"These female-made Westerns are really tackling toxic masculinity and the ways in which men's attempts to prove themselves as men can backfire, rather than glorifying the myth of the cowboy as the older, traditional Western did." - BBC
“With the terror of a global pandemic sending anxiety sky high and rendering TV one of the few safe entertainment outlets, the desire for comfort has become particularly noticeable.” - The New York Times
Hosting platform Acast says that the average episode length of its 100 most popular podcasts is 38'10" — but it's not that simple. Comedy shows average 55½ minutes, news/politics programs 28 minutes. Podcasts aimed at commuters run about 40 minutes, those for people doing chores about 20. - Inside Radio
A study that used biometric feedback to measure immersion found that participants were more deeply engaged by content delivered via radio or podcasts than via TV or social media. (The research was commissioned, unsurprisingly, by a radio and podcast company, Audacy.) - Inside Radio
"The online world should not be a wild west where bots and bigots and trolls and others are anonymously going around and can harm people. That is not what can happen in the real world, and there is no case for it to be able to be happening in the digital world." - Reuters
More than 250 media outlets have closed since the takeover; those that remain are losing their audience because people are scared of being caught listening to music or watching anything unapproved. A few brave TV stations are still employing women. - The Guardian
"The drama behind the scenes … would make several people's heads melt like the Wicked Witch of the West." Margaret Hamilton caught on fire, the Tin Man's makeup sent Buddy Ebsen to the hospital (that's why Jack Haley replaced him), and the snowflakes were pure asbestos. - /Film
With so many projects in production, “there’s an enormous amount of jobs in editing, in visual effects, in makeup and hair, that we can, that we should, be able to access. Why not access it with all of this young talent that we have in our own backyard? - The Hollywood Reporter
"How do you know if you’re watching a horror movie when there’s no killer or monster, exorcism or blood? It’s a decades-old question that’s being asked about new films that blur the line between a movie with horror and a horror movie." - The New York Times
The Gotham Awards sees Netflix's Passing and The Lost Daughter square off on the movie side, and let's not even get into what may happen with Squid Game for TV. - Variety
It's almost like a media long-tail development: "The sudden chill in the regulatory climate may fan the flames of another significant business trend. There’s a growing crowd of investors and private-equity groups ... waiting to pounce on small pieces of old empires." - Variety
Gaby Hoffman's public life began when she was five, and stepmom Cindy Sherman took photos of her dressed as the Devil. She had her own sitcom at 12. But somehow - by dint of taking years off - she still loves acting. - The Guardian (UK)
Union members have grown impatient with worsening working conditions and IATSE’s long tradition of avoiding nationwide walkouts. IATSE members in October overwhelmingly supported a strike authorization vote for the first time in its history. - Los Angeles Times
The developer said in response that JRR Token was intended to reference “a unique form of digital currency”, rather than the late fantasy author, and that the fact that the domain name “brings to mind” the name JRR Tolkien is parody rather than bad faith. - The Guardian
"These inspired-by-real-life prosthetics are meant to bring authenticity, but they have a perverse way of achieving the opposite. … Playing people as heavily televised as Bakker and Ball seems to make prosthetic tweaks irresistible, yet the result usually lands the actor in the uncanny valley." - New York Magazine
