"[David] Ellison is the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, one of the world’s wealthiest people and a friend and supporter of President Donald Trump."

"Trump on Sunday said he would be 'involved' in assessing the intended Netflix-Warner Bros. Discovery deal, saying Netflix’s market share in the streaming sector 'could be a big problem.'"

From "Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros., challenging Netflix deal/The David Ellison-run company is promising Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders a deal it says is more lucrative and easier for the Trump administration to approve" (WaPo).

Sample comments over there: "Another low down and dirty deal brought to you by TrumpWorld"/"The complete Trump takeover effort of major media in this country continues"/"Remember when the whined about Obama and the dems 'picking winners and losers' and how wrong that was? The good old days."

"In making a case for approval, Netflix may argue that the market in which it operates is not limited to premium film and television but rather encompasses the entire universe of human amusement..."

"... TikTok, YouTube, sports, games, books and even taking a walk. This is a standard tactic: Define the market so broadly that dominance becomes mathematically impossible.... A Netflix merger with Warner Bros. would create a monopsony problem: too few buyers with too much bargaining power. Writers, directors, actors, showrunners, puppeteers, visual effects artists — all are suppliers. The fewer buyers competing to hire them, the lower their compensation and the narrower their opportunities.... "

Writes Roy Price, chief executive of an entertainment studio and former head of Amazon Studios, in "If Netflix Eats Warner Bros., It Will Be the End of Hollywood" (NYT).

From "Monopsony" (Wikipedia): "The term 'monopsony' (from Greek μόνος (mónos) "single" and ὀψωνεῖν (opsōneîn) "'to purchase fish") was first introduced by the British economist Joan Robinson in her influential book, The Economics of Imperfect Competition (1933)...."

Fish, eh? It has been noted that the word was miscoined. But is the coinage really fishy? The OED describes the etymology this way: "< mono- comb. form + ancient Greek ὀψωνία purchase of provisions (< ὀψωνεῖν to buy provisions (see opsonation n.) + ‑ία ‑y suffix), after monopoly n."

"Opsonation" is a new one for me. It's archaic. It's supposedly a feast, a catering, or a buying of provisions, according to the OED, which does not mention fish.

But back to the big merger — perhaps we will get more fish movies. Like this Warner Brothers classic:

I just unsubscribed from Netflix — because we weren't watching it — but now....

This is the story of President James Garfield and his greatest admirer Charles Guiteau, the man who would come to kill him.

Michael Shannon, Matthew Macfadyen, Nick Offerman, Betty Gilpin, Bradley Whitford and Shea Whigham star in Death By Lightning. Premiering November 6. pic.twitter.com/OGWlgbziaM

— Netflix (@netflix) October 9, 2025

It's titled "Death by Lightning," but it's based on a book titled "Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President" (commission earned). I've read that. By Candice Millard. Great! Nice to see Matthew Macfadyen — Tom Wambsgans from "Succession" — as the ridiculous, awful Charles Guiteau.

I'll turn Netflix back on for that. I originally subscribed to Netflix for one show — "The Crown." That's all it takes to rope me into a subscription. And I would not have unsubscribed if they hadn't dropped "Loudermilk."

"García Márquez did not want Hollywood to make a movie from his book... because he could not picture English-speaking actors playing the Buendías..."

"... the family at the center of the novel. Nor could he see the epic story being squeezed into two hours — or three, or four, for that matter. And then there was the issue of magical realism... Onscreen... [t]he visual effects used to create such images in the past tipped at times into fantasy or horror, or just looked silly.... But in the decade since García Márquez died, much has changed... For one, the streaming giant could make a big-budget adaptation of the novel in Spanish... [and] could also make a series, not a film, giving the plot more room to stretch out. Finally, it could film it in the author’s native Colombia, with mostly Colombian actors.... The author’s family said yes, and the first season, made up of eight hourlong episodes, airs on Dec. 11. The second is in progress. García, the author’s son, said the family had agreed in part because they felt a series could produce 'the sensation of having experienced 100 years of life,' which is a hallmark of the book...."

From "How Netflix Made Magic Look Real in ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’/The series, which will be released this week, adapts the novel for the screen for the first time. Even the author didn’t think it was possible" (NYT). That's a free-access link, so you can see the stills and video, along with passages from the much-loved book.

I hope the series is great, and I'd love to see more of the great long novels done as a series with many episodes.

"Everybody’s constantly looking for the next job, and it’s incredibly cynical and transactional and, now, dysfunctional."

"I’ve been disappointed on the reality of that part of it. And it’s just also astonishing. I can’t understand why there’s people that are willing to spend tens of millions of their own money to try to hold that office. ’Cause then you can get there and be like, Hmm, look at the glamour: I’m sitting in a 500-square-feet apartment, and I’m on Grubhub and watching bad TV on Netflix or whatever. I like to ask all of my colleagues, Hey, is there some kind of secret society or like a social life or something glamorous? Even [Mitt] Romney, I mean, he’s incredibly wealthy, and he has a nice house, but I read that he sits on his nice chair and watches Netflix and eats salmon from his friend, and actually puts ketchup on it. So I haven’t met that one person that’s having that quintessential glamorous life. It’s been elusive for me, but it’s not one that would even appeal to me. I think people all think life is like 'The West Wing' or something, where it’s snappy dialogue. But a lot of it comes down to just really bad performance art."

Said John Fetterman, asked to explain why he doesn't consider himself a politician, in "The Interview/John Fetterman Fears Trump Is Stronger Than Ever" (NYT).

Here, you can watch the interview:

ADDED: The headline may make you think there's something valuable about Trump. I'll cherry-pick it for you:

Is anyone watching the new season of "The Crown"?

I was excited about the premiere of the new season on November 16th, and I started to watch episode 1.

I got about 15 minutes into it and impulsively switched over to the Criterion Channel, where I browsed the "Pre-Code Divas" collection, picked one almost at random, and watched it straight through to the end.

I tried watching the rest of that "Crown" episode the next day and only got through about another 15 minutes before giving up. Turned the TV off entirely.

Why is it so unwatchable? I'm not even up to the really bad thing that I've seen spoiled in various reviews. And by "really bad thing," I don't mean that Diana dies in a car crash. That can't be spoiled, and the show puts that first, before the opening credits, so at least you're spared wondering how they will depict that. (They show the car entering the tunnel, and you hear a crash.)

No, what I saw spoiled is this, so don't go there if you're avoiding spoilers. I'll just say I hate that device, but I hadn't got there yet. Should I force myself to watch to the end of the series because I've come so far?

"Will and Kate came over and I met her for the first time, for dinner, I remember I was in ripped jeans, I was barefoot."

"Like, I was a hugger. I’ve always been a hugger. I didn’t realize that is really jarring for a lot of Brits."

From "Harry and Meghan series, likely to anger British royals, drops on Netflix" (WaPo).

That quote is at the end of the article, which has just 2 more lines:

She described how the royals’ “formality on the outside carried on to the inside.”

This is a developing story.

It's breaking news? Presumably there will be updates. About what, you wonder? About other things to be found in this 6-part Netflix documentary that just — as they say — "dropped." 

ADDED: I don't believe for one minute that an American-based "hugger" doesn't understand that not everyone accepts being hugged on first meeting. It may be more disturbing for some "Brits," but she well knew that Kate and William weren't just random Brits. They are people who expect special deference. It you want to deny them that, that's your business, but don't expect us to believe you just didn't know, you're just brimming with hugginess, and that's American. Maybe that plays more believably to Brits, who might think we Americans are mindlessly casual. Maybe we are, but we're not ignoramuses.

"I was surprised. Yeah. I thought we’d colored inside the lines. But I think if you’ve got a bunch of men and women in a boardroom talking about sexual behavior..."

"... maybe the men are going to be worried about what the women think. It’s just a weird time. It’s not like depictions of happy sexuality. It’s depictions of situations that are ambiguous. And Americans are really strange when it comes to sexual behavior, don’t you think? I don’t know why. They make more porn than anyone else in the world."

Said Andrew Dominik, the director of a new movie based on the Joyce Carol Oates novel that is based on the story of Marilyn Monroe. He's quoted in "Ana de Armas Confused by ‘Blonde’ NC-17 Rating: Other Films Are ‘More Explicit’ and ‘Have More Sexual Content’" (Variety).

"More alienated Latinos are turning to unofficial saints."

Axios reports. 

La Santa Muerte, a skeleton figure that resembles the Grim Reaper, is the most well-known.... Although originally tied to cartels, devotees now include members of LGBTQ+ communities and the middle class.

"Days after musicians Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear performed their Grammy-winning Unofficial Bridgerton Musical to a sold-out audience at the Kennedy Center..."

"... Netflix is suing them for 'blatant infringement' of the company’s rights to the popular period drama. In a complaint filed Friday (July 29) in D.C. federal court, Netflix accused the duo of piggybacking on 'the creative work and hard-earned success' of hundreds of artists and staffers behind Bridgerton – using the company’s copyrights and trademarks without permission to build a 'brand for themselves.'...  Barlow & Bear launched the Unofficial Bridgerton Musical on TikTok, eventually garnering millions of likes. The viral songs were eventually released as an album, which won best musical theater album at the 2022 Grammy Awards in April...."

From "Netflix Sues ‘Unofficial Bridgerton Musical’ Creators Days After Sold-Out Live Show/The streamer says it told Abigail Barlow & Emily Bear 'time and time again" that the Grammy-winning musical was not authorized'" (Billboard).

I didn't watch the Netflix show. I had no interest at all. But I did look up the "Unofficial Bridgerton Musical" album. I can understand how Netflix is aggrieved that its words have been lifted, but I think the cooler thing to do would have been to embrace Barlow and Bear and to be grateful for their contribution to the cultural clout of the the show. Barlow and Bear showed appreciation and did something that added dimension and color to the fading TV series. Netflix behaved in an old-timey corporate fashion and missed what was for them an opportunity, the big dummies. 

Here's the album on Spotify:

 

"All the kids were screaming and yelling. I remember, I said to the kids, I go, 'Well, OK, well, what do you guys think I did wrong?'"

"And a line formed. These kids said everything about gender, and this and that and the other, but they didn’t say anything about art.... And this is my biggest gripe with this whole controversy with 'The Closer': That you cannot report on an artist’s work and remove artistic nuance from his words. It would be like if you were reading a newspaper and they say, 'Man Shot In The Face By a Six-Foot Rabbit Expected To Survive,' you’d be like, 'Oh my god,’ and they never tell you it’s a Bugs Bunny cartoon.... When I heard those talking points coming out of these children’s faces, that really, sincerely, hurt me. Because I know those kids didn’t come up with those words. I’ve heard those words before. The more you say I can’t say something, the more urgent it is for me to say it... And it has nothing to do with what you’re saying I can’t say. It has everything to do with my right, my freedom, of artistic expression. That is valuable to me. That is not severed from me. It’s worth protecting for me, and it’s worth protecting for everyone else who endeavors in our noble, noble professions.... And these kids didn’t understand that they were instruments of oppression. And I didn’t get mad at them.... They’re kids. They’re freshmen. They’re not ready yet. They don’t know."

Said Dave Chappelle, quoted in "Dave Chappelle special quietly released on Netflix, defends trans jokes" (NY Post). I need to watch this immediately.

UPDATE, 8:59 a.m.: I just watched it.

Netflix seems to believe I'll be interested in the "Offbeat, Cerebral" type of movie, and it is correct.

I watched this 17-minute David Lynch movie last night.

I made that screen capture just as the monkey is saying "Who's going to believe an orangutan?" The monkey, Jack, is being interrogated for whatever it is the title "What Did Jack Do?" refers to. The interrogator is played by David Lynch, and the taunt "Who's going to believe an orangutan?" is aimed at the Lynch character. 

The movie came out in November 2017, so I don't know if the orangutan accusation has anything to do with Trump — who was famously taunted about looking like an orangutan— but maybe some resonance was intended. Lynch has something of a resemblance to Trump....

That ran in the NY Post. Lynch was clarifying his earlier remark, "Trump could go down as one of the greatest presidents in history." Oh! It's sad that Lynch should have had to clarify anything. Clarification isn't his lane. Let's get back to interrogating Jack the monkey. 

I'm going to need to rewatch "What Did Jack Do?," and I'm going to do it more offbeatly, more cerebrally. My hypothesis is that the interrogator (Lynch) is Trump, and We the People are the monkey. What did we do?

"Do not blame the LGBTQ community for any of this.... It's about corporate interests and what I can say and what I cannot say."

This is new video — 5 minutes of it — from Dave Chappelle — posted yesterday at Instagram:

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dave Chappelle (@davechappelle)

He says that everyone he knows in the LGBTQ community has been supportive of him. He made a series of comedy shows and a documentary about making them. The first show was about the murder of George Floyd, and the documentary was accepted into various film festivals. Then, after the controversy over his most recent show, "The Closer," he got disinvited from the festivals and no one wants to touch the documentary. 

He doesn't say, but you can infer that he thinks that has more to do with race and George Floyd than anything about transgender people. 

He says he's willing to meet with transgender people, "but you will not summon me. I am not bending to anybody's demands." He states 3 conditions, the first 2 of which are serious. You have to watch the entire show, "The Closer." And you have to meet him at a time and place of his choosing. The third condition is a punchline: "You must admit that Hannah Gadsby is not funny." 

He goes on to say that he's going to screen the documentary, free, in 10 cities (click through to the Instagram page to see the list), "And you will see what they are trying to obstruct you from seeing and you can judge for yourself." 

 He ends: "You have to answer the question: Am I cancelled or not?!"

Funnier than "The Closer"?

This might actually be funnier than The Closer https://t.co/qfy2x5jOvt

— Katie Herzog (@kittypurrzog) October 20, 2021

ADDED: The video in the tweet got removed, but here's other video of the same scene that I found:

WaPo's front page features 2 different articles about North Korea promoting its superiority.

1. "Shirtless soldiers lie on broken glass, smash bricks with hands as Kim Jong Un vows ‘invincible’ military": "The extraordinary videos were part of a 'self-defense' exhibition on Monday in which totalitarian North Korea showcased its latest nuclear and other weaponry..."

2. "Netflix hit 'Squid Game' is so big North Korea is using it to slam South Korean society": "While the dystopian series has gripped viewers around the world with its gruesome tale of economic despair and deadly childhood-inspired games, a North Korean state-run website says the production serves to highlight the 'beastly' nature of 'South Korean capitalist society where mankind is annihilated by extreme competition.' In a post published Tuesday, the website said 'Squid Game' reflects an 'unequal society where the strong exploit the weak.'... In June, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un branded South Korea’s entertainment scene — including K-pop — 'a vicious cancer.' He accused it of corrupting the 'hairstyles, speeches and behaviors' of North Koreans...."

The Washington Post ought to have the nerve to open a comments section on this article.

"Netflix CEO argues that Chappelle’s new special, criticized as transphobic, is too popular to cancel" by Julian Mark. 

The memo followed condemnation from Jaclyn Moore, a transgender writer who worked on the Netflix original “Dear White People”.... 

Last week, Moore... wrote on Twitter that Chappelle used to be one of her “heroes.” “But he said he’s a TERF,” Moore wrote. “He compared my existence to someone doing blackface.” Moore said she was “done” with Netflix.

I recommend more speech. Why is what transgender women are doing different from blackface? Moore's answer is implied and worth discussing: Because it's "my existence." 

By the way, I was just reading the 1995 book "Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley" and I encountered this:

"Pure left-stereotyping of gay people."

Pure left-stereotyping of gay people. It’s from the left so this kind of homophobia is fine. https://t.co/0PHYPn42r1

— Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) June 24, 2021

"Although Westerners date the origins of restaurants (those independent of inns) to post-revolutionary France, when chefs were suddenly freed..."

"... from the kitchens of the aristocracy, in Japan restaurants began more than one hundred and seventy years earlier, after the Tokugawa Shogunate instituted the system of alternate attendance (sankin kotai) to prevent its feudal lords (daimyo) from overthrowing it. Because after 1615 daimyo were required to divide their time between their fiefs and Edo, leaving their wives and children in the capital as hostages, a vast economic system grew up to support not only their travels but their substantial, non-productive retinues in the capital. Not only restaurants but all kinds of commerce, including shipping, banking, department stores, theaters, fine arts and crafts, have their roots in Tokugawa Period Edo, which by 1700 was one of the largest cities in the world. As the merchant class grew and prospered, its money and desires created something new and original: nightlife. Those familiar with the woodblock prints and paintings known as ukiyoe–the 'Floating World'–have seen the denizens of Edo’s vibrant nighttime culture: the geisha..., kabuki actors, singers, dancers, storytellers, wrestlers, merchants, prostitutes, masterless samurai and revelers who flocked to the entertainment district of Yoshiwara.... That world lives today in mizushobai, 'the water trade,' the wonderful Japanese term that denotes all the nightlife businesses.... In contemporary Tokyo, mizushobai is centered in the Kabuki-cho section of Shinjuku, where 'Midnight Diner' is located...."

From "The Tokugawa Period Origins of Tokyo’s Nightlife, and Why They Matter in 'Midnight Diner'" (Under the Hollywood Sign).

I'd resisted Netflix for a long time but recently subscribed because I'd watched "The Crown" during our short stay in an Airbnb in Nashville, Indiana last month. I've settled in to a style of watching TV, with a few series mixed in with all those old episodes of "The Crown." The one that has established itself as our favorite is "Midnight Diner."

"The recently released fourth season of 'The Crown'... has been criticized for not laying out that much of the drama is fictionalized..."

"... causing online trolls to attack the Duchess of Cornwall, so much so that Clarence House has restricted Twitter comments. Seemingly in response to commentary over the new season, Netflix promoted their documentary 'Diana: In Her Own Words" which uses the recordings she made for Andrew Morton’s tell-all biography," says ET Canada, pointing at this devastating 3-minute clip:

The documentary DIANA: IN HER OWN WORDS answers much of what you’re asking pic.twitter.com/85gFfVir7h

— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) December 1, 2020

The Times of London wrote about the documentary a couple weeks ago: 

"Today, it’s Netflix and other major streaming services that play the role which studios did in the nineteen-thirties and forties..."

"... like the studios, streaming services control the spigot of viewing, and, like the studios, the major services are vertically integrated, controlling both the means of production and the means of distribution. Netflix both produced 'Mank' and is the place where the film will be seen—the company, in effect, owns a thousand-screen multiplex, present in every subscriber’s home. If Fincher, in 'Mank,' looks so ruefully at the intersection of media power and political power, it’s because, in the age of streaming, the reign of behemoth studios and their monopoly has, in effect, returned."

From "'Mank,' Reviewed: David Fincher’s Impassioned Dive Into Hollywood Politics" by Richard Brody (The New Yorker).

The movie is about Herman J. Mankiewicz, who wrote the screenplay for "Citizen Kane," and the story is told in the same manner as "Citizen Kane." 

Now that I have at long last subscribed to Netflix, I have to consider whether to watch these things that are only on Netflix. Before, I was saved a lot of trouble. Some of these shows feel like assignments. And before I was a subscriber, I was able to look on calmly and know that I'm not taking that course. I don't have to do that homework. 

I did watch the first 5 minutes of "Mank." Yeah, this bed frame is way up in my face and I know why — because it's something like what Orson Welles did in "Citizen Kane." And, oh, yeah, that's Gary Oldman in the bed, and he's supposed to be such a great actor. And who are all these other characters bustling about the room supposed to be and why should I care... or just answer the second question first and if you can't answer you don't have to answer. It's like a bad dream where you can't do the work and then wake up and realize you don't have to do that work. It was never your work to begin with. So let's just watch another episode of "The Crown," the show I subscribed to Netflix because I wanted to keep watching.

But if "Mank" were a movie in the theater, I'd only be watching the first 5 minutes because I got motivated to leave my house and to buy a ticket just for that one thing, and now I was in my seat and settled in for what I'd made a tangible commitment to. So I'd do the work of paying attention and trying to get interested and figure out why everything happening is important and meaningful. That's nothing like Netflix.