite being a show that itself centres a minor figure, it fails to give some of its best side characters room to breathe. </p>
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<span class="caption">The show is at its best when the Dodger and Fagin are keeping company.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney</span></span>
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<p>The most significant issue facing the series is its central romance. The key erotic scenes between the Dodger and Lady Belle just don’t crackle as intended. </p>
<p>There’s frankly much more on-screen chemistry between Brodie-Sangster and Thewlis, so the show is at its best when the Dodger and Fagin are keeping company. The pair skilfully tap into the troubling mix of affection and abuse in this relationship, with Fagin longing for a past that to Jack is the stuff of traumatic childhood memory. </p>
<h2>Welcome revisionism</h2>
<p>Given the enormous quantity of screen adaptations of Dickens, do we really need another reworking of the old Victorian? </p>
<p>In a recent essay, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/10/on-killing-charles-dickens">On Killing Charles Dickens</a>, Zadie Smith discusses her complicated feelings towards the author. With self-conscious hyperbole, Smith recounts how she went so far as to flee London to avoid writing her new historical novel and, in particular, to avoid everything Dickens. </p>
<p>Long story short: she couldn’t do it. </p>
<p>Returning home to work on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-fraud-by-zadie-smith-review-a-dazzling-depiction-of-victorian-colonial-england-212808">The Fraud</a>, she found him an irrepressible presence haunting both her city and her story. And so, she set about <a href="https://theconversation.com/slavery-illusion-and-dead-white-men-zadie-smiths-the-fraud-explodes-the-historical-novel-212863">killing off the famous author</a> by writing his death into the pages of her book. </p>
<p>As Smith aptly concludes, Dickens’ (sometimes irritating) ubiquity doesn’t mean he should be handed the last word. </p>
<p>If Smith’s strategy was to kill Dickens, we might say The Artful Dodger’s is to perform hacksaw surgery on him. The series slices and amputates and stitches back together with a welcome revisionism. </p>
<p>If the result is a little uneven, it works well enough. As Victorian surgeons knew, sometimes you have to be brutal to keep things alive.</p>
<p><em>The Artful Dodger is on Disney+ from today.</em></p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-fraud-by-zadie-smith-review-a-dazzling-depiction-of-victorian-colonial-england-212808">The Fraud by Zadie Smith review: a dazzling depiction of Victorian colonial England</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218242/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megan Nash does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The new Australian series The Artful Dodger is a surgical reworking of Oliver Twist, where the savagery is played for laughs.Megan Nash, Casual Academic, School of Art, Communication and English, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2127832023-10-16T04:05:32Z2023-10-16T04:05:32Z100 years of Disney: from a cartoon mouse to a global giant, how Walt Disney conquered the world<p>On October 16 1923, brothers Walt and Roy <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/walt-disney-company-founded">set up a modest cartoon studio</a>. Their goal was to produce short animated films. They created a new character: a mouse, with large ears. </p>
<p>Named “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mickey-Mouse">Mickey</a>”, he soon became one of the world’s most recognisable images. </p>
<p>Walt Disney was an innovator in terms of space, colour and movement. He had an uncanny ability to provide pleasure for millions of viewers struggling through the Great Depression. </p>
<p>A century later, Disney is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/06/08/the-worlds-largest-media-companies-in-2023-comcast-and-disney-stay-on-top/?sh=394eccd354c6">one of the world’s largest entertainment conglomerates</a>. </p>
<p>Disney has <a href="https://cartoonvibe.medium.com/disneys-influence-on-the-animation-industry-through-its-pioneering-works-bb385c6ceb5f">influenced countless other animation studios and artists</a>. It has received Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature for the likes of The Incredibles, Up and Frozen. Walt himself <a href="https://www.billboard.com/lists/walt-disney-still-holds-these-5-oscar-records-nearly-60-years-after-his-death/individual-with-the-most-competitive-oscars/">holds the record</a> for most nominations (59) and Oscar wins (22 competitive awards, plus four honorary awards) for a single individual.</p>
<p>Just how did Disney manage to do it? </p>
<h2>Steamboat Willie and technological wonders</h2>
<p>Based in Los Angeles, Disney set about innovating. He created <a href="http://www.thisdayindisneyhistory.com/AliceComedies.html">The Alice Comedies</a>, a series of short films featuring a live-action child actress in a cartoon world. Then came <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19910825">Oswald the Lucky Rabbit</a>, a precursor to Mickey Mouse. </p>
<p>Steamboat Willie, released in 1928, was the world’s first fully synchronised sound cartoon. His <a href="https://www.moma.org/collection/works/302797">pioneering</a> use of sound quickly became an industry norm. </p>
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<p>A simple story featuring Mickey as a steamboat captain trying to navigate the boat while dealing with various comical situations, Steamboat Willie was <a href="https://filmschoolrejects.com/mickey-mouse-steamboat-willie/">universally praised</a>. After a short theatrical run in New York, the film was exhibited nationwide and set Disney on its way. </p>
<p>The clip of Mickey holding the ship’s wheel and whistling became <a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/disney-bw-mickey-mouse-r1jbtDXIAjq92">the company’s logo</a> in 2007, reminding audiences of Steamboat’s enduring importance.</p>
<p>New characters emerged post-Steamboat, such as Donald Duck and Mickey’s love interest, Minnie, which still endure today.</p>
<p>Flowers and Trees, made in 1932, was the first animated short film to win an Academy Award – it was also Disney’s (and the industry’s) first <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technicolor">full-colour three-strip Technicolor</a> film.</p>
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<p>By the end of the 1930s, Disney had pivoted to feature-length animated films, releasing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/happy-birthday-mickey-mouse-animations-greatest-showman-is-90-106563">Happy birthday Mickey Mouse – animation's greatest showman is 90</a>
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<h2>The golden age and feature films</h2>
<p>What followed Snow White is often referred to as Disney’s “golden age”, with the release of Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942). </p>
<p>Those early films still dazzle today – think of the Sorcerers’ Apprentice scene in Fantasia (1940) or the Pink Elephants hallucinogenic number in Dumbo. And is there any scene, in any film, more heart-wrenching than <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sCqMEkgLIw">the death of Bambi’s mother</a>?</p>
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<p>But the golden age never really stopped. The hits just kept on coming - Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955) and Mary Poppins (1964) remain enduring classics. In the 1990s, a new generation fell in love with Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992) and The Lion King (1994) – and these films were then remade as live-action versions in the 2010s. </p>
<p>Even a minor Disney film like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zootopia">Zootopia</a> (2016) could make a billion dollars at the box-office. </p>
<h2>Disneyland and diversification</h2>
<p>In 1955, Walt Disney opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California. He wanted to build an inclusive theme park where all the family could have fun.</p>
<p>It <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2019/07/opening-day-disneyland-photos-1955/594655/">set the standard for theme park design</a> and showed the way forward for the company: diversification. </p>
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<p>After Disneyland came Walt Disney World in Florida in 1971, then versions of Disneyland in Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/1957-drawing-walt-disney-brilliant-strategy-2015-7">A famous diagram</a>, sketched by Walt himself in 1957, foreshadowed the direction Disney would ultimately take: a huge business empire of synergies, merchandising and cross-promotion.</p>
<h2>Buyouts and a cultural behemoth</h2>
<p>In 2006 Disney bought Pixar, in 2009 it bought Marvel and in 2012 it bought Lucasfilm. These acquisitions solidified Disney’s position as the brand leader in the entertainment industry. </p>
<p>Pixar was known for films like Toy Story (1995) and Finding Nemo (2003) and the purchase would lead to <a href="https://pixune.com/blog/disney-pixar-merger-in-details/">multiple collaborations</a> between the two. </p>
<p>Most recently, in 2019, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox for a staggering US$71 billion. <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/3/20/18273477/disney-fox-merger-deal-details-marvel-x-men">The deal gave them</a> instant access to Fox’s vast back catalogues. </p>
<p>The deal made <a href="https://deadline.com/2018/12/disney-fox-merger-2019-impact-on-box-office-theaters-major-hollywood-studios-1202525476/">some industry insiders uneasy</a>: Disney had become a cultural behemoth, strangling competition, homogenising content and swallowing up entire franchises.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-disney-turns-100-the-brands-real-legacy-is-its-business-acumen-211372">As Disney turns 100, the brand’s real legacy is its business acumen</a>
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<h2>Not all plain sailing</h2>
<p>Disney films proudly prioritise family values, stress teamwork and empathy and promote gender equality. Yet until relatively recently, its heroes and heroines were very visibly white, and the studio was criticised for <a href="https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1769&context=student_scholarship">invoking</a> messages of privilege, racial hierarchy and standards of beauty. </p>
<p>Its 1946 film Song of the South has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/nov/19/song-of-the-south-the-difficult-legacy-of-disneys-most-shocking-movie">long been criticised</a> for its racist portrayal of African Americans and its romanticisation of the plantation era. Since 1986, Disney have tried to keep it out of circulation, although clips can be found online. </p>
<p>Many old films streaming on Disney+ now feature a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/disney-disclaimer-racist-stereotypes-old-movies/">disclaimer</a> telling viewers some scenes will include “negative depictions” and “mistreatment of people or cultures”. </p>
<p>LGBTQ+ representation has become more visible since LeFou became Disney’s first openly gay character in its 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast. But the <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2017/03/04/russia-beauty-and-beast-ban-due-over-gay-character-lefoux/98743116/">backlash was troubling</a>, and Disney also ran into trouble with conservative critics with <a href="https://theconversation.com/lightyears-same-sex-kiss-the-controversy-that-led-to-disneys-first-real-lgbtq-representation-185177">its same-sex kiss</a> in Lightyear (2022), and would later be mocked as “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/disney-florida-desantis.html">woke Disney</a>” by conservative politicians and media personalities. </p>
<p>CEO Bob Iger – who stepped down in 2021 but was then brought back in 2022 on a <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/11/21/disney-bob-iger-ceo-pay-stock-awards-bonus/">huge salary</a> – has not fared well during the recent SAG-AFTRA disputes, with comments deemed out of touch and tone-deaf <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/movies/fran-drescher-s-very-public-takedown-of-disney-s-40-million-man-20230721-p5dq49.html">by many</a>.</p>
<p>Still, despite these tricky issues, Disney’s corporate stranglehold shows <a href="https://www.insider.com/disney-pixar-marvel-star-wars-fox-movies-through-2027-2019-5">no sign of abating</a>. Its reach is gigantic. From cartoons to comics to CGI, Disney controls much of our popular culture.</p>
<p>“If you can dream it, you can do it,” <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lewishowes/2012/07/17/20-business-quotes-and-lessons-from-walt-disney/?sh=73cb99984ba9">Walt once said</a>. As Disney turns 100, with a market capitalisation today of more than US$150 billion, that’s some dream come true.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/disney-hasnt-found-itself-in-this-much-trouble-since-1941-182206">Disney hasn't found itself in this much trouble since 1941</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212783/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben McCann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A hundred years ago, a small animation studio was born. Today, its cultural reach is enormous.Ben McCann, Associate Professor of French Studies, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2113722023-10-13T10:50:50Z2023-10-13T10:50:50ZAs Disney turns 100, the brand’s real legacy is its business acumen<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542145/original/file-20230810-15-q4hlc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=68%2C59%2C5640%2C2927&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/disney">Pan Xiaozhen/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“100 Years of Wonder” is the theme for Disney’s year-long promotion of the company’s centenary. From special <a href="https://www.disneytickets.co.uk/disney-on-ice-100-years-of-wonder-tickets">Disney on Ice</a> events to a <a href="https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=disneymakingmagic">retrospective</a> at the British Film Institute and limited edition Disney100 merchandise, Disney’s celebration is big business. </p>
<p>The wonder and magic of Disney is consistently promoted. And yet I would argue that Disney’s greatest legacy is not its animated stories or characters, but the more mundane history of its mergers, acquisitions and intellectual property rights.</p>
<p>The business acumen of those behind the scenes at Disney have been central to the peaks and troughs of the company’s enduring presence in the film industry and popular culture at large.</p>
<h2>Early Disney</h2>
<p>The Walt Disney Company was founded in Hollywood by brothers <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Walt-Disney">Walt</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Roy-Disney">Roy Disney</a> in 1923.</p>
<p>Before this, along with friend and animator <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ub-Iwerks">Ub Iwerks</a>, the brothers had founded <a href="https://www.visitkc.com/filmtourism/self-guided-tour/laugh-o-gram">Laugh-O-Gram Studio</a> in Kansas City. They then moved west with their successful silent <a href="https://d23.com/a-to-z/alice-comedies/">Alice Comedies series</a>, which featured both animation and live action.</p>
<p>Animation is what the Disney studio became known for. First with their shorts which included Mickey Mouse’s third outing in the studio’s first sound film, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBgghnQF6E4">Steamboat Willie</a>, and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dihJ1w48Jh0">Silly Symphony series</a>. And then in their feature length films, beginning with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. </p>
<p>The first two decades of the studio established Disney’s desire for innovation and profit. This was illustrated through their early adoption of merchandising (Mickey Mouse merchandise was profitable <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZnZDcL0Ero">in the mid 1930s</a>) and various technologies, such as Technicolor and sound.</p>
<p>Sinking most of their profits back into their expensive animated ventures led Disney to find ways to cut costs. This included making live action nature series, television shows and opening Disneyland, their first amusement park, in Los Angeles in 1955.</p>
<p>While their animated products were no longer as groundbreaking as they once were, their adoption of television in the 1950s was lucrative and popular, especially <a href="https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Mickey_Mouse_Club">The Mickey Mouse Club</a> (1955) and <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/18009-davy-crockett">Davy Crockett</a> (1954).</p>
<p>Furthermore, television afforded the company the opportunity to promote their products and authenticate Disney’s position at the forefront of animation. However, live action films – quicker to make and less expensive than animation – dominated their releases in the 1960s, with stars <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hayley-Mills#:%7E:text=Gandhi%20(1982).-,Mills%20married%20novelist%20and%20playwright%20Mary%20Hayley%20Bell%20in%201941,%2C%20Gentlemen%20Please%2C%20in%201980.">Haley Mills</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fred-MacMurray">Fred MacMurray</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/04/dean-jones">Dean Jones</a> appearing in multiple Disney films. </p>
<p>In 1966, Walt died. Roy then passed in 1971 and Walt Disney World opened in Florida the same year. In many ways, the Disney Company was never the same after the loss of the founding brothers.</p>
<h2>Disney without Walt</h2>
<p>The template was established for how the company would function for the next 50 years. Disney animation innovated again in the late 1980s and early 1990s through computer animation. A renaissance took place with the releases of The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991) and The Lion King (1994).</p>
<p>They also expanded into cable television with The Disney Channel and founded a distribution label, <a href="https://medium.com/framerated/disney-for-adults-the-story-behind-touchstone-pictures-9367283b8a5a">Touchstone Pictures</a>, that focused on films for adults. </p>
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<img alt="Black and white photo of striking animators." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543235/original/file-20230817-29-48efp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543235/original/file-20230817-29-48efp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543235/original/file-20230817-29-48efp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543235/original/file-20230817-29-48efp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543235/original/file-20230817-29-48efp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543235/original/file-20230817-29-48efp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543235/original/file-20230817-29-48efp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Screen Cartoonist’s Guild on strike at Walt Disney Productions in 1941.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/zz0002v3j3">UCLA Library</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>There was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1979/09/20/archives/11-animators-quit-disney-form-studio-loyalty-is-cited.html">unhappiness among animators</a> at the studio towards the company’s bureaucracy and the perception that profits always went back into the films and not to improving working conditions or salaries (one <a href="https://animationguild.org/about-the-guild/disney-strike-1941/">major strike</a> against Disney took place in 1941). </p>
<p>The list of former Disney animators that went on to work elsewhere or open their own animated studios is <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-08-21/don-bluth-career-secret-of-nimh-anastasia-disney">long and diverse</a>.</p>
<p>Walt had learned the importance of owning rights early in his career, after he lost the intellectual property to his first successful animated character, <a href="https://collider.com/disney-oswald-the-lucky-rabbit-history-explained/">Oswald the Lucky Rabbit</a>. The imperative to retain proprietorship and diversify the corporation can be witnessed in many of Disney’s deals and mergers. </p>
<p>In 1991, Disney agreed to make films with Pixar, which has gone on to be regarded as an innovative animated studio. They later acquired Pixar in 2006.</p>
<h2>Disney Today</h2>
<p>In 1995, Disney acquired the ABC television network, which also owned the cable sports network, ESPN. In April 2004, Disney purchased the Muppets franchise. In 2009, Marvel Entertainment was acquired and Lucasfilm was bought in 2012. </p>
<p>Through these purchases, Disney has become one of the most significant entertainment companies in the world and one of the few early Hollywood studios that still maintains name recognition (Disney bought out 20th Century Fox in 2019).</p>
<p>Whereas for earlier generations Disney stood for Mickey Mouse, animated fairy-tale features and family entertainment, for younger generations, Disney is a streaming service, amusement park brand and the creator of the Star Wars universe television programming. </p>
<p>Traces of Walt, Roy and the pioneering animation established in the early days of the studio can be seen in their animated releases, such as Encanto (2021), and company legacy through the “reimagining” of their animated films, such as the recently released live action <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpGo2_d3oYE">The Little Mermaid</a>.</p>
<p>The commercial landscape of the entertainment business is always in flux. While many companies are operating their own streaming services, the long term success of these services are questionable. This is most evident in the recent writers and actors strike in Hollywood that was mainly focused on outdated royalty models that do not account for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/07/15/actors-strike-what-are-residuals/">streaming media content</a>. </p>
<p>Disney’s last few releases were not as successful as they had anticipated at the box office and they have <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonifitzgerald/2023/08/09/new-record-for-disney-sheds-117-million-subscribers-password-crackdown-coming/">lost a significant amount of Disney+ subscribers</a> this year. However, this is a trend taking place throughout Hollywood and, while Disney is struggling, they remain <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/07/disney-2023-box-office-summer-marvel-indiana-jones-1235431049/">a significant brand</a> in the global media market. </p>
<p>And there is no question that their theme parks continue to be popular with families who want to immerse themselves in all things Disney.</p>
<p>The magic of Disney’s animation and the memories created at their theme parks is part of their “100 years of wonder”. But so is their successful business model that has continually adapted to changes in the entertainment business and its persistent cultural relevance.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Lobalzo Wright does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The business acumen of those behind the scenes at Disney have been central to the peaks and troughs of the company.Julie Lobalzo Wright, Assistant Professor in Film and Television Studies, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2145442023-09-29T12:23:56Z2023-09-29T12:23:56ZThe fight for 2% − how residuals became a sticking point for striking actors<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550993/original/file-20230928-27-9gozwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C21%2C7018%2C4643&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The SAG-AFTRA actors union has been on strike since July 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-the-writers-guild-of-america-joined-by-members-news-photo/1585226795?adppopup=true">Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Streaming disrupted the entire entertainment industry, upending the DVD-purchasing, film-renting, moviegoing model of decades past.</p>
<p>That shift has also changed how actors get paid. And some of the gains actors made through prior labor struggles – <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/07/27/1190336979/actors-strike-residuals-sag-aftra-wga">particularly through residuals</a>, which are a small percentage of shared earnings from film or television – have vanished.</p>
<p>Though the Writers Guild of America <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/09/wga-strike-officially-end-leaders-approve-tentative-deal-1235556919/">ended its strike</a> on Sept. 27, 2023, actors represented by SAG-AFTRA remain on strike. Residuals are one of their main <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/25/business/media/hollywood-writers-strike-deal.html">sticking points</a>: They want to receive 2% of revenue generated by shows they appear in on streaming platforms.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/actors-strike-why-sag-aftra-streaming-revenue-proposal-rejected-1235541505/">Studios counter that the number is unrealistic</a> – that it amounts to actors not assuming any financial risk when shows and movies flop, while reaping rewards when they succeed.</p>
<p>But in reality, actors simply want to adapt existing payout models to changing technology and consumption habits.</p>
<h2>The pandemic revealed a glimpse of the future</h2>
<p>The extent to which streaming changed the entertainment landscape came into focus during the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/regal-cinemas-decision-to-close-its-theaters-is-the-latest-blow-to-a-film-industry-on-life-support-147535">With many movie theaters shuttered</a> because of government restrictions and most people reluctant to sit in a theater, some movie studios decided to release their movies through streaming services using what they called <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/07/business/media/universal-premium-video-on-demand.html">premium video on demand</a>.</p>
<p>For the made-to-be-blockbuster “Black Widow,” Disney decided to <a href="https://people.com/movies/black-widow-will-be-available-to-all-disney-plus-subscribers-earlier-than-expected/">release</a> the film simultaneously in theaters and on its propriety streaming service, Disney+, for US$30. </p>
<p>The film’s star, Scarlett Johansson, <a href="https://www.cnet.com/culture/entertainment/disney-sued-by-scarlett-johansson-over-black-widows-streaming-release/">sued Disney</a> for breach of contract. Johansson claimed to have lost $50 million from the simultaneous release, because her contract did not have the same revenue-sharing deal in place for streaming as it did for a theater release.</p>
<p>At $30, the price to stream “Black Widow” on television was <a href="https://www.natoonline.org/data/ticket-price/">equivalent to</a> roughly three theater tickets. At the same time, premium video on demand cuts most costs associated with exhibiting a film in the theater: The studios <a href="https://observer.com/2021/07/hollywood-movie-theaters-vs-streaming-pros-cons/">generally keep 80% of the revenue</a> as opposed to the standard 50% split with theaters.</p>
<p>Actors <a href="https://time.com/6294212/sag-aftra-actors-strike/">decided to strike</a> because they see the pitfalls for their own livelihoods tied to the structure of the contracts they are currently fighting to negotiate.</p>
<h2>A struggle for dignity</h2>
<p>The tensions today echo Hollywood’s 20th-century labor battles.</p>
<p>The Hollywood studio system of the 1930s and 1940s <a href="https://www.umsl.edu/%7Egradyf/film/STUDIOS.htm">was an era</a> of vertical integration in the film industry. The “Big Five” major studios – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros., Paramount, 20th Century Fox and RKO – <a href="https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-the-studio-system-in-hollywood/">employed</a> directors, writers, actors and camera operators. Filming, editing, distribution and showings were all handled in-house.</p>
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<img alt="Black and white photo of buildings from the sky." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A c. 1930 aerial shot of MGM Studios in Culver City, Calif.</span>
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<p>This created an efficient system that allowed for assembly-linelike production of films, not unlike <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/fordism">Ford automotive factories</a>. Actors – just like everyone else employed by the studios – received a salary for the length of their contracts. They didn’t make any extra money if a film became a blockbuster hit.</p>
<p>This period was <a href="https://cinemascholars.com/movie-stars-in-the-studio-system-secrets-and-rules/">rife with exploitation</a>, with low wages, <a href="https://theconversation.com/literature-has-long-been-sounding-the-alarm-about-sexual-violence-in-hollywood-87496">sexual violence</a> and little bargaining power for actors. </p>
<p>Actors fought hard against this system; they wanted to be able to negotiate payouts tied to their work on specific films. In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the studio system <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-day-the-supreme-court-killed-hollywoods-studio-system">violated antitrust laws</a>, ending these unfair contracts. Actors’ newfound free agency allowed them to sign contracts with studios for individual films. This resulted in large earnings for some stars, but they were still largely cut out of any studio revenue.</p>
<p>Some actors began receiving residuals in the 1950s as part of their individual contracts. The system was modeled on royalties earned in music based on the sale of copyrighted music. But where composers and recording artists share in the copyright, actors do not have a claim to copyrights.</p>
<p>In the 1960s, SAG-AFTRA <a href="https://www.sagaftra.org/about/our-history/1960s">went on strike</a> to insist on residuals as part of the basic contract to provide revenue sharing with all actors. Ultimately, they received them.</p>
<h2>Getting a slice of streaming revenue</h2>
<p>It’s key to remember that today’s actors already receive <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/07/15/actors-strike-what-are-residuals/">2% residuals on revenue</a> from traditional television in secondary markets. A secondary market is a market outside of the film or television show’s original domestic release. Examples include foreign box office revenue, DVD sales, syndicated television shows and theater releases that appear on television. </p>
<p>So shows originally produced for broadcast television aren’t an issue. When “Friends,” which was originally an NBC sitcom, generates $1 billion dollars on streaming platforms, the five leads <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/07/15/actors-strike-what-are-residuals/">each earn</a> 2%, or $20 million apiece. But a show like “Stranger Things” – produced and owned by Netflix – never goes to a secondary market as long as it is aired only on Netflix, so the stars earn only their original pay. </p>
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<p>The problem, then, comes from the fact that the existing residual model, per the expiring SAG-AFTRA contract, doesn’t take streaming into account.</p>
<p>In the streaming era, all new shows produced by streaming platforms are concurrently reruns and original runs. Actors want 2% of streaming revenue generated by the show or film to replace this line of income. </p>
<p>One issue is that revenue from streaming remains an opaque process. <a href="https://www.cnet.com/culture/entertainment/disney-sued-by-scarlett-johansson-over-black-widows-streaming-release/">Data on earnings tied to streams</a> aren’t as clear as ticket sales or advertising revenue, and streaming platforms tend to keep this information in-house. But streaming services have their own metrics to determine the value of a show or film to the company, such as the number of streams, the first show a subscriber watches upon paying for a subscription and how long a customer remains a subscriber.</p>
<p>This 2% of streaming demand isn’t all that different from what <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/wga-ends-strike-releases-details-on-tentative-deal-with-studios-writers-hollywood/">writers received</a> to negotiate the end of their strike on Sept. 27, 2023. As part of that deal, the <a href="https://www.wgacontract2023.org/the-campaign/summary-of-the-2023-wga-mba">Writers Guild of America</a> negotiated residuals based on viewership on streaming platforms, and producers agreed to share data with the WGA, such as total streaming hours, to help determine payouts.</p>
<p>While 2% of revenue generated from shows and films equates to a larger demand for residuals than the WGA, <a href="https://www.sagaftra.org/files/sa_documents/SAG-AFTRA_2020TV-Theatrical_Summary.pdf">actors have always had higher residuals</a> <a href="https://www.wga.org/uploadedfiles/contracts/mba20.pdf">than writers</a>.</p>
<h2>Closing the loophole</h2>
<p>The original shows and movies created for streaming services like Netflix, Max or Disney+ reflect a vertically integrated system in which the platform owns the studio and the rights to those productions. In this sense, it harks back to the old studio system of the 1930s and 1940s.</p>
<p>For this reason, there is no benefit for studios and platforms to offer actors revenue for every stream, because technically there is no secondary market. Studios and platforms see larger profit margins, while actors see a loss of income. This is the loophole striking actors are looking to close.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/25/business/media/hollywood-writers-strike-deal.html">When reporters characterize</a> SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher as taking a “hard line” for 2% of revenue, they fail to see that is what actors already have. Actors simply want it to apply to shows and films that originate on streaming platforms.</p>
<p>They fought this battle to end the studio system. The fight for 2% is about demonstrating that the work actors do for streaming television is just as valuable as it’s always been.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214544/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Arditi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Studios say the number is unrealistic − that it amounts to actors not assuming any financial risk for content that flops. But actors simply want to adapt existing payout models to changing technology.David Arditi, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Texas at ArlingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2117812023-08-25T10:17:30Z2023-08-25T10:17:30ZOnly Murders in the Building is a loving parody of the whodunit<p>Only Murders in the Building, starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez, has returned for a third season on Disney+. The popular series follows the whodunit mystery formula, beginning with a murder in the apartment building the characters live in, the perpetrator of which the three sleuths must work out by the series’ end. </p>
<p>Much of the innovation of Only Murders lies in its incorporation of the true crime podcast with the familiar whodunit formula. </p>
<p>The whodunit is not easily combined with the true crime format. True crime narratives search for their killers in communities of thousands, whereas the whodunit works with a strictly limited number of suspects. True crime stories often turn on an accident or chance events, which would feel unsatisfying within the structure of a cosy detective novel. And true crime narratives always <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203713518/forever-england-alison-light">involve difficult ethical implications,</a>, whereas the fictional whodunit often works to represent murder as artistically pleasing. </p>
<p>Another way of putting this is that while true crime is tragedy, the whodunit is comedy. It often makes use of irrational situations and explanations. Its detectives are sometimes ridiculous figures who use their absurdity (or, in the case of Only Murders, are simply absurd) to disarm suspicion and physical violence is downplayed. Most importantly, in a whodunit everything is resolved – we know the killer will be caught. </p>
<p>In his essay <a href="https://harpers.org/archive/1948/05/the-guilty-vicarage/#:%7E:text=The%20magic%20formula%20is%20an,outside%20who%20removes%20guilt%20by">The Guilty Vicarage</a> (1948), the poet W. H. Auden argues that the whodunit actually resembles a tragedy in the way it offers readers a cathartic experience of violence. But this transgression is neutralised by the eventual identification of the murderer, an act which not only provides narrative closure but also implies the innocence of the rest of the cast.</p>
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<p>But more <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-33533-9#about-this-book">recent criticism</a> has challenged this reading of the genre, arguing that the resolutions of whodunits inevitably have loose ends, or leave tricky ethical questions unanswered.</p>
<p>Although the plot of Only Murders in the Building borrows the tropes of the whodunit, it is far from a conventionally cosy crime caper. </p>
<h2>Playing the Game</h2>
<p>In 1929, the critic Ronald Knox devised his <a href="https://www.writingclasses.com/toolbox/tips-masters/ronald-knox-10-commandments-of-detective-fiction">ten commandments</a> for the detective writer.</p>
<p>Knox’s rules were satirical, poking fun at the cliches of the interwar whodunit (for instance, his rule that “no Chinaman must figure in the story” satirised the tendency of interwar popular fiction to include depictions of Asian villainy). But Only Murders deliberately breaks many of Knox’s injuctions.</p>
<p>For instance, Knox rules that “not more than one secret room or passage is allowable”. Of course, the Arconia – the building the murders happen in – is riddled with such passages. </p>
<p>The rules likewise state that the murderer “must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow”, a law broken in season two when the murderer (spoiler ahead) is one of the people investigating the murder and from whose perspective we get an insight. </p>
<p>Perhaps most comically, Knox’s injunction against the cliched use of identical twins in detective fiction is subverted in Only Murders by the appearances of Charles’ stunt double Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch), who even in everyday life never fails to be coincidentally wearing exactly the same outfit as Charles.</p>
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<p>Knox’s rules, though tongue in cheek, reinforced a sense of the importance of “fair play” between author and reader. The murderer must be someone we know, with clues fairly displayed so that the reader might have a chance of reaching the conclusion before the detective. </p>
<p>The fact that Only Murders gleefully undermines these rules reflects the fact that its real pleasure is not in the mystery itself, since viewers cannot compete with Charles, Oliver and Mabel. We don’t have the information required to decode the meaning of the victim’s last words “14 Savage” in season two, for instance. But, whereas in the traditional whodunit this might considered a weakness, in Only Murders it becomes an advantage because we realise it is the genre itself being parodied.</p>
<h2>An early 20th-century sensibility</h2>
<p>The appeal of the show is not, then, in trying to work out whodunit, but in enjoying its convoluted plots. </p>
<p>The finale of season two, for instance, provides a dizzying succession of twists, identifying three potential murderers in rapid succession. When the real murderer is revealed, we gasp not because we overlooked some vital clue but at the audacity of the plotting.</p>
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<p>For all its postmodern self referential trappings and awareness of contemporary fan cultures, Only Murders’ main use of the whodunit is as a historical reference to the early 20th century. The popularity of Agatha Christie was, after all, contemporary with the rise of the kind of Broadway musical Oliver attempts to direct in season three. The clash of genres in Only Murders is self-consciously reflected in Oliver’s decision to transform his play Death Rattle from a psychological thriller to a musical.</p>
<p>The theatrical setting of season three also looks back to a tradition of interwar whodunits set in the theatre. Novels such as Ngaio Marsh’s <a href="https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/ngaio-marsh/vintage-murder/9781405531887/">Vintage Murder</a> (1937), Margery Allingham’s <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/364017/dancers-in-mourning-by-margery-allingham/9780099593546">Dancers in Mourning</a> (1937) and Ellery Queen’s <a href="https://library.buffalo.edu/specialcollections/rarebooks/kelley/plot-summaries/detail.html?ID=156">The Roman Hat Mystery</a> (1929) take place on, or around, the stage. The theatre setting makes explicit what is implicit in the whodunit: that we are watching a performance that is not entirely truthful.</p>
<p>These references to early 20th century culture emphasise the importance of the Arconia itself to the show. Like the whodunit form, it is an early 20th century structure the characters find themselves getting lost in. Only Murders in the Building season three is a loving tribute to this golden age of mystery and eccentric theatricality of it. </p>
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Pittard has received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>The enjoyment of the show is not in working out who did it but in the eccentricities of the ever-turning plot.Christopher Pittard, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2087462023-07-10T20:08:39Z2023-07-10T20:08:39ZStreaming services are removing original TV and films. What this means for your favourite show – and our cultural heritage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536464/original/file-20230710-19-89rs93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1856%2C0%2C1977%2C2155&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Streaming services have dramatically transformed the media landscape, allowing consumers unparalleled access to vast libraries of content. However the streaming landscape has become far more crowded in the past few years. </p>
<p>This increase in competition has created many challenges for streaming services and resulted in many services recently reporting losses of both subscribers and profits. </p>
<p>As part of recent challenges, multiple services have removed TV and film from their libraries – in many cases, meaning they are gone forever, inaccessible to any fan.</p>
<p>This has sparked debates and raised questions about consumers’ access to content and the future positioning of streaming within the broader media landscape.</p>
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<h2>Content removal: for the consumer experience or just a tax write-off?</h2>
<p>One of the key changes we have seen by streaming services is the removal of content from their libraries. While changes to a streaming service’s content library is not new, it has become a bigger talking point recently in the context of profit losses. </p>
<p>Previously, content has been usually removed from streaming services due to licensing agreements. This removal means that the particular television series and films are no longer available to view on that streaming service, but may reemerge on another streaming service as the licensing shifts. </p>
<p>But the more recent content removal discussion raises questions associated with streaming services – and their overarching corporations – wanting to save money. This can be done through the removal of content, which the corporation can write off as losses. </p>
<p>This not only impacts consumer access, but also impacts actors, writers, directors and other creatives involved in the production. This is due to the fact that if the profits are less, then the residual payments (fees paid when TV shows and films are broadcast) made to the creatives involved in the production are also lowered.</p>
<p>The removal of content is not particular to any streaming service. Hulu <a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/pictures/tv-shows-pulled-from-streaming-services-after-getting-canceled/">wiped</a> shows such as Alaska Daily and The Company You Keep from its service after they were cancelled following a single season.</p>
<p>Programs that were removed after being <a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/pictures/tv-shows-pulled-from-streaming-services-after-getting-canceled/">cancelled</a> on Disney+ have included
Big Shot, Diary of a Future President, Just Beyond, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, The Mysterious Benedict Society, The World According to Jeff Goldblum, Turner & Hooch and Willow. </p>
<p>What needs to be considered with many of these is that they are “originals”, meaning they were created by Disney for Disney. The removal of original content from streaming services, in most instances, means they will not be accessible to viewers anywhere.</p>
<p>As part of the removal of programs, Disney recently <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/disney-creators-hulu-shows-disappear-remove-1235508084/">reported</a> it would take a US$1.5 billion write-down from the axed content. More content is expected to disappear in upcoming quarters, which could also include original content.</p>
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<h2>Has the streaming bubble burst?</h2>
<p>In late 2022, many streaming services reported both subscriber and financial losses. For Netflix, this was the first time it had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/apr/19/netflix-loses-subscribers-first-time-10-years-ukraine-shared-logins">reported</a> a loss of subscribers. </p>
<p>It was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/apr/19/netflix-loses-subscribers-first-time-10-years-ukraine-shared-logins">reported</a> Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers worldwide, the complete opposite of Wall Street’s expectation that the service would add 2.5 million subscribers. This is despite still making a profit in that period.</p>
<p>But Netflix was not alone in the shedding of subscribers. Disney+ <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/disney-plus-lost-millions-of-subscribers-1234807625/">lost</a> 2.4 million subscribers in the final quarter of 2022. This was only <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/disney-plus-lost-millions-of-subscribers-1234807625/">exacerbated</a> by the loss of 3.8 million subscribers to its Disney+ Hotstar streaming services (the Disney+ service offered in India and parts of Southeast Asia). </p>
<p>Warner Bros Discovery also <a href="https://s201.q4cdn.com/336605034/files/doc_financials/2022/q4/WBD-4Q22-Earnings-Release-Final-02.23.23.pdf">reported</a> a financial loss of US$217 million across its streaming services.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/netflix-and-other-streaming-giants-pay-to-get-branded-buttons-on-your-remote-control-local-tv-services-cant-afford-to-keep-up-203927">Netflix and other streaming giants pay to get branded buttons on your remote control. Local TV services can’t afford to keep up</a>
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<h2>The impact on viewers and creators</h2>
<p>The removal of TV and films from streaming penalises creators financially, but it also removes their means to use past work “as a <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/disney-creators-hulu-shows-disappear-remove-1235508084/">calling card</a> to help land future gigs”. </p>
<p>Eliza Skinner, head writer for Earth to Ned, which was removed from Disney+, says they were not aware of the decision until seeing it reported in an article. Skinner also noted that she doesn’t own a physical copy of the show, making it even more difficult to use the program for future work. </p>
<p>There appears to be a recent shift in content licensing across streaming services. HBO has just <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/07/hbos-insecure-launches-on-netflix-six-feet-under-others-coming-next-1235429245/">signed a deal</a> with Netflix, that has seen Issa Rae’s Insecure launch on Netflix. Band of Brothers, The Pacific, Six Feet Under and Ballers will also be available on Netflix as part of the deal.</p>
<p>This is a significant shift in the previous approach by streaming services to create “originals” as a way to increase subscriptions. This new approach, could result in content being available across multiple streaming services and/or other subscription television. </p>
<h2>Too many chefs in the production kitchen</h2>
<p>The Independent Film & TV Alliance <a href="https://ifta-online.org/international-film-tv-licensing-explained/">says</a> there are a myriad of third-party contractual relationships and licenses which need to be negotiated and put in place when it comes to streaming rights.</p>
<p>The alliance also notes that “distributors are licensed exclusively for their country, language and release platform”. This results in major national distributors taking all rights for their country. This can result in content being available in countries at different times and across varying platforms.</p>
<p>For television series, licensing and agreements can become extremely complicated when multiple studios are involved across multiple seasons. </p>
<p>Arrested Development is a prime example of the interwoven complexities. Disney’s 20th Television unit owned the underlying rights and produced seasons one to three, with Netflix producing the last two seasons. This resulted in the first three seasons streaming on Disney’s Hulu service, while Netflix had all five on its service. </p>
<p>Netflix announced this year that it would be <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2023/03/arrested-development-netflix-streaming.html">removing</a> all five seasons of the TV series due to licensing issues.</p>
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<p>This is further complicated if you look at this from an Australian perspective. When season five premiered internationally on Netflix, it premiered on Foxtel in Australia. This was due to a “first run” <a href="https://studentedge.org/article/come-on-the-fifth-season-of-arrested-development-wont-debut-on-netflix-in-australia">agreement</a> Foxtel had signed many years prior to Netflix’s involvement.</p>
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<h2>Will there be resurgence of physical media?</h2>
<p>Thankfully if you are an Arrested Development fan, you can purchase DVDs for seasons one to four in Australia. That is, if you can find a store that sells physical media – Kmart <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/consumer/2018/06/28/kmart-australia-dvds-cds/">removed</a> the sale of physical media more than five years ago.</p>
<p>But for much of the new content being produced, physical media are not available. This means consumers will not be able to access the content once it has been removed from a streaming service.</p>
<p>But for all the content only going to streaming platforms, there must be a plan associated with archiving it and allowing consumer access. Already much of our film and television programs have been <a href="https://www.tvobscurities.com/lost/">lost in the past</a> – for example prior to 1947 there was no way to properly record a live television broadcast.</p>
<p>Even when they are recorded, this technology will only last for a period of time, something the <a href="https://www.nfsa.gov.au/preservation">National Film and Sound Archive</a> knows only <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-27/national-film-sound-archive-says-history-at-risk-digitisation/6886758">too well</a>.</p>
<p>There is a perception that digital lasts forever and therefore is easily archived. But are we seeing history repeat itself? Will original streaming content follow a similar path to old film and television content and be lost forever?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208746/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc C-Scott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As part of recent challenges, multiple services have removed TV and film from their libraries – in many cases, meaning they are gone forever, inaccessible to any fan.Marc C-Scott, Senior lecturer in Screen Media, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2079292023-06-27T03:55:53Z2023-06-27T03:55:53ZAn unlikely hero: American Born Chinese challenges the model minority myth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534204/original/file-20230626-21594-fwvqs9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C1997%2C1326&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There’s trouble brewing in Heaven. This has implications for an average teenage boy Jin Wang (Ben Wang), the protagonist of the Disney+ series American Born Chinese (2023). </p>
<p>The series is an adaptation of Gene Luen Yang’s <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2023-05-24/american-born-chinese-gene-luen-yang-disney-adaptation">graphic novel</a> of the same name. It features many actors from the Oscar-winning film <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/may/11/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-review-nothing-nowhere-over-a-long-period-of-time">Everything Everywhere All at Once</a>, such as Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan. </p>
<p>American Born Chinese has attracted the attention and praise of major news outlets such as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/comics/2023/05/24/american-born-chinese-disney-plus/">The Washington Post</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/24/magazine/american-born-chinese-disney.html">The New York Times</a> and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2023/05/american-born-chinese-review/674200/">The Atlantic</a>. It also appears on several lists of the <a href="https://collider.com/best-tv-shows-on-disney-plus/#american-born-chinese-2023-present">best Disney+ shows</a>. </p>
<p>Viewers may have encountered variations of the Monkey King character from the 16th-century Chinese classic <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Journey-to-the-West">Journey to the West</a> in TV shows, such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-SUoHmpRdM">Monkey (1978)</a>. </p>
<p>American Born Chinese focuses on Wei-Chen (Jimmy Liu), son of the Monkey King. He comes to earth in the form of a new student at Jin’s high school. Wei-Chen is determined to find the Fourth Scroll which will stop the Bull Demon from taking control of Heaven. Jin is reluctant to reciprocate the friendship extended by Wei-Chen. He just wants to fit into his predominantly white high school. </p>
<p>American Born Chinese is a recent addition to stories of young people who grapple with what it means to be successful. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YrV3pOo3ycU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Success, youth, and the model minority stereotype</h2>
<p>For Jin, being popular and joining the soccer team is more important than excelling academically. He doesn’t fit into the <a href="http://faculty.umb.edu/lawrence_blum/courses/CCT627_10/readings/lee_unraveling_model_minority_stereotype.pdf">model minority stereotype</a> which essentialises Asian Americans as hardworking, docile and family-oriented high achievers. </p>
<p>The model minority can be found in films such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107282/">The Joy Luck Club</a> (1993) and young adult novels like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-020-09415-8">Girl in Translation</a> (2010). </p>
<p>In his attempts to gain popularity, Jin reveals he is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-model-minorities-in-netflixs-beef-asian-migrants-are-allowed-to-have-real-emotions-204372">flawed character</a>. He steals, lies, betrays his friends and remains silent when he is bullied by racist classmates. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-model-minorities-in-netflixs-beef-asian-migrants-are-allowed-to-have-real-emotions-204372">More than 'model minorities': in Netflix's Beef, Asian migrants are allowed to have real emotions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As immigrants, Jin’s parents embarked on their own “journey to the West,” hoping to achieve the American Dream. However, they are unlike stereotypical Asian American <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jan/30/battle-hymn-tiger-mother-review">“tiger” parents</a> because they do not pressure him to do well at school. Neither do they insist on Jin learning Mandarin. </p>
<p>However, Jin’s mother Christine (Yeo Yann Yann) constantly nags her husband Simon (Chin Han) to ask for a promotion at work even though the family is financially comfortable. Hardworking Simon is silent, nonthreatening and quietly does his work without challenging his boss’s decisions. He finds it difficult to speak up for himself both at work and at home. </p>
<p>This character fits <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/asian-american-men-stereotype-masculine/2021/06/21/d219025e-d2c6-11eb-a53a-3b5450fdca7a_story.html">stereotypes of Asian American men</a> as effeminate, emasculated and failing the standards of ideal white masculinity. </p>
<p>In Christine’s eyes, Simon has not achieved the American Dream. Unlike Simon, Christine has an entrepreneurial spirit. She takes out the family’s savings to invest in an herbal powder business without consulting her husband. This leads to a crisis in the family when Simon wants to quit his job. It is only when he stands up for his wife at the principal’s office that their relationship improves. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534213/original/file-20230627-19-7mwt03.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534213/original/file-20230627-19-7mwt03.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534213/original/file-20230627-19-7mwt03.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534213/original/file-20230627-19-7mwt03.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534213/original/file-20230627-19-7mwt03.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534213/original/file-20230627-19-7mwt03.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534213/original/file-20230627-19-7mwt03.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534213/original/file-20230627-19-7mwt03.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Michelle Yeoh in America Born Chinese.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A hero without superpowers</h2>
<p>Wei-Chen disrupts Jin’s life by challenging his narrow definition of success as popularity. Self-assured Wei-Chen does not care what others think of him. Likewise, their Japanese American classmate Suzy Nakamura is a confident leader of the Culture Club who rallies students to protest against racist behaviour. Her outspokenness challenges model minority stereotypes. </p>
<p>While Jin tries to distance himself from both Suzy and Wei-Chen, the latter believes in his friend and trusts that Jin will help him. Wei-Chen’s determination and faith in Jin is the catalyst for Jin’s self-transformation. Through this unlikely friendship, Jin comes to believe Wei-chen’s claim that the heavenly rebellion is real.</p>
<p>The Goddess of Mercy Guanyin (Michelle Yeoh) entrusts Jin with the mission to stop the Bull Demon. Jin refuses and Freddy Wong (Ke Huy Quan), a sitcom character, appears to him in a dream. Freddy tells him, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>a hero doesn’t always have to have superpowers. A hero is someone who goes on a journey, shows courage, helps others. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534217/original/file-20230627-29-wfx2kc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534217/original/file-20230627-29-wfx2kc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534217/original/file-20230627-29-wfx2kc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534217/original/file-20230627-29-wfx2kc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534217/original/file-20230627-29-wfx2kc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534217/original/file-20230627-29-wfx2kc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534217/original/file-20230627-29-wfx2kc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534217/original/file-20230627-29-wfx2kc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">American Born Chinese brings mythology into a modern setting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Redefining Success</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Representations-of-Children-and-Success-in-Asia-Dream-Chasers/Chen-Lau/p/book/9781032293806">research</a> on conceptualisations of children and success in Asia has shown that media representations about young people have moved beyond narrow definitions of achievements as academically oriented. It encompasses the cultivation of positive personal qualities and good morals for the benefit of the community. </p>
<p>Jin exemplifies this shift beyond the Asian context. He transforms from an individual hyper-focused on personal desires into a brave friend who is willing to sacrifice himself to save his community. </p>
<p>In the season one finale, Jin embraces a new definition of success. Instead of taking part in his first soccer match in front of the school, he steps out of his comfort zone to help his unpopular friends. </p>
<p>For Jin, being popular is no longer his first priority. His refusal to be docile challenges the model minority stereotype. He has truly become a hero.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207929/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>American Born Chinese is a recent addition to stories of young people who grapple with what it means to be successful.Shih-Wen Sue Chen, Associate professor, Deakin UniversitySin Wen Lau, Senior Lecturer in China Studies, University of OtagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2065142023-06-20T20:13:12Z2023-06-20T20:13:12ZThe Clearing’s investigation of The Family invites us to ask: what’s the appeal – and risk – of crime stories based on real events?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532675/original/file-20230619-1900-bfjb11.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C1296%2C724&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Miranda Otto (left) in The Clearing</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney+</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There’s a scene in the Disney+ series <a href="https://www.disney.com.au/disney-plus-star/australian-originals/the-clearing">The Clearing</a> in which Amy, a 12-year-old girl, readies herself for punishment at the hands of her minder. Amy has failed to control the behaviour of seven-year-old Asha, her new “sister”. Her family is a doomsday cult, and the cult has only recently abducted Asha from the side of the road.</p>
<p>We watch Amy’s face closely as she grimaces and contorts with each vicious strike of the minder’s paddle. The shot pans from Amy’s face to a phone handset, laid out on the bench. Then we cut to another scene: Adrienne — Mummy, Amy calls her — sits perfectly coiffed in a wing chair, drinking from fine glassware and chatting nonchalantly. In her hand she holds a phone handset to one ear; through it she listens to the beating, Amy’s distress audible down the line.</p>
<p>As I watch the scene, a block of chocolate half-eaten by my side, I flinch with each paddle strike, too. Next to me, my partner sips his tea, his own face drawn into a grimace above the cup. And I’m suddenly reminded, in the comfort of my living room, that this story is based on one that’s true.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532674/original/file-20230619-15-a8a9mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532674/original/file-20230619-15-a8a9mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532674/original/file-20230619-15-a8a9mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532674/original/file-20230619-15-a8a9mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532674/original/file-20230619-15-a8a9mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532674/original/file-20230619-15-a8a9mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532674/original/file-20230619-15-a8a9mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532674/original/file-20230619-15-a8a9mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Clearing is based on a true story.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney+</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Where lies the truth?’</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.disney.com.au/disney-plus-star/australian-originals/the-clearing">The Clearing</a> is based on the 2020 novel <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/jp-pomare/in-the-clearing-now-a-disney-star-original-series">In the Clearing</a>, by Melbourne-based New Zealand author J.P. Pomare.</p>
<p>Pomare’s book takes as its base the non-fiction book <a href="https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/the-family-9781925321678">The Family</a> (2017), written by journalists Chris Johnston and Rosie Jones. (Jones has also made a documentary about the group.) So, viewing the series means watching an adaptation of an adaptation (Pomare’s novel) – and the original non-fiction text is itself an adaptation from real life. </p>
<p>True-crime texts – and their fictional counterparts – allow audiences to vicariously experience the darker aspects of humanity, venturing into the grimmest facets of what it is to be human. And whether they come packaged as a podcast, reportage, novel, or television series inspired by real life, true-crime texts operate by narrativising events: by turning them into stories.</p>
<p>Watching The Clearing prompts me to wonder: what happens to these stories when they undergo variation after variation? Johnston and Jones write in their non-fiction account: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Where lies the truth? Each child had their version; everyone in this story has their version of the truth. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>What happens to these versions when we move away from investigative journalism and into fiction? And does getting further from the facts necessarily mean moving further from the truth?</p>
<h2>The attraction of true crime</h2>
<p>In her <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/lindsey_a_sherrill_are_you_an_ethical_true_crime_fan_4_questions_to_ask/c?language=en">TED Talk</a> on ethical true crime, Lindsey A. Sherrill discusses the eudaimonic attraction of true crime. </p>
<p>Eudaimonic motivation is based not on pleasure-seeking — we rarely feel good, she explains, when watching true crime — but a desire for knowledge. It’s a motivation that turns on the excitement of learning something new. Journalist <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-true-crime-is-popular-but-is-it-ethical/">Jana G. Pruden</a> adds, “When a crime or tragedy happens, we want to know what happened, why it happened, whether it could have been prevented, and what its effects are.”</p>
<p>The story behind the Australian cult of The Family (not to be confused with the US-originated <a href="https://theconversation.com/have-i-just-joined-another-cult-daniella-grew-up-in-the-family-then-joined-the-army-where-she-experienced-toxic-control-again-196385">Children of God cult</a>, also known as The Family) was first assembled into a true-crime narrative by newspaper journalist <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/not-the-messiah-anne-hamilton-byrne-s-legacy-of-ruined-childhoods-20190615-p51y1u.html">Chris Johnston</a> (The Age) and documentary-maker <a href="https://vicscreen.vic.gov.au/news/rosie-jones-journey-with-the-family">Rosie Jones</a>, who teamed up when they realised they were working to expose the same group.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532692/original/file-20230619-21-2d7o4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532692/original/file-20230619-21-2d7o4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532692/original/file-20230619-21-2d7o4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532692/original/file-20230619-21-2d7o4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532692/original/file-20230619-21-2d7o4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532692/original/file-20230619-21-2d7o4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532692/original/file-20230619-21-2d7o4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532692/original/file-20230619-21-2d7o4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Their book contains first-hand accounts and anecdotes from former cult members and people who had contact with the group. It also contains considerable testimony from <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/she-can-rot-a-former-detective-s-relief-at-cult-leader-s-death-20190614-p51xue.html">Lex de Man</a>, the police officer who fought to pursue its leader, Anne Hamilton-Byrne, on criminal charges such as fraud, false imprisonment, assault and drug offences – including the administering of LSD and psilocybin to children. (LSD was something of a sacrament in the cult, with guided drug trips known as “clearings”, a name that would inspire the title of the novel and television series.)</p>
<p>The book details alarming stories of abuse from the former children, whom the group kept at various properties, including Uptop, a property near <a href="https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/places-to-see/parks/lake-eildon-national-park">Lake Eildon</a> in Victoria’s Central Highlands – from 1971 until 1987, when police raided the property and removed them.</p>
<p>Johnston and Jones write: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Hamilton-Byrne children all thought they were brothers and sisters as they were growing up, but of course they were not. Some had been scouted for adoption by cult insiders at Melbourne hospitals and taken for Anne with fake paperwork. Or they were gifted to Anne by parents who were involved with the cult. These parents felt it was an honour to give over a child: their son or daughter would be raised by the hand of God.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hamilton-Byrne preached a type of new-age spiritualism that mixed elements from Hindu, Buddhist and Christian teachings. She cited the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Maitreya-Buddhism">Maitreya</a>, a female Buddha from Tibetan mystical literature, claiming she herself was an avatar sent to rescue her followers from the wheel of birth, death and suffering. </p>
<p>With this perceived gravitas, Hamilton-Byrne was able to order couples from her flock to separate and re-pair with others, to donate their assets (as well as a portion of their salaries) to her, to commit fraud, surrender their children, and subject those children to gruelling regimes and punishments, all on her behalf.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/X_KeVkZ_JhM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A trailer for Rosie Jones’ documentary film, The Family.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The book offers an account of the culture and circumstances that enabled the crimes and abuses enacted at the behest of Hamilton-Byrne and her husband Bill, attempting to make some sense of this bizarre, misguided and cruel group of people.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/have-i-just-joined-another-cult-daniella-grew-up-in-the-family-then-joined-the-army-where-she-experienced-toxic-control-again-196385">‘Have I just joined another cult?’: Daniella grew up in The Family, then joined the army – where she experienced toxic control, again</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Turning fact into fiction</h2>
<p>Writers have long turned to fiction to make sense of social issues. In the acknowledgements section of his novel, Pomare writes: “the seed of the story [In the Clearing] was born out of my fascination with the cult [of The Family], the resilience of the children survivors, and the enigmatic leader”. </p>
<p>Gary Rolfe is a researcher who argues practitioners in the helping professions (nurses, teachers and social workers) benefit from the emotional and affective notion of “truth” fiction provides. “The writing of fiction is itself a form of social research which provides access to a particular kind of truth,” <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14623940220129898">he writes</a>. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the scientific sense, all of art, including fiction, is a lie, since it is not derived from empirical research, but from the imagination. But this lie enables us, as Foucault pointed out, to “induce effects of truth” by resonating with our inner feelings.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Writers pursue this truth by mixing research with imagination and lived experience. </p>
<p>Recently, Emma Cline’s novel <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-girls-9781784701741">The Girls</a> (2016) took the Manson Family as its base to explore the power of seduction and the lure of connection through Evie, an unmoored teenager hungry for community. In <a href="https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/beautiful-revolutionary-9781925713039">Beautiful Revolutionary</a> (2018), Laura Elizabeth Woollett reimagined the events that led to the Jonestown mass deaths, closely examining the descent of its protagonist, Evelyn, into perversity under the influence of leader Jim Jones. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532676/original/file-20230619-26-vsc0do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532676/original/file-20230619-26-vsc0do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532676/original/file-20230619-26-vsc0do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532676/original/file-20230619-26-vsc0do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532676/original/file-20230619-26-vsc0do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532676/original/file-20230619-26-vsc0do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532676/original/file-20230619-26-vsc0do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532676/original/file-20230619-26-vsc0do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>In In the Clearing, Pomare imaginatively refigures the cult of The Family to explore its legacy for childhood survivors. In the book — which the screen adaptation more or less follows (at least, in the early episodes I watched) — Pomare intertwines the reality of documented life inside the cult with an entirely fictional plot. </p>
<p>We follow the quest of Freya, who is triggered by her traumatic childhood to find out who is inhabiting the mysterious van parked by the lake near her house. And to find out who has been speaking to her child from the other side of the school fence, and who (without giving away any spoilers) is responsible for a terrible crime. Her present-day quest is just one narrative thread; we eventually discover how it’s connected to the Family-like doomsday cult.</p>
<p>This quest is the terrain of the psychological crime–thriller, which turns on the suspense of withheld information and its layered uncovering. But it’s the mix of plot and affect, of story and circumstance, that, as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14443058.2023.2165133">Sue Turnbull points out</a>, crime novels manipulate as vehicles to engage with larger social issues.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/religious-lies-conmen-and-coercive-control-how-cults-corrupt-our-desire-for-love-and-connection-185385">Religious lies, conmen and coercive control: how cults corrupt our desire for love and connection</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Crime as entertainment</h2>
<p>The ethics of exploring true crime through entertainment is prickly. Can coding the most horrific events of a person’s life into a narrative and packaging it as entertainment ever be ethical? The simple answer is: it depends. </p>
<p>But the conditions of that “depends” are a shifting, complex, context-specific spectrum of circumstance. And the further we venture from reportage into fiction, the more fraught this context becomes.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532696/original/file-20230619-29-dbdvhc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532696/original/file-20230619-29-dbdvhc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532696/original/file-20230619-29-dbdvhc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532696/original/file-20230619-29-dbdvhc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532696/original/file-20230619-29-dbdvhc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532696/original/file-20230619-29-dbdvhc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532696/original/file-20230619-29-dbdvhc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532696/original/file-20230619-29-dbdvhc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>At its best, true crime can thaw cases long gone cold, overturn wrongful convictions, even prompt justice reform. In August last year, for instance, Chris Dawson was found guilty of murdering his wife Lynette Dawson, in a four-decades-old cold case revived by the true crime podcast <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/podcasts/the-teachers-pet-podcast/news-story/84a5923fee8e9013b9b0f05197cf9416">The Teacher’s Pet</a>. </p>
<p>True crime can also prompt us to think about biases of class, gender, sexual orientation and race, by giving a voice to members of the community who might not otherwise find a platform. Indeed, this platform has given a voice to the child survivors of The Family, whose abuse was never validated or answered for in the justice system. And true crime can provide a <a href="https://www.survivorsguidetotruecrime.com">community for victim–survivors</a>, who might find solace and empowerment through engaging with the stories of others.</p>
<p>But at its worst, true crime can be exploitative and prurient, produced for titillation – ignoring its impact on victim–survivors or those close to them. True-crime creation and consumption exists within a commercial realm. And this is perhaps the most icky part of it. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532815/original/file-20230620-27-y25rnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532815/original/file-20230620-27-y25rnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532815/original/file-20230620-27-y25rnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532815/original/file-20230620-27-y25rnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532815/original/file-20230620-27-y25rnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532815/original/file-20230620-27-y25rnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532815/original/file-20230620-27-y25rnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532815/original/file-20230620-27-y25rnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Most recently, the debate of public interest versus private injury flared over <a href="https://www.netflix.com/au/title/81287562">Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story</a>. Family members of Dahmer’s victims, who say they weren’t consulted during the show’s production, publicly <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-10-28/jeffrey-dahmer-netflix-ryan-murphy-family-members">aired their grievances</a>. </p>
<p>Their voices grew louder when Evan Peters, who played Dahmer in the show, <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniesoteriou/jeffrey-dahmer-victim-mom-evan-peters-golden-globes">won a Golden Globe</a> – and when Peters, the show’s creator Ryan Murphy, and Netflix enjoyed <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2022/09/28/dahmer-is-netflixs-biggest-show-debut-since-stranger-things-season-4/?sh=6aa0b23bd01f">considerable success</a> from the project. Some commentators <a href="https://ethics.org.au/where-are-the-victims-the-ethics-of-true-crime/">called for remuneration</a> for the families of Dahmer’s victims, arguing that “the integration of advertising into true crime feels particularly craven”. </p>
<p>Remuneration debates aside, I think exploring crime through storytelling can be in the public interest – whether we engage with the investigative framework of a book such as The Family or with a fictional interpretation of real events, such as the novel or screen adaptation of In The Clearing.</p>
<p>Media scholar <a href="https://www.uow.edu.au/the-stand/2023/what-are-the-ethics-of-creating-fictionalised-true-crime-.php">Sue Turnbull explains</a> that while a show like Dahmer or a film like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13694628/">Nitram</a> (which depicts the events that led to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/forgetting-martin-bryant-what-to-remember-when-we-talk-about-port-arthur-58139">Port Arthur massacre</a> in 1996) might on one level be exploitative, on another </p>
<blockquote>
<p>it may be revelatory in terms of the psychology and context it explores. When did things start going wrong? What makes a serial killer? At what point could he have been stopped and at what point do the failures occur?</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532698/original/file-20230619-21-nu3mjf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532698/original/file-20230619-21-nu3mjf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532698/original/file-20230619-21-nu3mjf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532698/original/file-20230619-21-nu3mjf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532698/original/file-20230619-21-nu3mjf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532698/original/file-20230619-21-nu3mjf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532698/original/file-20230619-21-nu3mjf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532698/original/file-20230619-21-nu3mjf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Is a film like Nitram exploitative – or might it be revelatory?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Madman Entertainment</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sometimes events are owed public attention. Certainly, a group such as The Family, whose legacy of trauma continues to impact its childhood survivors today, is worth our collective attention. Indeed, understanding how and why this cult could inflict such damage for so long is arguably in the public interest. Examining how and why these events unfolded might help us to recognise this behaviour in its early stages. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/true-crime-entertainment-like-the-teachers-pet-can-shine-a-light-on-cold-cases-but-does-it-help-or-hinder-justice-being-served-189787">True crime entertainment like The Teacher's Pet can shine a light on cold cases - but does it help or hinder justice being served?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How stories invite us to feel</h2>
<p>When we engage with a series, book or film – or a podcast – we enter into an unspoken contract with its creator(s). As reader response scholar <a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/consuming-content/">Amber Gwynne writes</a>, “we intuitively recognise the rules of engagement”. </p>
<p>We understand, for instance, that the events depicted in a novel are based on imagination. This contract stands, too, when we engage with fiction that claims to be inspired by a true story; we appreciate that details will be enhanced, omitted or invented to serve the demands of a satisfying story.</p>
<p>The truth of fiction, then, turns not on depicting scenarios that unflinchingly, exactly depict real events, but on prompting affective and emotional responses – instinctive reactions and the emotions we construct from them. In other words, when we engage with fiction, we <em>feel</em> something. </p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1037/gpr0000124">Research has shown</a> that the more emotionally invested a reader is in a story’s character or world, the larger the impact that story will have on their social cognition. (Which is the process of using the information we get from our social contexts to affect our own behaviour.)</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532700/original/file-20230619-807-zpbt2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532700/original/file-20230619-807-zpbt2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532700/original/file-20230619-807-zpbt2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532700/original/file-20230619-807-zpbt2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532700/original/file-20230619-807-zpbt2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532700/original/file-20230619-807-zpbt2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532700/original/file-20230619-807-zpbt2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532700/original/file-20230619-807-zpbt2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When we engage with fictional storytelling like The Clearing, we feel something.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney+</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This empathetic identification, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14443058.2023.2165133">Turnbull explains</a>, can “help our moral development in two main ways: it can educate the emotions, and it can educate our perceptions in a way that an argument cannot”.</p>
<p>In the Clearing considers <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-not-ready-to-criminalise-coercive-control-heres-why-146929">coercive control</a>, corruption, child abuse, misguided loyalty and manipulation, and their long-lasting, intergenerational effects on adults who experienced <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-half-of-australians-will-experience-trauma-most-before-they-turn-17-we-need-to-talk-about-it-159801">trauma</a> as children. </p>
<p>In this way, Pomare’s novel invites affective and emotional engagement, delivered within a plotline that satisfies the conventions of crime fiction. We come for the plot, but stay for the feelings it generates – or the complicated immersion in a particular social circumstance. (Okay, we also stay for the plot resolution.)</p>
<p>In the screen adaptation, The Clearing, the showrunners take a slightly different approach, sparring with slightly different social processes from the novel. For example, Adrienne, the cult leader based on Hamilton-Byrne, features more frequently in the screen version than the novel. This shift in focus sharpens the lens more clearly on her particular approach to coercion. </p>
<p>But both versions depict a search for answers, within in a context that generates feelings we might not experience in our everyday lives.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/trauma-is-trending-but-we-need-to-look-beyond-buzzwords-and-face-its-ugly-side-201564">Trauma is trending – but we need to look beyond buzzwords and face its ugly side</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Fiction: a ‘lie that helps us see the truth’</h2>
<p>Both the novel and Disney+ series begin with the abduction of Sara (soon renamed Asha) as she walks home from the bus stop. This fictional event doesn’t mimic any real-world <em>modus operandi</em> of the cult — they never abducted children in this way. The names used in the book and show are fictional. Freya and Billy’s world is entirely imagined. The Family never had an obsession with keeping exactly 12 children, as these fictional versions do.</p>
<p>But does any of this matter?</p>
<p>I suggest it doesn’t. Consider the scene in which Amy is being punished. Johnston and Jones’s research tells us Hamilton-Byrne had her followers terrorise the children: their weapons of control included dunking children’s heads in water troughs and withholding food. We know she used a variety of methods to coerce and control the members of her cult, convincing them she was an incarnation of Christ and that her word was divine. The adults did her bidding on her instruction. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532703/original/file-20230619-29-2i559t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532703/original/file-20230619-29-2i559t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532703/original/file-20230619-29-2i559t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532703/original/file-20230619-29-2i559t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532703/original/file-20230619-29-2i559t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532703/original/file-20230619-29-2i559t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532703/original/file-20230619-29-2i559t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532703/original/file-20230619-29-2i559t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chris Johnston and Rosie Jones’s research tells us that Anne-Hamilton Byrne had her followers terrorise the children in The Family.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney+</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because of this knowledge, we can understand the scene in which Adrienne is listening to Amy’s beating over the phone as metaphorical. It almost doesn’t matter whether this scene played out in exactly this way; it’s how we feel about it, as viewers, that matters. This is what Rolfe was talking about when he wrote about fiction being a “lie that helps us see the truth”.</p>
<p>We need to really think about how crime-fiction texts depict characters and events – and whether the framing is fair. In these interpretations of The Family and Hamilton-Byrne, I’d say the framing <em>is</em> fair. In fact, the exposure of a group whose motto was “unseen, unheard, unknown” – across a documentary, a book of reportage, a novel and now a streaming series – feels particularly reparative. </p>
<p>But readers and viewers will balance their own scales.</p>
<p>Fiction can be good in any number of ways. So I use the term “good fiction” here as shorthand for texts that prompt us to ethically engage with pressing social issues. “Good” crime fiction crafts a quest for truth around affect, or the feelings it prompts us to feel: entertaining us while inviting us to empathise and engage with the social world. </p>
<p>Good crime fiction communicates weighty social concerns to an engaged audience. And good crime fiction, in that sense, can serve as a platform for debate and discussion about the human experience at the heart of its events. This is the truth we can excavate with fiction’s tools.</p>
<p>For the facts and figures of true events, we must look to reportage. But you already knew that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206514/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martine Kropkowski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The story of Anne Hamilton-Byrne’s cult The Family has been told in a non-fiction book and documentary, a novel, In the Clearing, and now a Disney+ series. What can stories like this teach us?Martine Kropkowski, PhD Candidate, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1979482023-01-18T12:02:52Z2023-01-18T12:02:52ZWelcome to Chippendales: why the Disney brand won’t be harmed by provocative programming<p>A true crime series about male strippers, arson and murder-for-hire, marketed with lines like “Women get horny!” and “Blood will spill”? It’s safe to say that Disney+ isn’t the most obvious destination for a show like <a href="https://www.disneyplus.com/en-gb/series/welcome-to-chippendales/5Xes8hB719ux">Welcome to Chippendales</a>.</p>
<p>On the surface, the commission looks risky – a borderline negligent brand mismatch. Surely Welcome to Chippendales’ violent and sexual content threatens the wholesome, family-friendly reputation Disney has spent decades <a href="https://archive.org/details/understandingdis0000wask/page/n1/mode/2up">building up, exploiting and preserving</a>? Surprisingly, no – but this isn’t anything to do with the series itself.</p>
<p>Welcome to Chippendales is a great example of the control Disney now has over its brand and the ways it takes advantage of <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315396828/online-tv-catherine-johnson">streaming technologies</a> to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10.1177/0163443717736118">ensure shows circulate with the “right” audiences</a>.</p>
<p>Central to the emergence of edgy, adult-only content on Disney+ was the introduction of its new, adult-oriented Star content hub in February 2021. Nomad (the agency behind the Disney/Star branding) <a href="https://www.nomadstudio.com/work/disney-star">explained</a> that “the new identity system serves as a protective layer between [Star’s] content and the Disney brand, ensuring the two worlds never collide.”</p>
<p>Releasing provocative content such as Welcome to Chippendales under “Star Originals” rather than Disney reduces the chances of unwanted associations rubbing off on the House of Mouse.</p>
<h2>Separation or synergy?</h2>
<p>Brand managers call this “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10.1177/000812560004200401">brand architecture</a>” – the ways conglomerates manage the relationship between their different brands. The dilemma is whether to aim for separation (shielding brand identities from the potential failings of others) or synergy (encouraging cross-promotion and valuable brand overlaps).</p>
<p>Disney is well known for its hybrid approach, running a number of divisions that are clearly branded as arms of Disney (such as its parks and resorts, Disney Cruises and Disney Stores), while others appear to outsiders as autonomous companies (for example, Marvel and ESPN).</p>
<p>Star originally came into the Disney fold in 2019 as part of a <a href="https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/disney-fox-deal-complete-1203167374/">US$71 billion (£58 billion) deal to acquire 21st Century Fox</a>. Since then, Star has emerged as the conglomerate’s go-to label for separating its more provocative Disney+ titles from the rest of its content.</p>
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<img alt="A phone screen displays both the Disney+ and Starlogos." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504958/original/file-20230117-22-56po1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504958/original/file-20230117-22-56po1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504958/original/file-20230117-22-56po1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504958/original/file-20230117-22-56po1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504958/original/file-20230117-22-56po1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504958/original/file-20230117-22-56po1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504958/original/file-20230117-22-56po1z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Star came to Disney as part of its deal to acquire 21st Century Fox.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/disney-plus-star-logo-on-smarthphone-2144109683">Miguel Lagoa</a></span>
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<p>It’s a strategy the company has used for the best part of 30 years, with varying degrees of success. When Disney acquired Miramax in 1993, the studio was the most exciting name in indie cinema, responsible for distributing films like Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989) and Reservoir Dogs (1992).</p>
<p>It behoved Disney to get into bed with such a hot property, enabling it to reach discerning new audiences, university educated with high incomes. But keeping the two brands separate at the corporate level was not always enough to stop their reputations bleeding into one another.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504960/original/file-20230117-11104-eon4h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Kevin Smith in an all black suit wearing round glasses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504960/original/file-20230117-11104-eon4h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504960/original/file-20230117-11104-eon4h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504960/original/file-20230117-11104-eon4h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504960/original/file-20230117-11104-eon4h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504960/original/file-20230117-11104-eon4h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504960/original/file-20230117-11104-eon4h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504960/original/file-20230117-11104-eon4h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Writer and director of Dogma, Kevin Smith.</span>
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<p>Critics worried that Disney might sanitise Miramax, while Miramax’s devil-may-care attitude towards controversy looked like a Disney PR disaster waiting to happen. As Miramax released films like Kids (1995) – featuring sexually active, drug-using teenagers – and Kevin Smith’s divisive religious satire Dogma (1999), the relationship became a major problem.</p>
<p>The backlash to Kids was fierce enough that <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Indie_Inc.html?id=9PrkDAAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y">protest groups called for a Disney boycott</a>. Miramax owners Harvey and Bob Weinstein had to resort to extreme measures to resolve the fiasco, buying the rights themselves and creating a standalone, unaffiliated distribution company purely for Kids.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Miramax sold Dogma’s North American rights to Lionsgate, sacrificing millions in box office revenue in order to avoid the wrath of the US religious right.</p>
<h2>Same show, different label</h2>
<p>Disney has spent decades engaged in internal gerrymandering, looking to create separations or synergies between its sub-brands. But in today’s streaming era, the studio can shift its borders more easily than ever before.</p>
<p>This is especially evident with Welcome to Chippendales, because the series appears under a different company name depending on how and where you encounter it.</p>
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<p>For example, when it debuted in the US in November, Welcome to Chippendales wasn’t on Disney+ at all and there was no Disney branding to be seen on any of its promotional materials. As was the case with the sexually explicit Pam & Tommy (2022) and addiction-themed Dopesick (2021).</p>
<p>These series were branded in the US as Hulu Originals. Hulu is owned by Disney, but has its own platform with different content.</p>
<p>In the UK, the distinction between brands is less stark. Welcome to Chippendales appears under the Star tile, but is part of the same platform as the content from other Disney divisions and sub-brands (appearing in “New to Disney+”).</p>
<p>Intriguingly, the Star brand is featured more heavily on the platform itself, whereas UK marketing materials for the series have focused almost exclusively on Disney, not mentioning Star at all. Presumably this is because of Star’s lower brand recognition in the UK and the need to direct consumers to the viewing platform. </p>
<p>For Disney, all of this represents an unprecedented level of control over its intellectual property. Circulation can now be tailored to the whims and habits of different territories and demographics, without any need for elaborate or last-minute changes to distribution deals. </p>
<p>It’s as quick – and impressive – as ripping off a pair of Velcro trousers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197948/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard McCulloch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sub-brands such as Star and Hulu have allowed Disney to experiment with adult-themed content while protecting its core brand.Richard McCulloch, Senior Lecturer Media and Film, University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1945662022-11-17T10:05:20Z2022-11-17T10:05:20ZStar Wars Andor captures the essence of resistance that is happening in the real world<p>Andor is the newest Star Wars series on Disney+. It tells the backstory of Cassian Andor, one of the heroes who helped steal the Death Star plans in the 2016 film Rogue One (itself a prequel to the original Star Wars movie from 1977). </p>
<p>As the series draws to a close, Andor has become a <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/andor-best-star-wars-disney-plus/">favourite</a> for Star Wars fans. This is despite the fact that it has yet to mention the Force or the Jedi and there hasn’t even been a lightsaber. </p>
<p>One of the major appeals of the show is the level of <a href="https://screenrant.com/andor-show-change-star-wars-empire-imperials/">detail and “everydayness”</a> that it depicted. The characters from the evil, imperialistic and in many cases, overtly fascist Galactic Empire are, in the grand scheme of things, relatively low-level. It optimises what cultural theorist Hannah Arendt, in describing the everyday seemingly mindless tasks undertaken by some of those in the Nazi Party, called “<a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Eichmann_in_Jerusalem/yGoxZEdw36oC?hl=en%E2%80%99">the banality of evil</a>”. </p>
<p>Take the fast-rising military tactical supervisor Dedra Meero and the embittered civil servant-style employee Syril Karn. They are seen scouring reports, sat behind desks, performing menial tasks and in Karn’s case, living at home with his overbearing mother.</p>
<p>It is the intricacy of their work, the levels of bureaucracy and military hierarchy they must navigate, that characterises the massive scale and sheer terror of the Empire. In this, it also not-so-subtly critiques the <a href="https://www.militaryindustrialcomplex.com/what-is-the-military-industrial-complex.php">military-industrial complex</a> by exposing the intricate (and often fraught) links between private military corporations and state.</p>
<p>The series also takes a great deal of care to build up the rebels’ backstories, giving far more emotional weight to their reasons for rebelling. The rebel networks of deceit and subterfuge that the show painstakingly outlines adds real complexity, dynamism and a heightened sense of jeopardy that is somewhat missing from the fast-paced stories of the Star Wars cinematic films. </p>
<p>In essence, Andor is the “grown-up” Star Wars story that many of the fans were craving after the rather one-dimensional and insipid <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2019/12/18/review-disney-and-lucasfilms-star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-is-a-terrible-end-to-the-skywalker-saga/?sh=1e343a4e113c">calamity</a> that was Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.</p>
<p>But there is a deeper reason I think that Andor is striking a chord: it is capturing the essence of resistance that is happening in the real world around us.</p>
<p>There are the people in <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-63553888">Iran</a> protesting against the country’s strict laws. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/10/climate-activists-target-private-jet-airports-and-demand-ban-at-cop27">Climate activism</a> is increasing across the world, Black Lives Matter movements <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/child-q-diane-abbott-joins-hundreds-of-protesters-in-march-for-schoolgirl-15-strip-searched-while-on-period-12571791">continue to fight</a> against institutional racism, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/09/vermont-abortion-vote-first-us-state-constitution">reproductive rights groups are campaigning again in the US</a> and resistance is increasing <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/trans-activism-isnt-just-about-pronouns-and-bathrooms-its-about-class-struggle/">against rampant transphobia</a>. There are very real, and widespread networks of activism across the world. </p>
<p>As Star Wars creator Geroge Lucas has <a href="https://movieweb.com/star-wars-george-lucas-james-cameron-interview/">stated</a>, the saga has always been about rebellion against colonialism and fascism. That’s why Andor really is a true Star Wars story and why it speaks very intimately to the troubles, but also the exhilaration and specific triumphs, of effective resistance campaigns and debates around how action should be “done”.</p>
<h2>Life-long resistance</h2>
<p>The series introduces us to one of the “lead” organisers of the rebellion, Luthen. Luthen is “hiding in plain site” in the Empire, where he poses as a wealthy antiques shop owner while secretly coordinating rebel activities. </p>
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<p>In his utterly captivating and brilliantly written monologue at the end of Episode ten “One Way Out”, he encapsulates the deep sacrifices he had made for life-long resistance. This is brilliantly summed up with the quite haunting line: “I burn my life to make a sunrise I know I’ll never see.” </p>
<p>This again echoes the many times <a href="https://thetyee.ca/News/2022/04/27/Meet-Protesters-Fighting-Climate-Change/">we have heard climate activists</a> claim that they risk jail time, ridicule and everything else that comes with activism because they want a better future for the children – a future they might never see.</p>
<p>For scholars of activism like myself, one of the more intriguing lines from the speech is: “I’m condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them.” Here, he is talking about having to live a lie in order to infiltrate the Empire. But these lines also importantly echo a very live debate in activist and academic circles about how resistance should be “done”. </p>
<h2>Whose tools should be used?</h2>
<p>To summarise the argument, a more traditional <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Rebirth_of_History/xaLajwFWw9AC?hl=en&gbpv=0">Marxist approach</a> will agree with Luthen, that to defeat the enemy, you must use their tools in a moment of insurrection. This is essentially a political argument that says to change the world, you have to achieve power first. Through political pressure or, if needed, full-scale revolution (such as in <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2731-october">Russia in 1917</a>), the aim is to seize power first before using that power to affect change. </p>
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<p>More <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Radical_Feminism/zte_CQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=feminist+activism&printsec=frontcover">feminist</a> and <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2019/06/ruth-kinna-on-anarchy-and-activism">anarchist</a> approaches will argue that resistance means building your own house with tools you create yourself. This is perhaps most famously captured by the words of the American civil rights activist and poet Audre Lorde who wrote the now <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Master_s_Tools_Will_Never_Dismantle/Cv5cDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">famous words</a>: “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” </p>
<p>She is arguing here that we cannot solve problems of oppression working with the tools of a system of oppression. This thinking sees activism as less about changing the system so that it supports us better, but building entirely new systems. </p>
<p>The show teases this form of activism with Vel and Cinta, two rebels who are in a relationship. After a major successful heist against the Empire, Vel seems to want to run away with Cinta, to stop fighting and leave the system of oppression that they currently operate in and instead forge new lives under new systems of their own making. And in a more subtle, “soft” form of activism, the indigenous people of the occupied planet of Aldhani are seen maintaining their “folk” traditions in spite of clear disdain from the colonial imperial occupiers.</p>
<p>But whichever side of this activist positioning people are on, Andor shows the struggles of attempting each. The time spent detailing the nuances of the Empire’s fascism as well as the various practices of resistance that grow to meet it are why I think Andor is as popular as it is. </p>
<p>In a world where all sorts of groups are fighting for different causes, there are debates about the right and wrong way to go about enacting change. Art and culture thrives when it speaks to the real world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194566/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oli Mould does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In a rousing speech, one of the “organisers” of the rebellion muses on the lifelong struggle of activists and wades into the debate on the best way to effectively resist.Oli Mould, Reader in Human Geography, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1933102022-10-27T02:04:13Z2022-10-27T02:04:13ZWithout free-to-air, we wouldn’t have Doctor Who in the archives. What will we lose when it moves to Disney?<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/oct/26/doctor-who-bbc-deal-disney-plus-outside-uk-ireland-abc-australia-loses-rights">announcement</a> the BBC will move the global streaming of Doctor Who from free to air channels to Disney+ will change the viewing habits for millions of people internationally. </p>
<p>In Australia, Doctor Who will be removed from the ABC, in New Zealand from TVNZ, and in America from BBC America. </p>
<p>According to reports, the BBC and Disney+ are thrilled with the deal. The show’s chief writer Russell T. Davies <a href="https://www.pedestrian.tv/entertainment/doctor-who-disneyplus/">has said</a> this new relationship will allow the show to “launch the TARDIS all around the planet, reaching a new generation of fans while keeping our traditional home firmly on the BBC in the UK.”</p>
<p>But what about the traditional homes Doctor Who has in other countries, which often kept rare Doctor Who episodes safe which the BBC discarded in the 1970s, before the BBC began archiving the videotapes of their old black and white programs. Now the BBC keeps everything, but once wiped or threw out tapes when they thought the programs had no further value.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/60-years-and-14-doctors-how-doctor-who-has-changed-with-the-times-and-ncuti-gatwas-casting-is-the-natural-next-step-182677">60 years and 14 Doctors: how Doctor Who has changed with the times – and Ncuti Gatwa's casting is the natural next step</a>
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<h2>Black and white broadcasting for the world</h2>
<p>The first people anywhere in the world to see Doctor Who were British viewers of the BBC’s television service on <a href="https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/8f81c193ba224e84981f353cae480d49">November 23 1963</a>. Any one with a television licence could have watched and several million people did, having just learned of President John F Kennedy’s assassination. </p>
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<p>The rest of the world did not have to wait long. In the mid-1960s television was mostly black and white and the BBC’s 405 line productions could be broadcast by technicians in television stations around the world. </p>
<p>West Australians first saw Doctor Who in January 1965. Shortly after, the ABC in other capitals began to broadcast the series. </p>
<p>The global broadcasting of Doctor Who has created different viewing patterns for diverse audiences. </p>
<p>Famously in Britain, Doctor Who was part of a Saturday evening “tea time” experience for school children: a line-up of football, light entertainment and drama from early afternoon to late night. Doctor Who kept its place as the mainstay of the BBC’s Saturday line-up almost without interruption from 1963 to 1989. </p>
<p>But for Australians like me, Doctor Who was viewed in a different way. As a child of the 1980s, Doctor Who was in an unmissable weekday afternoon line-up on the ABC. </p>
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<p>Australians weren’t watching exactly the same episodes as their counterparts watching the BBC. Early Doctor Who is startlingly violent, and early on the show gained its enduring reputation as so scary kids watched from <a href="https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/doctor-whos-scariest-episodes/">behind the sofa</a>. These black and white episodes feature mass killings, hangings, shootings, attempted and actual rape, psychotic attacks by a scissor wielding woman, and more.</p>
<p>Doctor Who episodes broadcast in Australia in the 1960s and 1970s had many of these juicy moments were edited out by the <a href="https://doctorwhomindrobber.com/tag/australian-film-censorship-board/">Commonwealth Film Censorship Board</a>.</p>
<p>Oddly, this means Australian television archives contain snippets of 1960s episodes still missing from the BBC archives, among them the existentially dreadful attack from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXt4AEMzYgY">Mr Oak and Mr Quill</a>, humanoids made of gas who advance on a helpless woman breathing poison gas out of gaping black holes in their faces. These small moments of violence are all that’s left of some classics stories.</p>
<h2>Global audiences from the 1960s to present</h2>
<p>These snippets of missing episodes exist because, prior to the late 1970s, the BBC did not routinely archive its shows – including Doctor Who. Indeed, a global network of television archives has been crucial in maintaining the nearly 50 year history of the show.</p>
<p>Doctor Who episodes missing from the BBC archives have been recovered from <a href="https://www.whattowatch.com/features/doctor-who-missing-episodes-why-are-there-so-many">Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Africa</a>. They were found there because the BBC sent them there, as exports for showing on local free to air channels. </p>
<p>As recently as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TinWhmgU9p0">2013</a>, a large number of missing episodes were found in a remote television relay station in west Africa. </p>
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<p>Much academic research into the viewing and reception of Doctor Who is about British audiences. How fascinating it would be to know more about the first global audiences and the viewing reactions and audiences from Hong Kong to Nigeria. </p>
<p>Modern Doctor Who’s global audience is no less diverse. <a href="https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/cult/a589559/doctor-who-peter-capaldi-greets-fans-in-korea-as-world-tour-continues/">In 2013</a> the incumbent Doctor, Peter Capaldi, embarked on a world tour and fans in Seoul, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, New York and Sydney clamoured to meet him. </p>
<p>But these fans, like others elsewhere in the world, watched their favourite show free to air. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/my-time-as-a-scary-girl-on-doctor-who-81175">My time as a 'scary girl' on Doctor Who</a>
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<h2>Streaming the 60th anniversary and beyond</h2>
<p>The BBC’s announcement changes everything for fans around the world. </p>
<p>It puts Doctor Who on par with programs from the streaming giants which are the most talked about in popular culture, like House of the Dragon or The Crown.</p>
<p>But Doctor Who has always been an accessible commodity on the ABC, TVNZ and their like. </p>
<p>In Australia, Doctor Who on the ABC was simply a fact of life. This announcement will not only be a disappointment but a concern about access. </p>
<p>It also means Doctor Who will be judged against lavish programs with immensely larger budgets, different storytelling approaches and multinational casts. </p>
<p>In 2021, the Guardian writer <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/jul/20/exterminate-exterminate-why-its-time-for-doctor-who-to-die">Martin Belam</a> suggested the time had come to exterminate Doctor Who for precisely these reasons, but back then the show was still safe on global free to air. </p>
<p>This change means Doctor Who will enter its 60th year with its global broadcasting changed beyond recognition and judged against the giants of streamed television. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-fragmented-streaming-video-market-is-good-for-everyone-but-the-consumer-82367">A fragmented streaming video market is good for everyone but the consumer</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p><em>Correction: An earlier version of this story misnamed the New Zealand broadcaster. It is TVNZ.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193310/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcus Harmes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Doctor Who episodes missing from the BBC archives have been recovered from Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Africa.Marcus Harmes, Professor in Pathways Education, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1857382022-07-07T11:25:21Z2022-07-07T11:25:21ZHow Star Wars’ Jedi were inspired by the Knights Templar<p>Star Wars is once again in the spotlight and pulling on nostalgic heartstrings in the new Disney+ limited series Obi-Wan Kenobi, starring Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen. The series follows members of the knightly order of Jedi as they are persecuted across the galaxy. What many might not know is the idea of the Jedi was heavily influenced by the real history of the Knights Templar.</p>
<p>The Knights Templar were a medieval religious order of knights created in the early 12th century following the First Crusade. The Order was created in 1119 by French knight Hugh de Payne but would consist of knights from all over Europe. The Templar knights originally patrolled the roads and protected pilgrims in the newly created Christian states in the Holy Land (an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern bank of the Jordan River) but became rich and powerful over the next two centuries. The Templars’ sudden downfall in the early 14th century at the hands of a French King who sought their riches fuelled popular imagination for centuries – including, it seems, Star Wars.</p>
<p>In creator George Lucas’ 1973 two-page synopsis, titled <a href="https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-legacy-of-star-wars-journal-of-the-whills/">the Journal of the Whills</a>, which would outline what would one day become Star Wars, there is a mention of a Jedi Templar. American film historian J.W. Rinzler’s book, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Making_of_Star_Wars.html?id=URXXLhzaFocC&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y">The Making of Star Wars</a>, notes the link of the Templar and the Jedi in the character Chuiee Two Thorpe, who Lucas writes trains as a “potential Jedi-Templer [sic]”. “Templer” was dropped from the concept of Jedi in later drafts, it is clear, though, that the legacy of the Templars played a part in inspiring Lucas’ Jedi.</p>
<h2>Orders of warrior monks</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.starwars.com/databank/jedi-order">Jedi</a> are an ancient order of guardians who protect the peace and justice in the Galactic Republic in Star Wars. </p>
<p>In the original 1977 Star Wars film, audiences were introduced to the Jedi knights by Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness), who explained, “For over a thousand generations, the Jedi knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the old republic. Before the dark times before the empire.” But it wasn’t until the trilogy of prequels, which were made between 1999 and 2005, that the Jedi were depicted as a monastic order that possessed the Templar inspiration seen in the original 1973 synopsis.</p>
<p>The Jedi Order operated independently, much like the Knights Templar – who answered only to the Pope. The Jedi lived by the Jedi code, while the Knights Templar lived by a monastic rule, known initially as the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hTPC09XoKs0C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">Primitive Rule</a>, which was bestowed on them by prominent leaders of the Church at the Council of Troyes in 1129. These were a strict set of rules by which the Templars lived their dual lives as warriors and monks and which bears a resemblance to the Jedi code. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3Yh_6_zItPU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Although the Star Wars films do not detail the content of the Jedi’s code, similarities in the philosophies can be seen. For example, in Revenge of the Sith (2005), Yoda tells Jedi knight Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), “attachment leads to jealously; the shadow of greed that is”. This resembles the Templars’ rule on owning property. In British historian Judith Upton-Ward’s book The Rule of the <a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/9780851157016/the-rule-of-the-templars/">Templars</a>(2002), she notes that the Templars were not allowed to keep personal items such as a lockable purse and even the ownership of horses and armour was under the house commander’s control and could be reissued to any other serving Templar.</p>
<h2>Similar ends</h2>
<p>Both the Jedi and Templars were ended by conspiracies led by tyrants. In the climax of the prequel trilogy, the Jedi were the last obstacle left to prevent the villainous Darth Sidious from completing his plan to rule the galaxy. So Darth Sidious falsely accused the Jedi of treason and had his soldiers massacre the unsuspecting Jedi. Meanwhile it was French King Phillip IV who <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=whJgEAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">accused the Templars of heresy</a> in 1307 to get access to their vast wealth and had the Templars in France arrested, which led to the last grand-master Jacque de Molay eventually being burnt at the stake in 1314.</p>
<p>Both the Jedi and the Templars also suffered an attack on their temples. In Revenge of the Sith, the Jedi are murdered when Darth Vader leads an army into the Jedi Temple, while the Templars were arrested in a dawn raid by french soldiers at their Paris Temple on the infamous Friday the 13th in 1307. </p>
<p>Despite the similarities in their fall, the fate of the Templars was arguably more favourable than the Jedi. In Obi-Wan Kenobi, we see the remaining Jedi being hunted and killed by Darth Vader and his inquisitors. But, according to popular mythology, exiled Templars went into hiding before supposedly <a href="https://theconversation.com/knights-templar-still-loved-by-conspiracy-theorists-900-years-on-128582">creating the Freemasons</a>. This myth originated in the 18th century and was started when senior French Freemason Andrew Ramsey claiming Templar ancestry to market the Freemasons to the aristocracy. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="illustration of a group of men being burned." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472786/original/file-20220706-14-rf7bsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472786/original/file-20220706-14-rf7bsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472786/original/file-20220706-14-rf7bsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472786/original/file-20220706-14-rf7bsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472786/original/file-20220706-14-rf7bsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472786/original/file-20220706-14-rf7bsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472786/original/file-20220706-14-rf7bsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Templars being burned at the stake.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar#/media/File:Templars_on_Stake.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The myth of the Templars in exile is akin to the fate of the Jedi depicted in Obi-Wan Kenobi, where surviving Jedi live in exile and are aided by an underground organisation, called The Path. But the reality for the Templars was that former knights joined other orders or started new ones, such as <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/knights-templar-still-loved-by-conspiracy-theorists-900-years-on-128582">Ordem dos Cavaleiros de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo</a></em> (Order of the Knights of Jesus Christ) in Portugal.</p>
<p>The monastic resemblances of the Jedi Knights and the Knights Templar and the similarities between the fall of both orders demonstrate how wide-ranging the Templars’ legacy is. Furthermore, the apparent influence of the Knights Templar on the creation of the fictional Jedi knights shows how an order abolished in the early 14th century still impacts popular culture today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185738/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Masters does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Both are orders of religious warriors and both were taken down by power-hungry rulersPatrick Masters, Lecturer in Film Studies, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1846132022-06-30T18:46:26Z2022-06-30T18:46:26ZWhy Ms. Marvel matters so much to Muslim, South Asian fans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470859/original/file-20220624-7096-f4dosk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=55%2C42%2C4034%2C2017&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Muslim participants of different backgrounds who participated in an audience study said they identify with Kamala Khan, also known as Ms. Marvel, because she's connected both to her ancestral culture and her American one. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Daniel McFadden/Marvel Studios 2022)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Disney+ TV show featuring Ms. Marvel, also known as Kamala Khan — the first Muslim superheroine of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/streaming/how-to-watch-ms-marvel">launched June 8</a> — and the internet has been alight with <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/new-disney-mcu-series-ms-marvel-rotten-tomatoes-imdb-reviews-rcna32889">discussions</a> about the lovable titular character.</p>
<p>The comic book series, <em>Ms. Marvel</em> <a href="https://www.diamondcomics.com/Article/156090-Top-100-Graphic-Novels-October-2014">shot to No. 1 on the comic book charts after its 2014 debut</a>. </p>
<p>The Pakistani American teen Kamala has been <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/1/7/21038179/ms-marvel-kamala-khan-disney-plus">one of the most successful characters Marvel</a> unveiled in the past decade, with a large audience reach. </p>
<p>The show has <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/ms_marvel">received strong reviews</a>, and Kamala’s representation is a breakthrough — particularly to her South Asian, Muslim and racialized fans.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the show has also <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/ms-marvel-mcu-disneyplus-review-bombing-racist-white-nonsense-1714538">received some racist and sexist backlash</a> in the form of internet “review bombers,” people who spam a show with negative reviews, who are upset with the new identity of Ms. Marvel.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m9EX0f6V11Y?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for ‘Ms. Marvel.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Regular Pakistani American teen</h2>
<p>Kamala, played by Iman Vellani, is a regular Pakistani American Muslim teen who transforms into a superhero. In the comics, this happens after she comes into contact with a <a href="https://supernatural-powers.fandom.com/wiki/Terrigenesis">mist that induces genetic mutation</a>. In the show, her powers are unlocked after she puts on her grandmother’s bangle. </p>
<p>Viewers can partly credit <em>Ms. Marvel</em>’s success to the comic series’ <a href="https://elle.in/article/sana-amanat-marvel-first-muslim-superhero">co-creator and editor, Sana Amanat</a>, a Pakistani American Muslim, and its first writer, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/g-willow-wilsons-american-heroes">G. Willow Wilson</a>, a white American convert to Islam.</p>
<p>Wilson wrote Kamala so beautifully that her struggles appealed to a large audience. As <em>The New Yorker</em> reports, Amanat and Wilson knew that as a breakthrough Muslim superhero, Ms. Marvel would face high expectations: “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/g-willow-wilsons-american-heroes">traditional Muslims might want her to be more modest, and secular Muslims might want her to be less so</a>.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-stakes-are-so-high-for-the-black-panther-57612">Why the stakes are so high for the Black Panther</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Their work was also unfolding in the charged <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814707326/arabs-and-muslims-in-the-media">post-9/11 climate when representations of Muslims</a>, while gaining some nuance, have also reiterated long-standing orientalist stereotypes — and Islamophobes framed <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-shows-its-time-to-do-away-with-the-racist-clash-of-civilizations-theory-178297">debates that questioned the compatibility of Islam with the West</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People dressed up and dancing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471681/original/file-20220629-26-ofloxm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471681/original/file-20220629-26-ofloxm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471681/original/file-20220629-26-ofloxm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471681/original/file-20220629-26-ofloxm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471681/original/file-20220629-26-ofloxm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471681/original/file-20220629-26-ofloxm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471681/original/file-20220629-26-ofloxm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kamala’s friends Nakia (Yasmeen Fletcher) and Bruno (Matt Lintz) are seen dancing with her and her Auntie Ruby (Anjali Bhimani) at her brother’s wedding.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>South Asian Muslim culture</h2>
<p>In both the comic and TV series, Kamala’s representation of Islam is primarily a South Asian one. For instance, Kamala wears a South Asian <em>dupatta</em>, when praying in the mosque. And the inter-generational trauma <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/29/the-great-divide-books-dalrymple">created by Partition</a>, which led to the creation of the South Asian Muslim state, Pakistan, is a driving force in the plot. </p>
<p>Characters speckle their conversations with phrases and words in Urdu. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2022/06/09/ms-marvel-episode-1-recap-and-review-a-charming-imaginative-new-disney-plus-gem/?sh=451423b270d7">Episode 1</a> shows Kamala and her mother shopping for a ceremony that is among the most important events
in South Asian backgrounds: a wedding. The event is later shown in Episode 3.</p>
<p>The audience is treated to a fitting of Kamala’s go-to-South Asian wear in this episode, the <em>shawlaar kameeze</em>. In this scene, another major fixture in South Asian culture debuts: <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/society/whats-life-without-the-omnipresent-aunties-their-inappropriate-questions-and-spicy-gossip/article6383319.ece">The gossiping aunty</a>. South Asian music is also a regular feature on the show, and Marvel has <a href="https://www.marvel.com/articles/tv-shows/ms-marvel-every-song-featured-in-episode-1">posted links</a> to the soundtracks which include a mix of pop and desi tracks.</p>
<h2>Supporting cast: Nani and Red Dagger</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471235/original/file-20220627-14-wo7ckh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young man smiling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471235/original/file-20220627-14-wo7ckh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471235/original/file-20220627-14-wo7ckh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471235/original/file-20220627-14-wo7ckh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471235/original/file-20220627-14-wo7ckh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471235/original/file-20220627-14-wo7ckh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471235/original/file-20220627-14-wo7ckh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471235/original/file-20220627-14-wo7ckh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aramis Knight is cast as the Red Dagger.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I’m looking forward to the plot lines with two South Asian characters — <a href="https://tribune.com.pk/story/2361843/samina-ahmed-enters-ms-marvel-as-kamala-khans-nani">Kamala’s <em>nani</em> (maternal grandmother), played by Samina Ahmed</a>, and the Pakistani male superhero, the <a href="https://comicbook.com/marvel/news/ms-marvel-trailer-red-dagger-first-look/">Red Dagger, played by Aramis Knight</a>.</p>
<p>Red Dagger currently stars in a <a href="https://www.marvel.com/comics/issue/105500/love_unlimited_ms_marvel_red_dagger_infinity_comic_2022_1">webcomic with Ms. Marvel</a> and is important mainly because western popular media has often depicted <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814707326/arabs-and-muslims-in-the-media/">Muslim men as oppressors of women</a>, not superheroes.</p>
<h2>Breaking the tired tropes</h2>
<p>I’m excited about Kamala’s screen debut because of what she signifies to her South Asian, Muslim and racialized female fans after a lifetime of seeing <a href="https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/great-south-asian-characters-in-recent-movies-and-television">sparse</a> or <a href="https://www.statepress.com/article/2020/09/specho-insight-western-shows-still-misrepresent-south-asian-characters">orientalist</a> representations of ourselves. </p>
<p>After watching the first two episodes, journalist Unzela Khan said she feels like her “<a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/ms-marvel-episode-2-muslim-representation">day-to-day reality (minus the superpowers) was finally being shared accurately</a> and safely with the whole world.” </p>
<p>In an audience study I conducted on <a href="https://mpcaaca.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Hosein-Ms-Marvel-Final-1.pdf">the Muslim superhero archetype</a> as part of my doctoral research, participants of many different Muslim backgrounds indicated an eagerness to receive Ms. Marvel.</p>
<p>Respondents expressed relief at seeing Kamala as a unique three-dimensional Muslim superhero in American comics, because she is a break from the relentless <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814707326/arabs-and-muslims-in-the-media/">terrorist and oppressed women tropes</a> entwined with representations of Islam that have dominated the western popular culture landscape.</p>
<p>They regard her as “relatable” because she connects both to her ancestral culture and American one. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A superhero is seen extending her hand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470857/original/file-20220624-18-8dk62k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=195%2C0%2C3638%2C1603&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470857/original/file-20220624-18-8dk62k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470857/original/file-20220624-18-8dk62k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470857/original/file-20220624-18-8dk62k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470857/original/file-20220624-18-8dk62k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470857/original/file-20220624-18-8dk62k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470857/original/file-20220624-18-8dk62k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Iman Vellani stars as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan in Marvel Studios’ ‘Ms. Marvel.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Marvel Studios 2022)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The South Asian Muslim participants in particular were excited for her because she not only embodies much of their customs, but because she represents a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40338912">break from the “Muslim equals Middle Eastern”</a> portrayals. Black Muslim participants voiced this last point as well.</p>
<h2>Refuge from stereotypes?</h2>
<p>While most participants in my study welcomed Ms. Marvel as a refuge from Islamophobic stereotypes, one stressed that if a Muslim superhero appeared in a story showing something that didn’t reflect Islamic principles, there would be a risk this could negatively affect the Muslim community. </p>
<p>Since the show launched, some Muslim fans were outraged by Episode 3’s revelation <a href="https://in.mashable.com/entertainment/34050/ms-marvel-makers-twisting-kamala-khans-backstory-has-left-muslim-fans-furious-heres-why">that Kamala is a djinn</a>.
According to the <em>Encyclopedia of Islam</em>, a djinn is a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei2glos_SIM_gi_01011">Qurʾānic term applied to bodies composed of vapour and flame</a>. Djinns are <a href="https://theconversation.com/omar-sakrs-epic-stunningly-dirty-debut-novel-challenges-macho-heterosexual-myths-of-arab-australian-culture-175640">popularly understood as supernatural beings</a>. The djinn filtered through a western orientalist lens has been a staple <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-dream-of-jeannie-left-us-with-enduring-stereotypes-119279">of orientalist “genie” depictions</a>. </p>
<p>Many have said that it was a baffling choice to draw <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87qSac_1Ls8&feature=youtu.be">on orientalist tropes while making the first Muslim superhero in the MCU a djinn — and that they can’t cosplay as her now</a>. The plot turn of Kamala-as-djinn isn’t in the comics.</p>
<h2>Turning point of representation?</h2>
<p>In my audience study, a young Indian Muslim woman was excited to see Kamala take over the Ms. Marvel mantle from her blonde and <a href="https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Carol_Danvers_(Earth-616)">blue-eyed predecessor, Carol Danvers</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/higher-further-faster-marvels-first-female-cinematic-superhero-112678">Higher, further, faster: Marvel's first female cinematic superhero</a>
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<p>She said Kamala would let young, brown and dark-skinned girls know that they too were special after a lifetime of not seeing themselves represented in western popular media.</p>
<p>The Pakistani American Muslim illustrator, Anoosha Syed, recently tweeted about this in response to questions on Kamala’s identity, writing: “Seeing a lot of people online … angrily commenting ‘who is this show even for??’ Hi! Hello! It’s for me!!! ME!!!! A Pakistani Muslim girl who has literally never seen herself represented in media like this before!!”</p>
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<p>With the <em>Ms. Marvel</em> series currently clocking in at a <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/ms_marvel">96 per cent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes</a>,
I question whether we are on the cusp of a turning point for Muslim representation in the West — especially for South Asian and Muslim girls. </p>
<p>In the past, some dressed up as <a href="https://browngirlmagazine.com/disney-aladdin-american-orientalism/">the orientalist Disney character</a>, Princess Jasmine, for Halloween. With Ms. Marvel and other superheroines, girls are gaining heroines to choose from.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184613/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Safiyya Hosein received funding from the RBC Immigrant, Diversity, and Inclusion Project Award at Toronto Metropolitan University to conduct her audience study. </span></em></p>Ms. Marvel represents a break from the ‘Muslim equals Middle Eastern’ portrayals popular in western media.Safiyya Hosein, Part-time lecturer, Communication and Culture, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1851372022-06-17T00:39:46Z2022-06-17T00:39:46ZIn the new Disney Pixar movie Lightyear, time gets bendy. Is time travel real, or just science fiction?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469163/original/file-20220616-15-l5m539.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C12%2C4089%2C2845&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney/Pixar</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Spoiler alert: this article explains a key plot point, but we don’t give away anything you won’t see in trailers. Thanks to reader Florence, 7, for her questions.</em> </p>
<p>At the beginning of the new Disney Pixar film, Lightyear, Buzz Lightyear gets stranded on a dangerous faraway planet with his commanding officer and crew.</p>
<p>Their only hope of getting off the planet is to test a special fuel. To do that, Buzz has to fly into space and repeatedly try to jump to hyper-speed. But each attempt he makes comes with a terrible cost. </p>
<p>Every time Buzz takes off for a four-minute test flight into space, he lands back on the planet to find many years have passed. The people Buzz cares most about fall in love, have kids and even grandkids. Time becomes his biggest enemy.</p>
<p>What’s going on? Is this just science fiction, or could what happened to Buzz actually happen?</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">In Lightyear, time can flow at different speeds for different people. This is a real effect called ‘time dilation’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Time is relative: Einstein’s big idea</h2>
<p>Buzz is experiencing a real phenomenon known as time dilation. Time dilation is a prediction of one of the most famous scientific theories ever developed: Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. </p>
<p>Prior to relativity, the best theory of motion we had was Isaac Newton’s mechanics.</p>
<p>Newton’s theory was incredibly powerful, providing stunning predictions of the motion of the planets in our solar system. </p>
<p>In Newton’s theory, time is like a single giant clock that ticks away the seconds in the same way for everyone. No matter where you are in the universe, the master clock will display the same time.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-is-time-travel-possible-for-humans-140703">Curious Kids: is time travel possible for humans?</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Einstein’s theory of relativity shattered the master clock into many clocks – one for each person and object in motion. In Einstein’s picture of the universe, everyone carries their own clock with them. </p>
<p>One consequence of this is there is no guarantee the clocks will tick at the same rate. In fact, many clocks will tick at different rates.</p>
<p>Even worse, the faster you travel relative to someone else, the slower your clock will tick compared to theirs.</p>
<p>This means if you travel very fast in a spaceship – as Buzz does – a few minutes might pass for you, but years might pass for someone on the planet you left behind.</p>
<h2>Time travelling forwards – but not backwards</h2>
<p>In a sense, time dilation can be thought of as a kind of time travel. It provides a way to jump into someone else’s future. </p>
<p>This is what Buzz does: he jumps into the future of his friends left on the planet below. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469165/original/file-20220616-9155-8pzyzi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469165/original/file-20220616-9155-8pzyzi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469165/original/file-20220616-9155-8pzyzi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469165/original/file-20220616-9155-8pzyzi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469165/original/file-20220616-9155-8pzyzi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469165/original/file-20220616-9155-8pzyzi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469165/original/file-20220616-9155-8pzyzi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469165/original/file-20220616-9155-8pzyzi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">How time dilation works: minutes for one person can be years for another.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney/Pixar</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unfortunately, there is no way to use time dilation to travel backwards in time, into the past (as one important character talks about later in the film). </p>
<p>It’s also not possible to use time dilation to travel into your own future. </p>
<p>That means there’s no known way for you to travel into the future and meet your older self, simply by going really fast. </p>
<h2>Time travellers above Earth right now</h2>
<p>Time dilation might seem like science fiction, but in fact it is a measurable phenomenon. Indeed, scientists have conducted a number of experiments to confirm that clocks tick at different rates, depending on how they are moving.</p>
<p>For example, astronauts on the <a href="https://nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html">International Space Station</a> are travelling at <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/facts-and-figures">very high speeds</a> compared with their friends and family on Earth. (You can watch the space station pass overhead if you know <a href="https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/">when to look up</a>.)</p>
<p>This means those astronauts are ageing at a <a href="https://www.wired.com/2014/11/time-dilation/">slightly slower rate</a>. Indeed, US astronaut Buzz Aldrin, from whom Buzz in Lightyear gets his name, would have experienced a tiny bit of time dilation during his trip to the Moon in the 1960s. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469168/original/file-20220616-20036-7f2yrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469168/original/file-20220616-20036-7f2yrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469168/original/file-20220616-20036-7f2yrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469168/original/file-20220616-20036-7f2yrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469168/original/file-20220616-20036-7f2yrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469168/original/file-20220616-20036-7f2yrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469168/original/file-20220616-20036-7f2yrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469168/original/file-20220616-20036-7f2yrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Real-life astronaut Buzz Aldrin would have experienced a tiny bit of time dilation on his trip to the Moon in 1969.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NASA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Don’t worry, though, the astronauts on the International Space Station <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20041117121920/https://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/crew/exp7/luletters/lu_letter13.html">won’t feel or notice</a> any time dilation. It’s nothing like the extreme time jumps seen in Lightyear. </p>
<p>Aldrin was able to return safely to his family, and the astronauts up in space now will too.</p>
<h2>To infinity – and beyond</h2>
<p>Clearly, time dilation could have a serious cost. But it’s not all bad news. Time dilation could one day help us travel to the stars.</p>
<p>The universe is a massive place. The nearest star is <a href="https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/features/cosmic/nearest_star_info.html">40,208,000,000,000 km away</a>. Getting there is like travelling around the world one billion times. Travelling at an ordinary speed, no one would ever survive long enough to make the trip.</p>
<p>Time dilation, however, is also accompanied by another phenomenon: length contraction. When one travels very fast toward an object, the distance between your spaceship and that object will appear to be contracted. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-what-would-happen-if-someone-moved-at-twice-the-speed-of-light-183043">Curious Kids: what would happen if someone moved at twice the speed of light?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Very roughly, at high speeds, everything is closer together. This means that for someone travelling at a high speed, they could make it to the nearest star in a matter of days.</p>
<p>But time dilation would still be in effect. Your clock would slow relative to the clock of someone on Earth. So, you could make a round trip to the nearest star in a few days, but by the time you arrived home everyone you know would be gone.</p>
<p>That is both the promise, and the tragedy, of interstellar travel.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185137/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sam Baron receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Time dilation might seem like science fiction, but it’s not. There are astronauts circling the Earth right now who are experiencing it – though luckily nowhere near as much as Buzz Lightyear.Sam Baron, Associate professor, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1830022022-05-13T12:44:53Z2022-05-13T12:44:53ZMoon Knight – an Egyptologist on how the series gets the gods right<p>Marvel’s Moon Knight follows Steven Grant who, despite living quietly as a museum gift shop employee, finds himself drawn into the strange world of Egyptian gods. He discovers that he has other personalities – mainly Marc Spector, a human vessel who is being used to carry out the will of the moon god, Khonshu.</p>
<p>Steven and Marc (both played by Oscar Isaac) struggle to work together to defeat the plans of Khonshu’s former host, Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke), who is leading the followers of another god, Ammit.</p>
<p>Part of the fun of watching adaptations of Ancient Egypt for me is analysing the historical content and Moon Knight succeeds in retaining the spirit of the Ancient Egyptian pantheon. While some aspects have been altered for dramatic effect, the six-part series has been well researched and remains quite faithful to the original mythology. </p>
<p>One of its selling points is that it doesn’t simply tread over old ground but brings lesser-known gods to the fore. The result is a show that has the unusual quality of entertaining a popular audience while also keeping the specialists happy.</p>
<h2>Khonshu</h2>
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<p>Khons(h)u, or Khons, was an moon god, known in the age of the pyramids as a violent, blood-thirsty deity. This is perhaps due to his having possibly existed before the state of Egypt was formed, when settlers in the Nile Valley were adapting to their new environments as they moved in and vied for supremacy. </p>
<p>Khonshu mellowed over time, but remained powerful, and is most commonly associated with the gods of the capital city of Thebes, including his father <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Amon">Amun</a>, king of the gods. Khonshu was also associated with time and his name – <em>khenes</em>, “traveller” – likely relates to the journey of the moon through the night sky.</p>
<p>He is usually shown as a falcon-headed man, or a young man in a shroud-like garment. In the series, Khonshu is a tall figure commandingly voiced by F Murray Abraham (and performed by Karim el-Hakim), with a terrifyingly large bird skull for a head and carrying a moon-topped staff. </p>
<h2>Ammit</h2>
<p>Probably best known as the demon who sits at the foot of the scales in the Hall of Judgement in the <a href="https://blog.britishmuseum.org/what-is-a-book-of-the-dead/">Book of the Dead</a>, a set of spells which assist the dead in reaching the afterlife. She is part lion, part crocodile, part hippopotamus (the three animals considered to be the <a href="https://www.mmu.ac.uk/media/mmuacuk/content/documents/mcys/CPD%C2%A0Book-of-the-Dead.pdf">most dangerous</a> in Ancient Egypt). She patiently awaits the heart of the dead, weighed against the feather of truth, should they be found “guilty” by the scales. Her name means “the devourer”. She prevents those who are not worthy from entering the afterlife by consuming their heavy hearts, so that they can’t live on.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Drawing of Egyptian gods on papyrus." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463003/original/file-20220513-23-308qg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463003/original/file-20220513-23-308qg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463003/original/file-20220513-23-308qg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463003/original/file-20220513-23-308qg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463003/original/file-20220513-23-308qg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463003/original/file-20220513-23-308qg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463003/original/file-20220513-23-308qg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Osiris with Ammit ‘the devourer’ behind.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA10470-3">The Trustees of the British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Moon Knight’s Ammit (voiced by Sara Mubarak) has an imposing crocodilian form. In the series, she doesn’t want to wait for death but to dole out judgment before people can do wrong. However, she has been trapped in a stone idol so her followers are searching for her tomb to resurrect her and restore her to her place as the true arbiter of justice.</p>
<h2>Taweret</h2>
<p>A goddess of the household, Taweret (“the great one”) has a hippopotamus-crocodile hybrid form, sometimes with the claws of a lion. She is fearsome with her bared teeth and often brandishes a blade, to keep away dark forces and protect the vulnerable – pregnant women, new mothers, children – through prayers, spells and amulets. She carries out her protective duties in Moon Knight in the shape of a much friendlier hippo (portrayed by Antonia Salib). Her “Hi!” on meeting Steven and Marc is comically high-pitched coming from her looming form. She is as steadfast and determined as her mythological counterpart (minus the gnashing teeth), helping Marc and Steven in their tasks. In the series, she takes on a role more traditionally held by Anubis, god of mummification, by guiding people into the afterlife. </p>
<p>Other members of the Ancient Egyptian pantheon feature in the chamber of the gods, but have much less screen time. Nevertheless, they play a big role in the movement of the plot, as their judgments have a pivotal effect on how the rest of the show plays out (no spoilers). They are portrayed in the series in the form of their human hosts. In mythology, they are some of the most significant gods of all.</p>
<h2>Osiris</h2>
<p>Lord of the dead, king of the underworld, benign guardian of the afterlife, Osiris is shrouded, wearing a white crown with a cobra, which symbolises rule over the southern half of Egypt. In mythology, he was the first king, and the first to die. He was resurrected by his wife, Isis, and took his place as the personification of the deceased pharaoh, becoming the first mummy and representation of hope in life after death. He is green or black-skinned to represent new life. He is also a god of agriculture and fertility. In the series, he pronounces the gods’ decisions in the chamber through his human host.</p>
<h2>Horus</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Statue of Horus Egypt" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463008/original/file-20220513-24-fqfg7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463008/original/file-20220513-24-fqfg7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463008/original/file-20220513-24-fqfg7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463008/original/file-20220513-24-fqfg7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463008/original/file-20220513-24-fqfg7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463008/original/file-20220513-24-fqfg7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463008/original/file-20220513-24-fqfg7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Horus is the god of the sky and the son of Osiris.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horus#/media/File:Temple_of_Edfu,_Statue_of_Horus_2,_Egypt.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Horus, son of Osiris and Isis, avenged his father’s murder and took on the role of king, representing the living pharaoh. He battled Seth, his father’s brother, to retrieve the throne and restore order – which is why Horus is heavily associated with the ruling king. Horus is usually shown as a falcon or falcon-headed man. With his father Osiris, they represent the divine nature of the king. </p>
<h2>Hathor</h2>
<p>A goddess of love, music, childbirth and dancing, Hathor is often shown as a cow or as a woman with a cow’s head, ears or horns. She is a very ancient goddess, perhaps dating back to before state formation in Egypt. Hathor is a protector, usually benevolent but vengeful when needed. She was worshipped widely in Egypt and abroad, with cults spreading up the Levant and into Sinai, earning her the title “mistress of foreign lands”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183002/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Isabella Gilmour does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Lesser-known gods are featured in the Marvel series, which has pleased experts and fans alike.Claire Isabella Gilmour, PhD Candidate, Anthropology and Archaeology, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1817802022-04-26T05:01:51Z2022-04-26T05:01:51ZIn a market swamped with streaming services, Netflix’s massive loss of subscribers is a big deal<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459636/original/file-20220426-18-8gb6hg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5499%2C3639&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Netflix’s recently released first quarter earnings for 2022 reported <a href="https://s22.q4cdn.com/959853165/files/doc_financials/2022/q1/FINAL-Q1-22-Shareholder-Letter.pdf">a shocking loss of 200,000 subscribers</a> – a worrying shift for a business that had previously only seen sustained growth since 2011.</p>
<p>The New York Times headline: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/19/business/netflix-earnings-q1.html">Netflix loses subscribers for the first time in a decade</a> was catchy – however, a little bit of nuance is required. The company’s withdrawal from Russia as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and related sanctions saw a loss of 700,000 subscribers attributed to the quarter. </p>
<p>The net result, taking into account the Russian loss, was a growth of 500,000 subscribers – a number still short of the <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/19/netflix-shares-down-more-than-20-after-losing-200000-subscribers-in-first-quarter/">expected growth of 2.5 million subscribers</a>. </p>
<p>Far worse in the report was Netflix’s estimation of a further 2 million subscribers to be lost by the second quarter. </p>
<p>As a result, Netflix signalled cutbacks in content expenditure, <a href="https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/streaming/netflix-cancels-inproduction-titles-after-subscriber-loss-and-stock-price-plunge/news-story/6cdebf691e2c64f9366f311ab3fd4695">cancelling the Bright sequel and comic adaptation Bone</a>, and flagged potential cuts to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-04-24/netflix-losing-subscribers-may-also-cost-it-star-employees">employee numbers and discretionary spending</a>. </p>
<p>So what has caused this loss and where does Netflix go next? </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-whole-new-set-of-horny-lords-and-ladies-how-bridgerton-brought-romance-book-serialisation-to-television-180303">A whole new set of horny lords and ladies: how Bridgerton brought romance book serialisation to television</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>Platform proliferation</h2>
<p>Netflix is increasingly challenged by a streaming landscape populated with a growing number of platforms – a fact the company recognised in their letter to shareholders. Referring to the robust competition from other players, the company <a href="https://s22.q4cdn.com/959853165/files/doc_financials/2022/q1/FINAL-Q1-22-Shareholder-Letter.pdf">noted</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>over the last three years, as traditional entertainment companies realized streaming is the future, many new streaming services have also launched.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The launches of Disney+ in 2019, HBO Max in 2020, and Paramount+ in 2021 has seen these US-based entertainment companies step into streaming. There are a growing number of players in the market. Every major studio that launches a platform means less content Netflix can distribute – when the major studios launch they remove their content from Netflix. </p>
<p>The Netflix license for Friends – <a href="https://people.com/tv/the-office-beats-friends-most-watched-licensed-show-netflix/">once one of Netflix’s top watched shows</a> – was not renewed by rights holder Warner Brothers Television in 2020. As a result, Friends is disappearing from Netflix markets around the world, instead streaming on Warner Brothers’ Discovery platform, HBO Max.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459641/original/file-20220426-24-4da6wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459641/original/file-20220426-24-4da6wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459641/original/file-20220426-24-4da6wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459641/original/file-20220426-24-4da6wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459641/original/file-20220426-24-4da6wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459641/original/file-20220426-24-4da6wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459641/original/file-20220426-24-4da6wn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Friends was one of the most popular licensed shows on Netflix, but is now exclusive to streaming service HBO Max.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Global streaming platforms have also made inroads with popular originals. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/feb/18/severance-review-ben-stillers-workplace-fantasy-might-make-your-mind-explode">Severance</a> on Apple TV+, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/mar/24/halo-review-hit-sci-fi-game-tv-series">Halo</a> on Paramount+, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/17/arts/television/raised-by-wolves-hbo-max.html">Raised by Wolves</a> on HBO Max have all been popular with audiences. This success is no doubt forcing a more savvy approach from consumers increasingly hit with the reality of high monthly bills when paying for all services.</p>
<p>Netflix and others are also competing for attention with local Subscription Video-on-Demand (SVOD) services, like <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1749602018798158">Stan in Australia and Blim in Mexico</a>, and regional services, like Viaplay in Northern Europe and VIU in Asia. </p>
<p>These services hold unique value propositions in their markets and often trade upon pre-existing relationships in local media ecosystems. Viaplay has a long history as a satellite television network in Sweden while Stan is a venture of local Australian free-to-air broadcaster Nine Network.</p>
<p>It is becoming increasingly difficult for global streaming companies like Netflix to compete against not just other global media companies, but also compete with local and regional services as well that have deeper ingrained relationships with audiences.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459642/original/file-20220426-18-c2o3ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459642/original/file-20220426-18-c2o3ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459642/original/file-20220426-18-c2o3ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459642/original/file-20220426-18-c2o3ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459642/original/file-20220426-18-c2o3ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459642/original/file-20220426-18-c2o3ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459642/original/file-20220426-18-c2o3ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459642/original/file-20220426-18-c2o3ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stranger Things is one of Netflix’s most-watched Originals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why Netflix needs subscriptions</h2>
<p>How can a drop of only 200,000 subscribers from a total of 220 million subscribers <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/netflix-stock-price-plunges-premarket-after-subscriber-loss-11650449002?mod=hp_lead_pos1">crash a share price by 35%</a> and instil fear across the broader streaming sector?</p>
<p>Netflix is a <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pureplay.asp">pureplay</a> SVOD service and they are relatively unique in the marketplace. They focus on a single product and delivery method – subscription television. <a href="https://s22.q4cdn.com/959853165/files/doc_financials/2021/q4/da27d24b-9358-4b5c-a424-6da061d91836.pdf">In their 2021 annual report</a>, Netflix said 99.4% of all revenues came from subscription fees (a paltry 0.6% came from the dying DVD business).</p>
<p>Given the uniqueness in the market of this pureplay focus, streaming scholar Amanda D Lotz termed Netflix <a href="https://research.qut.edu.au/dmrc/2020/09/14/media-release-netflix-a-zebra-among-horses-qut-researcher/">“a zebra amongst horses”</a> to describe the company’s relationship to other SVOD services.</p>
<p>Almost every competitor of Netflix has another aspect to their business. <a href="https://www.amandalotz.com/netflix-and-streaming-video-the-business-of-subscriberfunded-video-on-demand">In her 2022 book</a> Netflix and Streaming Video, Lotz refers to the SVOD component of Disney for example as a “corporate extension” of the underlying media business and of Apple TV+ as a “corporate complement” to their technology business.</p>
<p>For companies like Disney, the SVOD service can leverage and cross-subsidise the broader business. Apple TV+ itself is under little to no pressure to turn a profit, as Apple’s major growth driver is the iPhone.</p>
<p>But for Netflix, all of the eggs are in the same basket. Even small changes to subscriber numbers, and certainly a negative growth outlook, forces a conceptualisation of their future, without other business areas that can offset these losses. </p>
<p>Indeed, that is partly why Netflix has been making inroads into other businesses, through the acquisitions of <a href="https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/netflix-acquires-scanline-vfx-stranger-things-1235116974/">Scanline VFX</a>, a visual effects company in 2021, and <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/24/22995286/netflix-games-boss-fight-entertainment-acquisition">Boss Fight Entertainment</a>, a gaming company in 2022. We can expect some greater urgency across these acquisitions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459643/original/file-20220426-14-c2o3ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459643/original/file-20220426-14-c2o3ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459643/original/file-20220426-14-c2o3ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459643/original/file-20220426-14-c2o3ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459643/original/file-20220426-14-c2o3ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459643/original/file-20220426-14-c2o3ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459643/original/file-20220426-14-c2o3ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459643/original/file-20220426-14-c2o3ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Historical romance series Bridgerton has been one of Netflix’s recent successes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What’s next for Netflix?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/streaming/what-netflix-advertising-and-password-sharing-crackdown-means-for-customers/news-story/67ea3f314f0ceb417912b0a8bc02ea0a">Netflix is proposing two key measures</a> to alter the negative subscriber trajectory – a lower cost, ad-supported subscription tier and a crackdown on password sharing between households.</p>
<p>Neither of these suggestions does anything to offer a reason to stay subscribed. There is no promise enjoyable original series won’t be cancelled too soon, like Sense8, Altered Carbon, or The OA for example. Rather than adding new features or content, the Netflix answer is removing key cornerstones of the service.</p>
<p>For Netflix, its recent subscriber loss could warn of a less promising future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181780/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oliver Eklund owns shares in Apple, Disney, and Netflix. </span></em></p>Netflix’s subscription losses are a worrying shift for a business that had previously only seen sustained growth since 2011 – however there’s more nuance to the issue.Oliver Eklund, PhD Candidate in Media and Communication, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1725332021-12-03T11:35:13Z2021-12-03T11:35:13ZThe Beatles: Get Back and the magic of seeing chords become anthems<p>Filmed in January 1969, the documentary “Let It Be” follows The Beatles rehearsing and recording songs for their 12th studio album of the same name. It also includes footage of the legendary rooftop concert by the group, which would be their last public performance together. </p>
<p>Reaction to the <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/original-let-it-be-movie-michael-lindsay-hogg-peter-jackson-get-back-1250561/">film</a> was lukewarm at the time. The British Film Institue’s Monthly Film Bulletin regarded it as “rather tedious” and the response to the accompanying album fared no better. Writing in the New Musical Express, journalist <a href="https://worldhistoryproject.org/1970/5/8/the-beatles-release-let-it-be">Alan Smith said</a> the record would stand as a “cheapskate epitaph, a cardboard tombstone, a sad and tatty end” to a glittering and epoch-defining musical career.</p>
<p>But now a new documentary series by director Peter Jackson has re-imagined the film in three lengthy and detailed segments. Thanks to an array of fresh footage, Jackson’s film sheds new light on this period and the band. </p>
<h2>Pop music on film</h2>
<p>Pre-publicity for the Get Back project emphasised the work that had gone into restoring the original footage. </p>
<p>The kinds of painstaking technical processes that WingNut (Jackson’s production company) deployed are typical of remastered films and music. These techniques are a key way of marketing the repackaging of old material. With a run-time of eight hours, the huge scope of Get Back is in-keeping with the contemporary penchant for extremely <a href="https://www.focusfeatures.com/the-sparks-brothers">long films</a>, indulgent director’s cuts and expanded LP box sets featuring multiple versions of songs.</p>
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<p>In all these fields, “more” is equated with “best”. However, with Get Back, the initially impressive gloss of the restoration project soon fades as the real fascination lies in the raw and intimate footage of the original project. </p>
<p>We can view Let It Be as a continuation of the fine tradition of cinema verité – documentaries that sought to represent the truth as objectively as possible. With music documentaries, this tradition began with DA Pennebaker’s 1967 Bob Dylan film <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRV-Kou9yh4">Don’t Look Back</a> followed by Maysles brothers’ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax_q6vp5FqU">Gimme Shelter</a> and Michael Wadleigh’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTsq3eacP3E">Woodstock</a> (both 1970). </p>
<p>In Get Back, the whistle-stop preamble that Jackson provides, the labelling of every song played (no matter how ephemeral) and the contextual historical information which frames the group for a modern audience are all nice touches. But it is the raw excitement of the original footage that makes the film really soar.</p>
<h2>A happier bunch</h2>
<p>That’s because this version of the story also sheds new light on what was initially remembered as a depressing watch – the Beatles bickering and stuttering their way to a final rupture. As he watched the hours of film footage, Jackson witnessed a more positive and warmer picture of the group emerging. This is reflected in the previously unseen sequences where the group laugh and lark about and where good humour and encouragement, rather than arguments, shape the mood. </p>
<p>The Let It Be album project (also originally titled Get Back) emerged in early 1969 out of the ashes of the recently released “<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/review-the-beatles-white-album-186863/">White Album</a>”. As writers <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles:_An_Illustrated_Record">Roy Carr and Tony Tyler</a> noted, the White Album “indicated the passing of the Beatles as a group…on this LP they act as each other’s session men”. </p>
<p>This idea of the Beatles fading as a coherent unit and writing more as individuals is something I also explore in <a href="https://headpress.com/product/the-beatles-white-album/">my own book</a> on the LP. But it would seem that the desire with the original Get Back was to return to a more communal way of creating songs, jamming and improvising towards a final version that was unencumbered by recording studio trickery. </p>
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<p>The magical evolution of a song from a few chords and snatches of lyrics to a complex arrangement is one of the most fascinating aspects of Get Back. The song “Get Back” itself is a prime example. Developing out of Paul McCartney strumming a few chords on his bass, the song’s journey in the film culminates in a triumphant full-blown version in the famous rooftop sequence that closes both films. For Beatles obsessives and less devoted bystanders alike, the chance to eavesdrop on how pop songs are actually made – a normally secretive and mysterious process – is revelatory.</p>
<p>Get Back, while split into three episodes, is eight hours long, which might be daunting for many viewers. While it would have been nice to see this documentary on the big screen, streaming has afforded Jackson this length. I think this was a deliberate choice by Jackson to fully immerse the viewer in the slow grind of producing great pop songs.</p>
<p>The famous rooftop concert, viewed from any angle, is truly magnificent, a “shining hour of absolute extreme excitement” as the Beatles own press officer <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/04/as-time-goes-by-derek-taylor-beatles-review">Derek Taylor</a> put it. Publicists tend to exaggerate but in this case the description is spot on, the mundane nature of the performance (especially after all the big talk about concerts in Arabian deserts and ocean liners) demonstrating that often it is the simple things that can mean so much.</p>
<p>The purpose of the album was to allow the Beatles to “get back” to their deep roots as a performing band. As this dream faded it became “let it be” – an expression of resignation and closure. Now, with Jackson’s version, “Get Back” means something different again; a return to the original project but also to the Beatles and their legacy, which, well into the 21st century and with the help of this film, still seems firmly assured.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172533/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Goodall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Get Back shines a light on the love that still existed between the Fab Four.Mark Goodall, Senior Lecturer Film and Media, University of BradfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1698982021-10-15T13:41:53Z2021-10-15T13:41:53ZSuperman’s not the first hero to be portrayed as bisexual, but he’ll bring hope to LGBTQ+ fans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426298/original/file-20211013-15-tspm93.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C3%2C1101%2C827&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jonathan Kent, the new Superman, with love interest Jay Nakamura.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">DC Comics</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Superman has come out as bisexual. Or more accurately, Superman’s son – Jonathan Kent – who has recently taken on his father’s role in DC Comics, has been depicted kissing another male character in a panel from a forthcoming comic. </p>
<p>Although the wider public has only recently been <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2021/10/men-like-me-have-been-waiting-our-whole-lives-for-a-bisexual-superman">made aware of this</a>, comic readers have suspected it for several months after a growing romance between Kent and journalist, Jay Nakamura, in recent issues of <a href="https://www.dccomics.com/comics/superman-son-of-kal-el-2021/superman-son-of-kal-el-1">Superman: Son of Kal-El</a>. And Kent has introduced his boyfriend to his parents in <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/superman-comes-out-as-bisexual-in-new-issues-of-dc-comic-book-12431587">recent issues</a> of the comic he stars in.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1447565280423469058"}"></div></p>
<p>The revelation that a Superman is bisexual is a big deal in terms of superhero comics, but it hasn’t gone down well with everyone. Former Superman actor Dean Cain claimed the move would have been brave 20 years ago but now was “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-58895126">bandwagoning</a>”.</p>
<p>Various Republican senators in the US have <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/arizona-state-senator-furious-superman-bisexual-loves-louis-lane-1637897">complained</a>, including Arizona state senator Wendy Rogers who called him “a woke Superman”. Josh Mandel, who is trying for a senate seat, said, “Bisexual comics for kids [are] trying to destroy America.” And another Arizona Republican, Josh Barnett, asked “Why does Hollywood have to ruin everything?”</p>
<p>In the book <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/the-superhero-symbol/9780813597164">The Superhero Symbol</a>, which brings together superhero scholars from a range of disciplines, the authors note, “While Superman might profess his emblem means hope, the readily recognisable logo has also become a brand every bit as powerful as golden arches or a stylised swoosh.” And his well-known “S shield”, previously associated with a heterosexual cisgender man defending “truth, justice and the American way”, is now connected with a young bisexual man. </p>
<p>Many people may have also been surprised to discover that Superman has a son. But this is not a new plot point and has been featured several times before – a notable example being in an <a href="https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Whatever_Happened_to_the_Man_of_Tomorrow%3F">out of continuity comic</a> written by Alan Moore in 1986. </p>
<p>On-screen, a seven-year-old Jason Kent has also appeared in the film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348150/">Superman Returns</a> (2006), while the current TV series, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11192306/">Superman & Lois</a>, provides the couple with two teen boys – Jonathan and Jordan - both with powers.</p>
<h2>Reflecting the readers</h2>
<p>The sexuality of Superman’s onscreen children is yet to be revealed, non-heterosexual superheroes are certainly not a new phenomenon. In Marvel Comics, a team of <a href="https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Young_Avengers_(Earth-616)">Young Avengers</a> have existed since 2005, with most members of the group belonging to the LGBTQ+ community. </p>
<p>Some have started to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Disney+ shows, including <a href="https://screenrant.com/wandavision-wiccan-billy-maximoff-comic-book-facts-storylines-importance-marvel-disney-plus/">Wiccan</a> (in WandaVision), and <a href="https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Loki_Laufeyson_(Kid_Loki)_(Earth-616)">Kid Loki</a> (in Loki), while Miss America is set to be featured in the film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9419884/">Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness</a> next year – as a lesbian, she is Marvel’s first Latin-American LGBTQ+ character to star in an ongoing series.</p>
<p>In comics, the X-Men’s <a href="https://x-men.fandom.com/wiki/Iceman">Iceman</a>, and the third male teenager to take on the role of Batman’s <a href="https://nerdist.com/article/why-tim-drake-robin-coming-out-as-bisexual-matters-dc-comics/">Robin</a> have both been given same-sex love interests in recent comics. But Marvel has been more circumspect about its more famous character <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1431045/">Deadpool</a>, who is identified as bi or pansexual more in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/feb/11/deadpool-the-pansexual-superhero-who-has-never-had-a-non-heterosexual-experience">word than deed</a>.</p>
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<p>Both Marvel and DC have included narratives about the difficulties of coming out in some stories. A younger version of Iceman, for example, travelled from the 20th-century to the 21st-century so he could <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/4/22/8463721/iceman-gay-x-men">embrace his sexuality</a>. Similarly, Batwoman is revealed to have been <a href="https://www.themarysue.com/ruby-rose-dont-ask-dont-tell-batwoman-pilot/">kicked out of military school</a>, due to the “<a href="https://www.hrc.org/our-work/stories/repeal-of-dont-ask-dont-tell">don’t ask, don’t tell</a>” policy in the US before 2011, which barred openly gay, lesbian or bisexual people from military service. </p>
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<p>A teen version of Superman was also featured in early seasons of the TV series <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0279600/">Smallville</a>. As was his fond bromance with a young <a href="https://smallville.fandom.com/wiki/Lex_Luthor">Lex Luthor</a> – which some viewers claimed was <a href="https://medium.com/novembering/super-queer-130e7eeb86eb">queer-baiting</a>. This is when creators hint at, but never actually depict, same-sex romance. So for LGBTQ+ comics readers, seeing a character called Superman genuinely involved in a same-sex relationship is a profound moment.</p>
<p>While DC Comics haven’t been brave enough to give Clark Kent himself a boyfriend, the storyline allows bisexual teens to see themselves reflected in a world-famous character. And seeing Jonathan Kent with an emblem of “hope” on his chest may well help many bisexual or bicurious teenagers to feel more accepted too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169898/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Fitch receives funding from UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training, Design Star. </span></em></p>The revelation that a Superman is bisexual is a big deal in terms of Superhero comics, and it hasn’t gone down well with everyone.Alex Fitch, Lecturer and PhD Researcher in Comics and Architecture, University of BrightonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1654352021-09-08T12:24:27Z2021-09-08T12:24:27ZThe science of product placements – and why some work better than others<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419347/original/file-20210903-13-1ewghjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C51%2C1258%2C905&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New Balance shoes are front and center in a scene from 'Ted Lasso.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://productplacementblog.com/tv-series/new-balance-blue-shoes-worn-by-brendan-hunt-as-coach-beard-in-ted-lasso-s02e06-the-signal-2021/">Product Placement Blog/Universal Television</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In “The Variant,” an episode from the Disney+ hit streaming show “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9140554/">Loki</a>,” it’s tough to miss the barrage of product placements, with fast-paced action and dialogue taking place in front of Charmin toilet paper, Dove soap and Arm & Hammer deodorant. At one point, Loki barrels down an aisle with vacuum cleaners and fights off an opponent with a corded vacuum while iRobot vacuums are prominently featured on the shelf. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vFCS00oAAAAJ&hl=en">As someone who studies such advertising techniques as product placements</a>, I’m starting to notice them crop up more and more. </p>
<p>With viewers migrating to streaming services and web videos, this trend makes sense. (Who actually watches the full ads that appear at the beginning of a YouTube video?) But not all product placements work as intended, and my research has shown that advertisers need to engage in a delicate dance with viewers to effectively influence them.</p>
<h2>Ads that you can’t skip or mute</h2>
<p>Let’s start with a little background. Product placement is a form of advertising in which a company pays a content creator to place its product on the set of a movie, TV shows or music video. While many product placements are the result of such paid relationships, some product placements happen because of creative decisions, such as a writer wanting a character to wear Gucci to convey the character’s affluence. Viewers aren’t typically given information to distinguish between paid and unpaid product placements. </p>
<p>Product placement isn’t new. The oldest examples of products appearing in films date all the way back to the invention of motion pictures, when the Lever Brothers’ Sunlight Soap appeared in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem5004_1">the Lumiere films in Europe in 1896</a>. In the 1930s, Procter & Gamble sponsored daytime dramas to feature their Oxydol soap powder, beginning shows with lines like “now here comes Oxydol’s own Ma Perkins” – an advertising technique that <a href="https://medium.com/knowledge-stew/why-are-daytime-dramas-called-soap-operas-ee052d9edf17">birthed the colloquial phrase</a> “soap operas.” </p>
<p>This form of marketing really started to take off after the release of the 1982 blockbuster “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083866/">E.T.</a>,” in which Elliott leaves a trail of Reese’s Pieces to cajole his alien friend out of hiding. Since then, box office hits ranging from “<a href="https://blog.hollywoodbranded.com/top-product-placements-in-home-alone-1-and-2">Home Alone</a>” to “<a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2001-01-08-0101080173-story.html">Cast Away</a>” have memorably incorporated brands into their storylines. </p>
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<img alt="Man shakes out green Tic Tacs into an outstretched hand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419348/original/file-20210903-17-stgcij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419348/original/file-20210903-17-stgcij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419348/original/file-20210903-17-stgcij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419348/original/file-20210903-17-stgcij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419348/original/file-20210903-17-stgcij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419348/original/file-20210903-17-stgcij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419348/original/file-20210903-17-stgcij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Tic Tacs were among the many product placements in the 1990 film ‘Home Alone.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://productplacementblog.com/movies/tic-tac-home-alone-1990/">Product Placement Blog/Columbia Pictures</a></span>
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<p>But as streaming has become more popular, product placements have become an even more attractive option for advertisers. Global spending on them is expected to top US$23 billion in 2021, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-21/marketers-embrace-product-placement-in-streaming-tv-shows?utm_medium=social&cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_content=business&utm_source=twitter">about a 14% increase over 2020</a>. At the same time, marketers plan to <a href="https://cmosurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/The_CMO_Survey-Highlights_and_Insights_Report-February-2021.pdf">decrease their spending</a> on traditional advertising, like TV and print ads.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2018.1147">My research</a> highlights one key driver of this shift: We’re more prone than ever to avoid traditional ads. We’re <a href="https://www.adweek.com/convergent-tv/covid-19s-economic-fallout-will-accelerate-linear-tvs-collapse/">watching less and less linear TV</a> – the kind that has a slate of ads interrupting the entertainment every seven or eight minutes – and thus are exposed to far fewer traditional TV ads. </p>
<p>And when watching web videos, <a href="https://adage.com/article/sharethrough/reaching-consumers-video-interruptibility-myth/313945">about 90% of consumers either skip or ignore</a> those ads that run before the video starts.</p>
<p>So as advertisers struggle to reach consumers, they’re increasingly turning to product placement, spending their advertising budgets to get their ads into media content in ways that can’t be skipped or muted. </p>
<h2>Not all product placements are equal</h2>
<p>There’s also the fact that product placements work really well.</p>
<p>Studies have shown they increase <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2021.01.003">viewers’ awareness of products and their positive attitudes toward them</a>. They can also make people more likely <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2018.1147">to talk about the products and search them online</a>. </p>
<p>Not all product placements are equally effective, though. Those that seem to influence viewers the most are those that strike the careful balance between being noticeable and not too overt. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2018.1147">Research I conducted with marketing professor David A. Schweidel</a> shows that viewers tend to be turned off if the product placement is too prominent – as when a character in the show holds the product and talks about it. They’re also averse to product placements surrounded by other advertising – say, a Nike ad that autoplays before a YouTube video followed by a product placement for Nike in the first few minutes of that same video.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A product placement that’s too obvious can be a turnoff.</span></figcaption>
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<p>These kinds of prominent placements annoy viewers for two main reasons. First, they make it obvious that they’re trying to sell us something, triggering something called “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/209380">persuasion knowledge</a>” – the phenomenon of getting defensive when we know someone is trying to persuade us. In general, product placements are less likely to trigger persuasion knowledge than traditional ads, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/344432">as they tend to be more subtle</a>. But that doesn’t mean product placements are immune.</p>
<p>Second – and in some ways related to the first point – prominent product placements can annoy us because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2018.1147">they interfere with our viewing experience</a>. Most viewers don’t want to be immersed in an intense drama only to be reminded that they’re being targeted by corporations. </p>
<h2>How to strike the right balance</h2>
<p>So how do marketers find the right balance of being noticeable without prompting persuasion knowledge?</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2018.1147">Our research</a> offers two key insights. First, we’ve found that viewers are most influenced by product placements in which the product or brand name <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/17/business/advertising-placing-the-product-in-the-dialogue-too.html">is spoken by one of the characters</a> but not shown – what’s called “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2018.1147">verbal product placement</a>.” </p>
<p>These product placements are more likely to be noticed by viewers than products that are simply shown on the screen. And they’re also less likely to trigger persuasion knowledge than placements in which the product is both shown and spoken about. Verbal placements seem to find a sweet spot.</p>
<p>Second, our research shows that viewers may be more susceptible to product placements <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2018.1147">that appear earlier in a show or movie</a>. I believe that this might happen because we become more engrossed in the plot and characters of a show or movie as it progresses. If a placement appears at the climax – the moment when our attention is fixated on what will happen next – we’re either less likely to notice the placement or more likely to be annoyed by it if we do notice it.</p>
<p>Now that you know the tricks of the trade, perhaps you’ll be more likely to spot product placements on TV. Will this trigger persuasion knowledge – and, with that, cause the power of these ads to wither?</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165435/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beth L. Fossen receives funding from the Marketing Science Institute.</span></em></p>Global spending on product placements is expected to top $23 billion in 2021, about a 14% increase over the previous year.Beth L. Fossen, Assistant Professor of Marketing Kelley School of Business, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.